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84-603: Loomis may refer to: The surname Loomis is common in horror films, with characters in the Psycho , Halloween , Scream and Dark Shadows films or franchises carrying the name. Dr Samuel Loomis in Halloween was directly named after the character in Psycho . Psycho (1960 film) Psycho is a 1960 American horror film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock . The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano ,

168-643: A television series . In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry . Marion Crane , a real estate secretary in Phoenix , steals $ 40,000 in cash from her employer after hearing her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, complain that his debts are delaying their marriage. She sets off to drive to Sam's home in

252-552: A 60% stake in the film negative. This combined offer was accepted, and Hitchcock went ahead in spite of naysaying from producer Herbert Coleman and Shamley Productions executive Joan Harrison . James P. Cavanagh , a writer on Alfred Hitchcock Presents , wrote the first draft of the screenplay. Hitchcock felt the script dragged and read like a television short horror story, an assessment shared by an assistant. Although Joseph Stefano had worked on only one film before, Hitchcock agreed to meet with him; despite Stefano's inexperience,

336-402: A breath. In either case, the postmortem activity was edited out and was never seen by audiences. Although Marion's eyes should have been dilated after her death, the contact lenses necessary for this effect would have required six weeks of acclimatization to wear them, so Hitchcock decided to forgo them. It is often claimed that, despite its graphic nature, the shower scene never once shows

420-583: A classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors. Europe has likely lost nearly half its wetlands. New Zealand lost 90 percent of its wetlands over a period of 150 years. Ecologists recognize that swamps provide ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, and wildlife habitats. In many parts of the world authorities protect swamps. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration projects are becoming widespread. The United States government began enforcing stricter laws and management programs in

504-451: A darker and more intense effect. Film composer Fred Steiner , in an analysis of the score to Psycho , points out that string instruments gave Herrmann access to a wider range in tone, dynamics, and instrumental special effects than any other single instrumental group would have. The main title music, a tense, hurtling piece, sets the tone of impending violence and returns three times on the soundtrack. Though nothing shocking occurs during

588-629: A further result of cost-cutting, Hitchcock chose to film Psycho in black-and-white, keeping the budget under $ 1 million. Among other reasons for shooting in black-and-white were Hitchcock's desire to prevent the shower scene from being too gory. As a further cost-cutting measure, and because he was most comfortable around them, Hitchcock took most of his crew from his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents , including cinematographer John L. Russell , set designer George Milo , script supervisor Marshall Schlom and assistant director Hilton A. Green . He hired regular collaborators Bernard Herrmann as

672-438: A jail cell and hears his mother's voice stating the murders were his doing. Meanwhile, Marion's car, which contains her remains and the stolen money, is retrieved from the swamp. Virginia Gregg , Paul Jasmin and Jeanette Nolan make uncredited appearances as the voice of Norma "Mother" Bates . The three voices were used interchangeably, except for the speech in the final scene, which was performed entirely by Gregg. Psycho

756-466: A knife puncturing flesh. However, a frame by frame analysis of the sequence shows one shot in which the knife appears to penetrate Leigh's abdomen, an effect created through lighting and reverse motion. Leigh herself was so affected by this scene when she saw it that she no longer took showers unless she absolutely had to; she would lock all the doors and windows and would leave the bathroom and shower door open. She never realized until she first watched

840-502: A prepared list of 140 locations for later reconstruction in the studio. These included many real estate offices and homes such as those belonging to Marion and her sister. He also found a girl who looked just as he imagined Marion and photographed her whole wardrobe, which would enable Hitchcock to demand realistic looks from Helen Colvig, the wardrobe supervisor. The look of the Bates house was modeled on Edward Hopper 's painting House by

924-579: A psychiatrist explains that Norman killed his mother and her lover ten years prior out of jealousy. Unable to bear the guilt, he mummified his mother's corpse and treated it as if she were still alive. He recreated his mother as an alternate personality , as jealous and possessive towards Norman as he felt about his mother. Whenever Norman is attracted to a woman, "Mother" takes over. Under the "Mother" personality, Norman killed two women before he killed Marion and Arbogast. The psychiatrist concludes that "Mother" has now submerged Norman's personality. Norman sits in

