The Tin Star

Year of Release:  1957

Director:  Anthony Mann

Screenplay:  Dudley Nichols, from a story by Joel Kane and Barney Slater

Starring:  Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Palmer

Running Time:  93 minutes

Genre:  Western

The Old West:  Bounty hunter Morg Hickman (Fonda) arrives in a small town to collect his latest bounty.  While waiting for his claim to be processed, he befriends Nona Mayfield (Palmer) a young woman who is treated with contempt by the townspeople due to her son Kip (British actor Michel Ray), whose father was Native American.  Hickman also forms a grudging almost-friendship with the town's decent, but inexperienced young sheriff Den Owens (Perkins), who Hickman helps build his confidence and improve his shooting skills.  When one of the town's most beloved citizens is shot dead, Hickman and Owens find themselves caught between a pair of ruthless bandits and a violent posse.  

This is a solid old-school Western.  It moves along at a good pace, empty of inessentials and, while the outcome is never really in doubt, it's final half hour or so is extremely suspenseful.  Henry Fonda, with his weathered face and sad eyes, plays the grizzled bounty hunter with a past whose hard shell of weary cynicism hides his innate decency.  Anthony Perkins, who will forever be known as Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), plays the idealistic and courageous, but naive and inexperienced sheriff with the blend of nervy energy and boyish charm that he would bring to his most famous role.  Anthony Perkins was a good actor, with a strong screen presence, but never really became a major star because he became so associated with Norman Bates, although, to be fair, it is an iconic performance.  Betsy Palmer, who, like Perkins, became something of a horror icon for her role as Pamela Voorhees (Jason's mum) in Friday the 13th (1980), and does well as the winsome single mother who wins Henry Fonda's heart, and keeps the home fires burning while the guys are away playing cowboys.  Anthony Mann had a reputation for more psychologically complex Westerns, many of which starred James Stewart, who was the original choice to play the Henry Fonda role.  Here, the characters have flaws, they do have complexity and are more than the cliches that you often find in these films.  There is also a message about the evils of racism and mob justice, although it is still a product of its time.  The script by Dudley Nichols (who wrote the Western classic Stagecoach (1939)) from a story by Joel Kane and Barney Slater was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay (if your interested it lost out to George Wells for Designing Woman, a film which I had never heard of).  The film is well made, and the action is exciting, and the film's California locations are impressive.  Western veteran Lee Van Cleef has a supporting role as a bandit.           

Anthony Perkins and Henry Fonda in The Tin Star

Psycho II

Year of Release:  1983
Director:  Richard Franklin
Screenplay:  Tom Holland
Starring:  Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz
Running Time:  113 minutes
Genre:  Crime, mystery, horror

After 22 years in an institution Norman Bates (Perkins) is deemed sane and safe to return to the community.  One person who vocally disagrees is Lila Loomis (Miles), whose sister was one of those murdered by Norman.  Despite Lila's protests, Norman is released and returns to his old house overlooking the old Bates Motel.  He starts work as a chef's assistant at a small local diner, where he soon befriends young waitress Mary (Tilly).  However Norman soon starts receiving strange phone calls and threatening notes, apparently from his dead Mother, and then the murders start up again.  Is Norman back to his old ways?  Or is there someone else trying to tip him into insanity?

This film is obviously nowhere near as good as the Alfred Hitchcock original, but it is a good film in it's own right.  It is suspenseful and plays more as a psychological drama than a full on horror film.  Perkins again provides a great, tormented performance as Norman.  The film is stylishly shot, with a predilection for odd camera angles, however it looks very stagey (even some of the exterior scenes look as if they were filmed on a sound stage).  The script by Tom Holland (and no, not the current Spider-Man) has a few too many last minute rescues and a few too many twists, but it keeps the suspense and is always creepy.  It also benefits from a strong vein of dark comedy. 

