The original Jeckyll and Hyde story

Can't both things be true?

I don't agree.

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Fair enough.

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I really like the original novel the Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and frankly wouldn't want the fantasy aspect of it (the serum that turned him into a different person) to be replaced with Jekyll simply having multiple personality disorder and the reveal to be that Jekyll dressed like Hyde all the time.

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Well that's a very good explanation of how Psycho is NOT like Dr J and Mr. H. Or The Wolf Man for that matter, but let's stick (for your case) to Jekyll and Hyde. I get it now -- Psycho had SOME relevance to Jekyll and Hyde, but where the themes really COUNT...no.

In some ways, its a "surface thing," yes. Anthony Perkins is this nice, pleasant, handsome fellow -- harmless looking. Mrs. Bates has a vicious, animalistic cruelty to her murders by knife blade -- she comes off as too big and strong for an old lady. So there's a bit of Jekyll/Hyde there. Surface.

But I certainly get "the difference within" and the fantasy element of the potion itself.



That also would get rid of the great conflict Jekyll had at the end of the novel.

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Very true!

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Not sure if you have read the original novel but Jekyll and Hyde are supporting characters and the main character is Gabriel John Utterson. It's about him slowly discovering the connection between his friend Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's totally different from any movie you have seen.

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I read this years and years ago...I remember it more as a long short story(novella?) than a novel but I DO remember a main character describing Jekyll and Hyde from a distance. I recall this man's tale of watching Hyde(without knowing he WAS Hyde) beating some man with his cane, and stomping on him. "A murder I remember."

I don't dismiss the OP's reference to Jekyll and Hyde and I might have elsewhere said that myself. But your posts change my mind, significantly.

CONT

(aka ecarle.)

I will go head and add that I have read the Psycho novel by Robert Bloch and it is very similar to the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The author Robert Bloch wrote the book from Norman's point of view so that the reader thinks from the start that Norman and his mom live together and are 2 different people. It's not until near the end of the book you find out Norman suffers from multiple personality disorder.

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It was interesting how Hitchocck and his screenwriter Joe Stefano "re-crafted" Bloch's novel to somehow avoid the key "cheat" of the novel: In Norman's head Mother IS a separate being, entering rooms to talk to him. The cable series Bates Motel illustrated how this would work(witih Vera Farmiga playing a "separate mother") but Hitchcock instead chose to "play a little game" with the audience, based mainly on showing Mother only up at the window(and only moving one time up there) or killing people with her face obscured. The MAJOR "cheat" in the movie is Mother's voice(clearly a separate actress) but Hitch only had her speak twice before the twist ending(and once after.)

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I can't help but wonder if Robert Bloch intentionally made his book similar in style to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or if it is just a coincidence.

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I don't think it was a coincidence, I will bet that Bloch thought at least SOMEWHAT of Jekyll and Hyde in crafting his two-personality killer.

Recall that in the movie, the psychiatrist said that after "mother" killed Marion in the shower "Norman returned as if from a deep sleep" to determine Mother killed the girl. In the book, Norman DRANK himself into unconsciousness(or so he thought) but in both book and movie, we can figure that sleep had nothing to do with it, it was simply a personality switch.

Also, in both book and movie, Norman has no time TO "go into a deep sleep" to kill Arbogast. Mother likely takes over within an instant.

CONT