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1008-418: A scene with his daughter, who played one of Marion's colleagues. Others have suggested that he chose this early appearance in the film to avoid distracting the audience. The murder of Leigh's character in the shower is the film's pivotal scene and one of the best-known in all of cinema. As such, it spawned numerous myths and legends. The scene was shot from December 17–23, 1959, after Leigh had twice postponed

1092-411: A scene." Commentators such as Rebello and Bill Krohn have argued in favor of Bass's contribution to the scene in his capacity as a visual consultant and storyboard artist. Along with designing the opening credits, Bass is termed "Pictorial Consultant" in the credits. When interviewing Hitchcock in 1967, Truffaut asked about the extent of Bass' contribution, to which Hitchcock replied that in addition to

1176-515: A stand-in only for the sequence in which Norman wraps Marion's body in a shower curtain and places it in the trunk of her car. The 2010 book The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower by Robert Graysmith and the documentary 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene contradicts this, identifying Marli Renfro as Leigh's body double for some of the shower scene's shots. Graysmith also stated that Hitchcock later acknowledged Renfro's participation in

1260-408: A variety of sources including precipitation, groundwater, tides and/or freshwater flooding. These hydrologic pathways all contribute to how energy and nutrients flow in and out of the ecosystem. As water flows through the swamp, nutrients, sediment and pollutants are naturally filtered out. Chemicals like phosphorus and nitrogen that end up in waterways get absorbed and used by the aquatic plants within

1344-401: A very low property value compared to fields, prairies , or woodlands . They have a reputation for being unproductive land that cannot easily be utilized for human activities, other than hunting , trapping , or fishing. Farmers, for example, typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to gain more land usable for planting crops, both historically, and to a lesser extent, presently. On

1428-462: A week later, tells Sam about the theft and demands information about Marion's whereabouts. He denies knowing anything about Marion's disappearance. A private investigator named Arbogast approaches them, stating that he has been hired to retrieve the money. He stops at the Bates Motel and questions Norman, whose nervous conduct, stuttering and inconsistent answers arouse his suspicion. He examines

1512-546: Is "doing" at various given moments. The first name of the female protagonist was changed from Mary to Marion because a real Mary Crane lived in Phoenix. Also changed is the novel's budding romance between Sam and Lila. Hitchcock preferred to focus the audience's attention on the solution to the mystery, and Stefano thought such a relationship would make Sam seem cheap. Instead of having Sam explain Norman's pathology to Lila,

1596-564: Is Norman, the stuffed-bird collector, who is the murderer rather than his mother. Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith writes that the music for the shower scene is "probably the most famous (and most imitated) cue in film music", but Hitchcock was originally opposed to having music in this scene. When Herrmann played the shower scene cue for Hitchcock, the director approved its use in the film. Herrmann reminded Hitchcock of his instructions not to score this scene, to which Hitchcock replied: "Improper suggestion, my boy, improper suggestion". This

1680-638: Is a large swamp in the western Siberia area of the Russian Federation . This is one of the largest swamps in the world, covering an area larger than Switzerland . The Atchafalaya Swamp at the lower end of the Mississippi River is the largest swamp in the United States . It is an important example of the southern cypress swamp but it has been greatly altered by logging, drainage, and levee construction. Other famous swamps in

1764-477: Is also shown. They also provided the location shots for the scene in which Marion is discovered sleeping in her car by the suspicious policeman. In one street scene shot in downtown Phoenix, Christmas decorations were discovered to be visible; rather than re-shoot the footage, Hitchcock chose to add onscreen text to the opening scene marking the date as "Friday, December the Eleventh". Green also took photos of

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1848-439: Is based on Robert Bloch 's 1959 novel of the same name , loosely inspired by the case of convicted Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein . Both Gein, who lived only 40 miles (64 km) from Bloch, and the story's protagonist Norman Bates, were solitary murderers in isolated rural locations. Each had deceased, domineering mothers, had sealed off a room in their home as a shrine to them and dressed in women's clothes. Gein

1932-440: Is discovered required complicated coordination of the chair turning around, Vera Miles (as Lila) hitting the light bulb and a lens flare , which proved to be difficult. Hitchcock forced retakes until all three elements were effected to his satisfaction. According to Hitchcock, a series of shots with Arbogast going up the stairs in the Bates house before he is stabbed were directed by Green based on Bass' storyboards while Hitchcock

