Two Great Hitchcock Accomplices -- In Psycho and Vertigo

I was pondering the other day and hit upon this thought.

Vertigo was made in 1958 and Psycho was made in 1960, both under the auspices of a still-strong Hays Code of movie censorship.

And one of the rules of that Hays Code was: crime cannot pay.

If you were a character involved in criminal activity in a movie back then -- you were going to end your movie in one of two ways: en route to jail ...or dead.

And I figure that audiences KNEW that and therefore:

In Vertigo, once we saw that Judy Barton had helped Gavin Elster with his murder scheme...she was an accomplice. She would have to go to jail or die by film's end. (She died.)

In Psycho, once we saw Norman Bates elect not to call the cops on Mom after the shower murder, but instead to bury the body and cover up the crime...he was an accomplice. He would have to go to jail or die by film's end. (He went to jail...en route to the mental institution.)

A combination of direction, writing and acting in both films, however, made sure that the audience SYMPATHIZED with both Judy Barton and Norman Bates. And probably, that we hoped -- HOPED -- that they might just get away with it. After all , Judy didn't kill anybody(Gavin did); and Gavin dumped her and left for Europe. After all, Norman didn't kill anybody(his mother did) and he was only trying to protect his mother.)

And this: there's that famous moment in Psycho when Marion's car stops sinking in the swamp and, yes, we are worried FOR NORMAN...we hope the car sinks, we WANT him to get away with this crime. Marion was a nice lady(for a thief) , and horribly murdered but...she's gone. Norman's here. He's a nice guy. Hope that car sinks!

The arrival of Arbogast only intensifies our identification with Norman as an accomplice. Though Arbogast can be the agent of justice for Marion's murder, we side with Norman to beat the interrogation and escape detection. Norman basically fails the test, but Mother takes care of Arbogast..and Norman becomes a swampside accomplice yet again.

Of course, in Psycho, the big twist ending ends Norman's role as an accomplice. Or does it? We have folks around here who still think that "Mother is the murderer" at least in Norman's split mind, so Norman is STILL an accomplice to his own killings, in his own head.

That said, I think that both Vertigo and Psycho force us to consider the "reduced responsibility" of a criminal accomplice. We are hoping that the law will treat Judy and Norman as "less than" killers. As less than crooks.

But Judy dies before merciful justice can be enacted(Scottie unintentionally delivers the death penalty instead) and Norman isn't REALLY an accomplice.

Other sympathetic accomplices in Hitchcock include: "Mrs. Drayton" the wife of the more villainous Mr. Drayton(child kidnapper) in The Man Who Knew Too Much '56; and "Fran"(no last name given) the girlfriend of Arthur Adamson(VIP kidnapper) in Family Plot.

Have I missed any other Hitchcock accomplices?