On IMDb: Psycho 278 -- Frenzy 1171

Something weird:

I occasionally travel back over to IMDb to check up on their Hitchcock pages(and other movies pages.) Any updates or articles for use over at this board? Any new photos?

I was looking at the Frenzy page and noticed that the number "1171" was there: "Photos: 1171." So i scrolled through the photo pages and found a nicely robust assortment of photos from the making of Frenzy and scenes from the movie itself and then -- suddenly -- the frame captures from the movie itself started appearing -- the entire movie, practically one frame at time, start to finish.

I decided that what IMDb has done is to access the "Hitchcock Wiki" feature: "1000 Frames of Hitchcock" in which all of his movies are set out in 1000 frames apiece. Its a wild feature -- as your eyes scan 1000 frames of Psycho, for instance, you find yourself reaching each murder as "a pack of frames within a larger group of frames." Its rather like reading a comic book version of Psycho, too.

So having discovered the "1000 frames of Frenzy" on the IMDb Frenzy page, I zipped over to the Psycho page and found the number "Photos: 278." A perusal of those frames found a whole lotta photos from Psycho(the movie) and on its making(Hitchcock with Leigh a lot, Hitchcock with Perkins a little ) and..sure enough...a number of frames from the movie itself.

My guess: whereas IMDb elected to use all 1000 frames of Frenzy from the Hitchcock Wiki(perhaps because they didn't have many other Frenzy photos) , IMDb only used SOME of the frames from Psycho.

Still...the frames from Frenzy are often good(Hitchcock's sense of composition is well on display)..the frames from Psycho are GREAT. Practically every one is a classic, from Norman sitting under his stuffed owl in the parlor, to Norman seen from under his throat talking to Arbogast.

I've stated this before, but I will state it again: three particular frames from Psycho spell out its greatness, the greatness of its actors -- and the greatness of Hitchcock -- by defining three key characters for us, two in death(or dying); one as their killer:

ONE: Janet Leigh's dead face on the bathroom floor, staring at us in sad outrage.

TWO: Martin Balsam's slashed face at the top of the stairs, eyes bugging out, mouth open in silent outrage, a "face of concentric circles" -- round bald head, round open eyes, round open NOSTRILS, round open mouth. A portrait of terror.

THREE: Norman Bates, grimly smiling out at us from under dark hooded eye sockets -- sweet Anthony Perkins as the monster who killed Leigh and Balsam finally revealed in full.

Those three frames alone make profound statements about how profoundly Hitchcock terrified us in Psycho...add in a frame of the house on the hill and you've probably got the main classic , immortal power of Psycho summed up in ...four frames.

Meanwhile, the Psycho photo section also has a great selection of posters that sold Psycho around the world in 1960 -- with "the greatest logo of all time" (the slashed word PSYCHO) front and center.

You can also view a Psycho 1965 re-release poster where Norman is picture with a knife in his hand("photoshopped in" -- before photoshoppling -- what was it called then?) and these tag lines for the two re-releases:

1965:

If you were too young...or too scared...or the lines were too long...Psycho is back!

Psycho is back, with its blond and its shower bath! ("Shower bath," not "shower' was the operative phrase.)

Now is your chance to again see Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece of adult horror!

The shower bath scene happens 47 minutes into Psycho!

1969:

See the version of Psycho TV dared not show!

Uncut..complete!

And so forth and so on.

Notable in the ads:

In only one of the posters does the house even appear.

In all the posters, Janet Leigh in her bra gets the biggest photo. Star Anthony Perkins is consigned to a smaller picture than John Gavin's shirtless beefcake. SOMETIMES a screaming Vera Miles is on the poster. NEVER does Martin Balsam -- a mere supporting player -- get his face on the poster. Which is a shame. Arbogast was important.

The PSYCHO promotional brochure pages are in the IMDb photos section, too("The Care and Handlng of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.").

I like that Hitchcock instructed theater owners to "keep the theater dark for a full 30 seconds after Psycho ends." A bit dangerous for falling down, but...Hitchcock wanted the audience to feel "haunted and alone."

Anyway...Psycho 278. Frenzy 1171. IMDb photos. "All the Hitchcock you can view."