2016-468: Is highly reminiscent of the iris titles that Bass created for Vertigo . Krohn also notes that Hitchcock shot the scene with two cameras: one a Mitchell BNC , the other a handheld French Éclair camera which Orson Welles had used in Touch of Evil (1958). To create an ideal montage for the greatest emotional impact on the audience, Hitchcock shot a lot of footage of this scene which he trimmed down in

2100-482: Is looking through Norman's bedroom in the film, she opens a book with a blank cover whose contents are unseen; in the novel, these are "pathologically pornographic" illustrations. Stefano wanted to give the audience "indications that something was quite wrong, but it could not be spelled out or overdone." In his book of conversations with Hitchcock, François Truffaut says the novel "cheats" by having extended conversations between Norman and "Mother" and stating what Mother

2184-419: Is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films, and is arguably his most famous and influential work. It has been hailed as a major work of cinematic art by international film critics and scholars who praise its slick direction, tense atmosphere, impressive camerawork, memorable score and iconic performances. It is regarded as "the most heavily analyzed film in the long career of the most investigated director in

2268-435: The guest register and discovers from her handwriting that Marion spent a night in the motel. When Arbogast infers from Norman that Marion had spoken to his mother, he asks to speak to her, but Norman refuses to allow it. After Arbogast enters the Bates house to search for Norman's mother, a shadowy figure assaults him at the top of the stairs and stabs him to death. When Sam and Lila do not hear back from Arbogast, Sam goes to

2352-475: The "Mother corpse" prop in Leigh's dressing room closet. Leigh took the joke well, and wondered whether it was done to keep her in suspense or to judge which corpse would be scarier for the audience. Hitchcock was forced uncharacteristically to do retakes for some scenes. The final shot in the shower scene, which starts with an extreme close-up on Marion's eye and zooms in and out, proved difficult for Leigh because

2436-549: The 1970s in efforts to protect and restore these ecosystems. Often the simplest steps to restoring swamps involve plugging drainage ditches and removing levees . Conservationists work to preserve swamps such as those in northwest Indiana in the United States Midwest that were preserved as part of the Indiana Dunes . Swamps can be found on all continents except Antarctica . The largest swamp in

2520-476: The Movies , concluded the most reasonable calculation was 60. Many are close-ups, including extreme close-ups, except for medium shots in the shower directly before and directly after the murder. The combination of the close shots with their short duration makes the sequence feel more subjective than if the images were presented alone or at a wider angle, an example of the technique Hitchcock described as "transferring

2604-604: The Railroad , a fanciful portrait of the Second Empire Victorian home at 18 Conger Avenue in Haverstraw , New York . Lead actors Perkins and Leigh were given the freedom to interpret their roles and improvise as long as it did not involve moving the camera. An example of Perkins' improvisation is Norman's habit of eating candy corn . Throughout filming, Hitchcock created and hid various versions of

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2688-719: The United States are the forested portions of the Everglades , Okefenokee Swamp , Barley Barber Swamp , Great Cypress Swamp and the Great Dismal Swamp . The Okefenokee is located in extreme southeastern Georgia and extends slightly into northeastern Florida . The Great Cypress Swamp is mostly in Delaware , but extends into Maryland on the Delmarva Peninsula . Point Lookout State Park on

2772-633: The audience. Before shooting began in November, Hitchcock dispatched Green to Phoenix to scout locations and shoot the opening scene. The shot was supposed to be an aerial shot of Phoenix that slowly zoomed into the hotel window of a passionate Marion and Sam. Ultimately, the helicopter footage proved too shaky and had to be spliced with footage from the studio. Another crew filmed day and night footage on Highway 99 between Gorman and Fresno, California , for projection when Marion drives from Phoenix. Footage of her driving into Bakersfield to trade her car

2856-432: The camera and just show a nude woman, it had to be done impressionistically. So, it was done with little pieces of film, the head, the feet, the hand, etc. In that scene, there were 78 pieces of film in about 45 seconds. A popular myth emerged that ice-cold water was used in the shower scene to make Leigh's scream realistic. Leigh denied this on numerous occasions, saying the crew was accommodating, using hot water throughout

2940-600: The coasts of East Sumatra, Kalimantan (Central, East, South and West Kalimantan provinces), West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Brunei, Peninsular Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, Southeast Thailand, and the Philippines (Riley et al. ,1996). Indonesia has the largest area of tropical peatland. Of the total 440,000 km (170,000 sq mi) tropical peat swamp, about 210,000 km (81,000 sq mi) are located in Indonesia (Page, 2001; Wahyunto, 2006). The Vasyugan Swamp

