And this: though Marion's murder scene is longer than Arbogast's,
the man is attacked more brutally than the woman -- the direct hit of knife to face, the leaping upon and finishing off at the bottom of the stairs. That would have seemed a more cruel bit of business if a woman took such a slamming blow to the face, etc. Marion's death was certainly shocking and brutal, but Marion's face was untouched and the stabs were below the frame. (As to the staircase fall, well -- a woman took that fall in Psycho III, but less the brutality at the top and bottom of the stairs.)
There is a wonderful "original flow chart" perfection to the victims and their murders in Psycho -- the beautiful woman is killed BECAUSE of her sexual power, the hard-boiled man is the original "victim who is killed for snooping around and going where he/she should not go."
Moreover, there is a wonderful "rhyming symmetry" to the murders, their victims, and their locations;
Mrs. Bates comes DOWN to the Bates Motel and kills a woman.
A man goes UP to the Bates Mansion and is killed by Mrs. Bates.
THAT could be reversed for sexes but -- I still prefer the original selection of a female victim in the shower(female sexuality is different from male) and a male victim on the stairs(representing, in 1960 at least, both a certain "logic of the government-backed authority" AND a father figure vs. Norman.
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