The "Organization" of Marion's Drives

One of the myriad amazing things about what Psycho "gets away with" is how much cinematic dazzle and emotional involvement Hitchcock got in Psycho simply by putting Janet Leigh into a cutaway car on a Universal soundstage with a process screen behind her. Huge paying audiences put down their dough to watch Janet emote in that cutaway car...and got heavily involved in the movie.

Well..heh...huge paying audiences put down their dough because (if they didn't know the story) they were ready to be scared to death or (if they did know the story) they wanted to see the horrors for themselves.

But to GET to those horrors, the audiences had to commit to the "Marion drives" scenes, and those scenes do rather fascinate me in how Hitchocck and screenwriter Joe Stefano organized them.

And this: for all the many, many, MANY times I've seen Psycho, even now, I can't quite remember when certain things happen in Marion's car. Example: when does she first hear Sam's voice in her head: "Marion! Of course...I'm always glad to see you....what is it, Marion?" Is that BEFORE she sees her boss in the crosswalk(and he sees her)? Or after. I guess I'll have to go check the tape.

I'll say this: I think the first time we see Marion in the car is right after the shot of her leaving her room with the suitcase with the money in it. (Hitchcock cut -- never shot? -- a scene of Marion getting into her car in front of the house she shares with her sister.)

So we're in the car with Marion. I think maybe we get "Sam's voice" first, then the boss in the crosswalk. Whatever the order, both "parts" help create paranoia right off the get go: Marion is already IMAGING how Sam is going to react when she turns up -- but she doesn't imagine her reply. She has to THINK about that.

The big scene with the boss in the crosswalk is something I think we can all relate to. We're "seen." We're "discovered." We're "revealed." We're "ratted out." Anyway you cut it, we feel pretty darn caught, embarrassed. And in THIS story....we're caught with a stolen $40,000 on us.

(Side thought, this dialogue from The Producers:

Gene Wilder: But if we go to a strip club, someone might see us!
Zero Mostel: But we'll see THEM...)

Herrmann's "Marion's theme/Psycho credits theme" kicks in heavy on the boss seeing her and it become apparent that this is gonna be a HEAVY music film -- and that the music will never be HEAVIER than when Marion is in her car.

After Marion's boss sees her, the next (short) sequence is meant to break into two parts. Hitch gets each part done in 30 seconds or less:

ONE: Marion drives out of Phoenix into the empty menacing desert(a GREAT shot that, oddly, seems to have a still photo in part of the background, with a scratched, mottled look to the sky.)
TWO: Marion drives all night until she gets sleepy and has to pull over. (Leigh nicely acting the sleepiness.) What's amazing about THIS 30 seconds is that -- given that the next shot is the nest morning in Gorman , California -- Marion has driven about 500 miles in one night!( I do believe that Hitchcock "fudged" here -- but assistant director Hilton Green reportedly drove the route in real life, before filming began to get it right.

Next we get the "cop stop"(a mix of Gorman location and sound stage) and then we get Marion's drive north on Highway 99 from Gorman(about 90 miles north of Los Angeles) to Bakersfield(about 120 miles north of Los Angeles.) . This is perhaps the most complex part of the Marion drive, what with the interspersing of the cop car in the rearview mirror(a process effect) and the choreographed "dance" between Marion(pursued) and cop(pursuer) -- he seems to drift off on another highway. She's SAFE. No, she isn't -- the cop turns up at California Charlie's car lot.

Next we get the California Chalie car lot scene -- again a mix of soundstage(the rest room) and location(not Bakersfield -- North Hollywood, about four blocks from Universal studios.)

And once Marion hits 99 again in her new car...Hitchcock now "opens the floodgates" on the long, detailed, FULL sequence of Marion driving north in early afternoon daylight...that turns to late afternoon...that turns to dusk...that turns to dark...even as, eventually , rain starts to fall on her windshield, a few dollops leading to a downpour. Even as we get the precision of time and light changes, the POV ahead, the background behind(a train coming at us is seen behind Marion going away from her, etc.) Herrmann piles on the music(timed to the wiper blades and "scary" on its own terms long before we meet Mrs. BAtes) and Hitchcock does some great experimenting, as NEW voices ring in Marion's head -- Lowery the boss, Caroline the secretary, Cassidy the millionaire"("If any of that money's missin', I'll replace it with her fine, soft flesh.) Classic.