3024-400: The cold water myth, another claim was that graphic designer Saul Bass directed the shower scene. This was denied by several figures associated with the film, including Leigh, who stated: "Absolutely not! I have emphatically said this in any interview I've ever given. I've said it to his face in front of other people ... I was in that shower for seven days, and, believe me, Alfred Hitchcock

3108-431: The crew from his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents . Paramount executives rejected this cost-conscious approach, claiming their soundstages were booked, but the industry was in a slump. Hitchcock countered that he personally would finance the project and film it at Universal-International using his Shamley Productions crew if Paramount would distribute. In lieu of his usual $ 250,000 director's fee, he proposed

3192-402: The editing room. He even brought a Moviola on the set to gauge the footage required. The final sequence, which his editor George Tomasini worked on with Hitchcock's advice, however, did not go far beyond the basic structural elements set up by Bass's storyboards. Hitchcock insisted that Bernard Herrmann write the score for Psycho despite the composer's refusal to accept a reduced fee for

3276-417: The film "how vulnerable and defenseless one is." Before production, Leigh and Hitchcock fully discussed what the scene meant: Marion had decided to go back to Phoenix, come clean, and take the consequences, so when she stepped into the bathtub it was as if she were stepping into the baptismal waters. The spray beating down on her was purifying the corruption from her mind, purging the evil from her soul. She

3360-532: The film uses a psychiatrist. Stefano was in therapy dealing with his relationship with his own mother while writing the script. The novel is more violent than the film: Marion is decapitated in the shower rather than being stabbed to death. Minor changes include changing Marion's telltale earring found after her death to a scrap of paper that failed to flush down the toilet. This provided some shock effect because toilets almost were never seen in American cinema at

3444-661: The film's creation through his own Shamley Productions, shooting at Universal Studios under the Revue television unit. The original Bates Motel and Bates house set buildings, which were constructed on the same stage as Lon Chaney 's The Phantom of the Opera (1925), are still standing at the Universal Studios backlot in Universal City near Hollywood and are a regular attraction on the studio's tour . As

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3528-568: The film's lower budget. The resulting score, according to Christopher Palmer in The Composer in Hollywood (1990) is "perhaps Herrmann's most spectacular Hitchcock achievement." Hitchcock was pleased with the tension and drama the score added to the film, later remarking "33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music" and that " Psycho depended heavily on Herrmann's music for its tension and sense of pervading doom." Herrmann used

3612-549: The film." The 2017 documentary 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene , by director Alexandre O. Philippe , latches onto this last figure for the production's tagline, "78 Shots & 52 Cuts That Changed Cinema Forever." But in his careful description of the shower scene, film scholar Philip J. Skerry counted only 60 separate shots, with a table breaking down the middle 34 by type, camera position, angle, movement, focus, POV and subject. Absent an alternative tabulation, Richard Schickel and Frank Capra, in their 2001 book The Men Who Made

3696-428: The filming, first because of a cold and then because of her period . The finished scene runs some three minutes, and its flurry of action and edits has produced contradictory attempts to count its parts. Hitchcock himself contributed to this pattern, telling Truffaut that "there were seventy camera setups for forty-five seconds of footage," and maintaining to other interviewers that there were "seventy-eight pieces of

3780-399: The first 15–20 minutes of the film, the title music remains in the audience's mind, lending tension to these early scenes. Herrmann also maintains tension through the slower moments in the film through the use of ostinato . There were rumors that Herrmann had used electronic means, including amplified bird screeches to achieve the shocking effect of the music in the shower scene. The effect

3864-413: The food, Marion overhears him arguing with his mother about his desire to dine with Marion. After he returns, he discusses his hobby as a taxidermist , his mother's "illness" and how people have a "private trap" they want to escape. When Marion suggests that Norman should have his mother institutionalized, he becomes greatly offended and insists that she's harmless. Marion decides to drive back to Phoenix in

3948-417: The history of American film" and often ranked among the greatest films of all time , it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films, and has been considered to be one of the earliest examples of the slasher film genre. After Hitchcock's death in 1980, Universal Pictures produced follow-ups: three sequels , a remake , a made-for-television spin-off and