What would Mother say?  Meg Tillis and Anthony Perkins in Psycho II     

Psycho

Year: 1960
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Joseph Stefano, based on the novel Psycho by Robert Bloch
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Martin Balsam
Running Time: 109 minutes
Genre: Horror, crime, thriller, drama

Summary: Phoenix, Arizona: Marion Crane (Leigh), a secretary at an estate agents, steals $40,000 from one of her employer's clients, and drives off to meet her divorced boyfriend, Sam Loomis (Gavin), at his California home. On the road, Marion becomes increasingly paranoid about getting caught and what might happen to her. Eventually in the middle of a heavy rainstorm, tiredness forces her to seek shelter for the night in the remote Bates Motel. The place is owned and managed by a shy young man named Norman Bates (Perkins) who tells her that he lives with his invalid mother in the large, run-down house that overlooks the motel. Marion overhears a furious argument about her between Norman and his mother. After talking to Norman, Marion decides to return to Phoenix the next day to return the money. First of all however, she decides to take a shower. Big mistake.


Opinions: This movie is probably one of the most influential ever made. It's easy to forget after all the sequels, remakes, parodies and references as well as the slew of imitations, just how good the original is. The story is structured in a way where if you didn't know the film it looks as if it's going to be about a woman who steals some money. For the first 45 minutes or so the film follows Marion exclusively and events are seen from her point of view and then it takes a sudden turn with probably the most famous sequence in cinema history and becomes something else entirely.
The script was written by Joseph Stefano (who subsequently became known for creating the classic television series The Outer Limits (1963-1965)) based on a 1959 novel by prolific horror and thriller author Robert Bloch. The book was inspired by the real-life Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein (whose activities also inspired The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991)). The film follows the basic storyline of the book pretty closely but with a few basic changes. The novel focuses mainly on Norman Bates and many of the events are seen through his eyes. Also Norman is a much more sympathetic character in the film than in the book. Incidentally, at the time of writing the screenplay, Stefano was undergoing therapy about his own relationship with his mother.
The movie features a brilliant central performance from Anthony Perkins as the tormented Norman, who manages to be both sinister and sympathetic at the same time. In fact he is quite a likeable character which makes his actions all the more startling. Anthony Perkins, who at the time was best known as a pop singer and a romantic lead, suffered from typecasting due to the immense success of Psycho but stated afterwards that he would still have taken the role even if he knew that he would be typecast. The film also had it's main "name" star, Janet Leigh, killed off towards the middle of the movie, which was a really shocking move for the time. This is said to be the reason behind Hitchcock's heavily promoted "requirement" that no-one was allowed to be admitted in to see Psycho once the film had begun. This was highly unusual for the time when people were in the habt of wandering into films whenever they felt like it, but Hitchcock felt that if people came in during the second half of the film expecting to see Janet Leigh and she did not appear, then they would feel cheated.
Of course everyone knows about the famous shower sequence which is a masterpiece of direction, editing and scoring. The scene runs for about three minutes and includes about fifty cuts, and it is done in a way where you think that it is more violent than it actually is. You see the shower head, Janet Leigh screaming, and you see the knife stabbing, but you never see any actual contact. The only blood in the scene is seen swirling down the plughole. Coupled with Bernard Herrmann's legendary strings-only score, it is one of the greatest scenes in film history. The censors initially asked for the scene to be cut, because they thought that Leigh's breasts were visible. Hitchcock simply resubmitted the film again without touching it and it was passed uncut. People who have way too much time on their hands have analysed the scene frame by frame for a glimpse of the offending breast but, as far as I know, they have been unsuccessful. Apparently after watching the scene, Janet Leigh refused to take showers unless she absolutely had to, and then she would lock all her doors and windows and leave the shower and bathroom door open.
There is another story that Hitchock received a letter from an angry father who said that his daughter refused to take a bath after seeing the 1955 film Les Diaboliques and now refused to take showers after seeing Psycho. "How am I supposed to get her clean?" the outraged man demanded.
"Take her to the drycleaners," replied Hitch.
The film also features a startling second murder, which is in it's own way as memorable as the shower scene, and it also has a strong vein of humour running through it.
Alfred Hitchcock has a small cameo in the film as a man wearing a stetson who is seen standing outside the window of the real estate agency where Marion works.
This was also the first film to feature a shot of a toilet flushing, which also caused some trouble with the censors, and was removed for some international prints.
The film is often stated as being the first of the slasher movie subgenre of horror.
The film was followed by two direct sequels and a made for television prequel. It was also pointlessly remade in 1998 by Gus Van Sant. The original is a classic and is well worth checking out by anyone. If you've never seen it, then definitely see it, and if you have seen it, then see it again.


"We all go a little mad sometimes." - Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Psycho



"Have you got the shower working yet?" Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh in Psycho