"Our Man Arbogast" (TV series) - starring Marty Balsam!

Meanwhile, over at Psycho, Hitchcock reportedly had Janet Leigh buy her clothing from a local LA store -- called Jax -- and gave Perkins $100 and said "go buy your wardrobe." I wonder if Perkins and Hitch together devised how the same outfit is manipulated 3 times for 3 major sequences involving Norman in Psycho(over the same gray slacks and white shirt.) With Marion: Gray jacket(like a gravedigger or Frankenstein's monster.) With Arbogast: black crewneck sweater(Perkins' favorite look in real life; he looks GREAT in this sequence.) With Sam and Lila: no jacket, no black sweater, just the bright white shirt in the bright white light of day that finally comes to the Bates Motel(as well as the light of exposure.)

And oh -- just as Cary Grant had multiple versions of the same gray suit made for NXNW; Eddie Murphy had multiple versions of the same suit made for his action role in 48HRS. I don't know if those actors took the suits home with them -- some get to, some don't.

But back to Martin Balsam in Final Arrangements(and away from his clothes):

TWO: On the "who is a movie star?" thing(from another thread): Here's Martin Balsam doing a TV episode a year after being in the BIG hit movie Psycho(which was filmed LIKE a TV episode.) As it turned out, after Psycho, three of the leads in that movie did Hitchcock TV episodes: Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, John Gavin. So they were "TV people" as much as they were movie people.

Meanwhile, I checked, and in the 60s, Anthony Perkins did not appear on a single episode of episodic TV. He stuck to movies -- mainly FOREIGN movies. He did ONE thing for TV --- a TV anthology play that was part of "ABC Stage 66/67" -- a musical called Evening Primrose, in which Perkins is trapped in a department store with a female mannequin that comes to life. Hmm...seen THAT one before.

CONT

It looks like they went as close as possible without outright copying Arbogast, but the suit, tie and hat could definitely have come from Arbogast's closet.

---

Yes. I realize that there are only so many suit a man of a certain stocky build can wear, but it WAS gray in a way unlike, say , Cary Grant's in NXNW. And in black and white as in Psycho, natch.

The hat and tie were different, though.

I suppose the original "Arbogast outfit" may have gotten banged up and fake bloody. It is too fast to see, but Arbogast drops the hat in his hand when Mother rushes him on the landing. Blood spurts from his face down onto his suit lapel(maybe his tie?) And that's quite a fall Balsam took at the bottom of the stairs(only a few steps, but...ouch.) Mighta tore that suit!

---

I also got an Arbogasty vibe when he was poking around that general store at night.

---

Yes! It like when he is poking around the Bates Motel parlor and office right before walking up to the house and his doom. Bends over , spreads arms out and supports himself with his hands as he looks around...

One realizes that any given human can only do things "naturally," his or her way. Balsam in Final Arrangements circa June 1961 doesn't particularly walk or move differently than Balsam in Psycho circa 1960.

But HOW he moves! I've noted that my favorite shot in Psycho(and all of Hitchcock) is Balsam/Arbogast climbing the stone steps to the house in the moonlight. Part of the pleasure of drinking in that shot is watching Balsam's crisp and authoritative walk; how he looks behind the motel en route, and how on the porch, he turns around to survey the landscape before entering.

William H. Macy in the remake was in a shot far less atmospheric(with a different HOUSE!) and in his silly oversized 1998 hat and baggy suit, seemed to schelp up the hill flat footed and slouching like a Cartoon Detective Doggy.