4032-486: The knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a melon. There are varying accounts whether Leigh was in the shower the entire time or a body double was used for some parts of the murder sequence and its aftermath. In an interview with Roger Ebert and in the 1990 book by Stephen Rebello , Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho , Leigh stated she appeared in the scene the entire time and Hitchcock used

4116-400: The lowered music budget to his advantage by writing for a string orchestra rather than a full symphonic ensemble, contrary to Hitchcock's request for a jazz score. He thought of the single-tone color of the all-string soundtrack as a way of reflecting the black-and-white cinematography of the film. The strings play con sordini (muted) for all the music other than the shower scene, creating

4200-442: The meeting went well and he was hired. The screenplay is relatively faithful to the novel, with a few significant changes by Hitchcock and Stefano. Stefano found the character of Norman Bates unsympathetic—in the book, he is middle-aged, overweight and more overtly unstable—but became more intrigued when Hitchcock suggested casting Anthony Perkins. Stefano eliminated Bates' alcoholism , which necessitated removing Bates' "becoming"

4284-425: The menace from the screen into the mind of the audience." To capture the straight-on shot of the shower head, the camera had to be equipped with a long lens. The inner holes on the shower head were blocked and the camera placed a sufficient distance away so that the water, while appearing to be aimed directly at the lens, actually went around and past it. The soundtrack of screeching violins , violas and cellos

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4368-495: The morning to return the stolen money. As she showers, a shadowy figure enters the bathroom and stabs her to death. Shortly afterward, Norman comes to check on Marion, only to discover her dead body. Horrified, he hurriedly cleans up the murder scene. He then places Marion's body, her belongings, and, unbeknownst to him, the hidden cash in her car, before sinking the vehicle in a swamp . Marion's sister, Lila , arrives in Fairvale

4452-418: The motel to look for him. He spots a silhouette in the house who he assumes is Norman's mother. Lila and Sam alert the local sheriff, Al Chambers, who tells them Norman's mother died in a murder–suicide by strychnine poisoning a decade earlier. Chambers suggests that Arbogast lied to Sam and Lila so he could pursue Marion and the money. Convinced that something unusual happened to Arbogast, Lila and Sam drive to

4536-416: The motel. Sam distracts Norman in the office while Lila sneaks into the Bates house. Suspicious, Norman knocks Sam unconscious. As he heads to the house, Lila hides in the fruit cellar, where she discovers the mummified body of Norman's mother. Lila screams in horror, and Norman, wearing women's clothes and a wig, enters the cellar and attempts to stab her. Sam appears and subdues him. At the police station,

4620-463: The mother personality when in a drunken stupor. Also remoed was Bates' interest in spiritualism , the occult and pornography . Hitchcock and Stefano elected to open the film with scenes in Marion's life and not introduce Bates at all until the twenty-minute mark, rather than open with Bates reading a history book as Bloch does. Writer Joseph W. Smith observes that Marion's story "occupies only two of

4704-474: The music composer, George Tomasini as editor, and Saul Bass for the title design and storyboarding of the shower scene. In all, his crew cost $ 62,000. Through the strength of his reputation, Hitchcock cast Leigh for a quarter of her usual fee, paying only $ 25,000 (in the 1967 book Hitchcock/Truffaut , Hitchcock said that Leigh owed Paramount one final film on her seven-year contract which she had signed in 1953). His first choice, Leigh agreed having only read

4788-553: The novel and making no inquiry into her salary. Her co-star, Anthony Perkins, agreed to $ 40,000. Both stars were experienced and proven box-office draws. Paramount distributed the film, but four years later Hitchcock sold his stock in Shamley to Universal's parent company, MCA , and his remaining six films were made at and distributed by Universal Pictures. After another four years, Paramount sold all rights to Universal. Psycho , independently produced and financed by Hitchcock,

4872-423: The novel's 17 chapters. Hitchcock and Stefano expanded this to nearly half the narrative." Smith likewise mentions the absence of a hotel tryst between Marion and Sam in the novel. For Stefano, the conversation between Marion and Norman in the hotel parlor in which she displays maternal sympathy towards him makes it possible for the audience to switch their sympathies towards Norman after Marion's murder. When Lila

