What's with the characters in this movie climbing over to the passenger side to get out? The detective does this twice & I believe Marion Crane did it as well. Wouldn't it just be easier to get out of the car from the driver's side??
shareYou didn’t really have to climb in those old cars, they had 1 continuous seat. You just sort of slide over. I know that doesn’t answer your question, but it was easier back then, than it would be today, in a modern car.
shareIts interesting that Psycho has been in circulation for so many years now -- and looked at repeatedly by viewers -- that folks keeps spotting that "sliding across the seat to the passenger side to depart" move. I'm guessing nobody noticed it on first 1960 release.
There are practical reasons for the shot -- Marion once when she first arrives, the detective twice later:
a. Indeed, many cars back then had "bench seats" so you COULD slide over to the passenger side if it was harder or less convenient to exit from the drivers' side.
b. When Marion first drives up close to the Bates Motel porch..it is raining hard. She slides over to the passenger side so she can get out "under a roof" and not get rained upon.
But there are also "cinematic" reasons for the shot. Psycho was made very cheaply by Hitchcock -- though it has great visual precision. Shooting the characters coming out on the passenger side allowed their movement to be captured in one shot ...without having to move the camera to another angle, and without being "messy" about having to circle around the car to get the shot.
This is most noteable when Arbogast returns to the motel and his sliding movement puts him on a "direct diagonal trajectory" from the car to the motel to the old house(with its window lit as a "final destination" ...of death. By having the detective move that way, Hitchcock gets one of his visually impressive shots - in which the movement of the character is part of the design itself.
And yet: when the detective pulls up to the phone booth, the EASIER shot here is for him to get out on the DRIVER's side and to walk to the booth from there.
It all seems to be about camera angles and not having to use two or more shots to get the characters out of the car.
And...this issue is NOT trivial. It allows us to study Hitchcock's decisions as a director -- practicality, visual style, design.
Folks have been noticing these door shots for years...which means they are important.
People just used to do that. I had a 1959 Ford pickup that only had an external door lock on the passenger (right) door. You'd push the inside door lever down on the driver's side to lock it, then slide across the bench seat and get out on the passenger side, close the door, and lock it with the key.
shareIts popular today within the gay community to get out of the car like that. They especially like when they climb over the shifter in the console. Sometimes it takes them a few minutes to get out of the car
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