4956-611: The novel's surprises. Hitchcock, who had come to face genre competitors whose works were critically compared to his own, was seeking new material to recover from two aborted projects with Paramount: Flamingo Feather and No Bail for the Judge . He disliked stars' salary demands and trusted only a few people to choose prospective material, including Robertson. Paramount executives balked at Hitchcock's proposal and refused to provide his usual budget. In response, Hitchcock offered to film Psycho quickly and cheaply in black and white using

5040-487: The other hand, swamps can (and do) play a beneficial ecological role in the overall functions of the natural environment and provide a variety of resources that many species depend on. Swamps and other wetlands have shown to be a natural form of flood management and defense against flooding. In such circumstances where flooding does occur, swamps absorb and use the excess water within the wetland, preventing it from traveling and flooding surrounding areas. Dense vegetation within

5124-518: The overhead camera angle necessary to hide the film's twist. A camera track constructed on pulleys alongside the stairway together with a chair-like device had to be constructed and thoroughly tested over a period of weeks. Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Psycho , he can be seen through a window—wearing a Stetson hat—standing outside Marion's workplace. Wardrobe mistress Rita Riggs has said that Hitchcock chose this scene for his cameo so that he could be in

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5208-451: The production, while rebutting Bass' claims for having directed the scene, notes that these storyboards did introduce key aspects of the final scene—most notably, the fact that the killer appears as a silhouette, and details such as the close-ups of the slashing knife, Leigh's desperate outstretched arm, the shower curtain being torn off its hooks and the transition from the drain to Marion Crane's dead eye. Krohn notes that this final transition

5292-467: The scene. Rita Riggs , who was in charge of the wardrobe, claims it was Leigh in the shower the entire time, explaining that Leigh did not wish to be nude and so she devised strategic items including pasties , moleskin and bodystockings, to be pasted on Leigh for the scene. Riggs and Leigh went through striptease magazines that showed all the different costumes, but none of them worked because they all had tassels on them. As you know, you could not take

5376-532: The southern tip of Maryland contains many swamps and marshes. The Great Dismal Swamp lies in extreme southeastern Virginia and extreme northeastern North Carolina . Both are National Wildlife Refuges . Another swamp area, Reelfoot Lake of extreme western Tennessee and Kentucky , was created by the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes . Caddo Lake , the Great Dismal and Reelfoot are swamps centered at large lakes. Swamps are often associated with bayous in

5460-618: The swamp also provides soil stability to the land, holding soils and sediment in place whilst preventing erosion and land loss. Swamps are an abundant and valuable source of fresh water and oxygen for all life, and they are often breeding grounds for a wide variety of species. Floodplain swamps are an important resource in the production and distribution of fish. Two thirds of global fish and shellfish are commercially harvested and dependent on wetlands. Historically, humans have been known to drain and/or fill swamps and other wetlands in order to create more space for human development and to reduce

5544-447: The swamp, purifying the water. Any remaining or excess chemicals present will accumulate at the bottom of the swamp, being removed from the water and buried within the sediment. The biogeochemical environment of a swamp is dependent on its hydrology, affecting the levels and availability of resources like oxygen, nutrients, water pH and toxicity, which will influence the whole ecosystem. Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held

5628-525: The threat of diseases borne by swamp insects. Wetlands are removed and replaced with land that is then used for things like agriculture, real estate, and recreational uses. Many swamps have also undergone intensive logging and farming, requiring the construction of drainage ditches and canals. These ditches and canals contributed to drainage and, along the coast, allowed salt water to intrude, converting swamps to marsh or even to open water. Large areas of swamp were therefore lost or degraded. Louisiana provides

5712-439: The time of the film's release. The location of Arbogast's death was moved from the house's foyer to the stairwell. Stefano thought this would make it easier to conceal the truth about "Mother" without tipping that something was being hidden. As Leigh put it, this gave Hitchcock more options for his camera. Paramount Pictures, whose contract guaranteed another film by Hitchcock, did not want Hitchcock to make Psycho . Paramount

5796-456: The titles, Bass had provided storyboards for the Arbogast murder (which he claimed to have rejected), but made no mention of Bass' having provided storyboards for the shower scene. According to Krohn's Hitchcock at Work , Bass' first claim to have directed the scene was in 1970, when he provided a magazine with 48 drawings used as storyboards as proof of his contribution. Krohn's analysis of

5880-497: The town of Fairvale, California , switching cars in Bakersfield after an encounter with a suspicious policeman. A heavy rainstorm forces Marion to stop at the Bates Motel just a few miles from Fairvale. Norman Bates , the proprietor, whose Second Empire style house overlooks the motel, registers Marion (who uses an alias ) and invites her to dinner with him in the motel's office. When Norman returns to his house to retrieve

5964-415: The water splashing in her eyes made her want to blink, and the cameraman had trouble as well because he had to manually focus while moving the camera. Retakes were required for the opening scene because Hitchcock felt that Leigh and Gavin were not passionate enough. Leigh had trouble saying, "Not inordinately" for the real estate office scene, requiring additional retakes. Lastly, the scene in which "Mother"

6048-715: The week-long shoot. All of the screams are Leigh's. According to Donald Spoto in The Dark Side of Genius and Rebello in Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho , Hitchcock's wife and trusted collaborator, Alma Reville , spotted a blooper in one of the last edits of the film before its official release: after Marion was supposedly dead, one could see her blink. According to Patricia Hitchcock, talking in Laurent Bouzereau 's "Making of" documentary, Alma spotted that Leigh's character appeared to take

6132-907: The world is the Amazon River floodplain, which is particularly significant for its large number of fish and tree species. The Sudd and the Okavango Delta are Africa's best known marshland areas. The Bangweulu Floodplains make up Africa's largest swamp. The Mesopotamian Marshes is a large swamp and river system in southern Iraq , traditionally inhabited in part by the Marsh Arabs . In Asia, tropical peat swamps are located in mainland East Asia and Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia, peatlands are mainly found in low altitude coastal and sub-coastal areas and extend inland for distance more than 100 km (62 mi) along river valleys and across watersheds. They are mostly to be found on

6216-419: Was achieved, however, only with violins in a "screeching, stabbing sound-motion of extraordinary viciousness". The only electronic amplification employed was in the placing of the microphones close to the instruments, to get a harsher sound. Besides the emotional impact, the shower scene cue ties the soundtrack to birds. The association of the shower scene music with birds also telegraphs to the audience that it

6300-491: Was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann titled " The Murder ". Hitchcock originally intended to have no music for the sequence (and all motel scenes), but Herrmann insisted he try his composition. Afterward, Hitchcock agreed it vastly intensified the scene, and nearly doubled Herrmann's salary. The blood in the scene was Hershey's chocolate syrup , which shows up better on black-and-white film, and has more realistic density than stage blood. The sound of

6384-533: Was apprehended after killing only twice. Peggy Robertson , Hitchcock's long-time assistant, read Anthony Boucher 's positive review of the novel in his "Criminals at Large" column in The New York Times and decided to show the book to her employer; however, studio readers at Paramount Pictures had already rejected its premise for a film. Hitchcock acquired rights to the novel for $ 9,500 and reportedly ordered Robertson to buy all copies to preserve

6468-519: Was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch . The film stars Anthony Perkins , Janet Leigh , Vera Miles , John Gavin and Martin Balsam . The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh) and shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) and its aftermath, in which a private investigator (Balsam), Marion's lover Sam Loomis (Gavin) and her sister Lila (Miles) investigate her disappearance. Psycho

6552-455: Was expecting No Bail for the Judge , but Hitchcock scrapped the production after star Audrey Hepburn became pregnant and bowed out. The studio's official stance was that Bloch's book was "too repulsive" and "impossible for films," and nothing but another of Hitchcock's star-studded mystery thrillers would suffice. Paramount did not like "anything about [the book] at all" and denied Hitchcock his usual budget. In response, Hitchcock financed

6636-413: Was incapacitated by the common cold. However, upon viewing the dailies of the shots, Hitchcock was forced to scrap them. He claimed they were "no good" because they did not portray "an innocent person but a sinister man who was going up those stairs." Hitchcock later re-shot the scene, though a little of the cut footage made its way into the film. Filming the murder of Arbogast proved problematic, owing to

6720-537: Was like a virgin again, tranquil, at peace. Film theorist Robin Wood also discusses how the shower washes "away her guilt". He comments upon the " alienation effect " of killing off the "apparent center of the film" with which spectators had identified. The scene was the subject of Philippe's 2017 documentary 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene , the title of which references the putative number of cuts and set-ups, respectively, that Hitchcock used to shoot it. Aside from

6804-1036: Was one of two important disagreements Hitchcock had with Herrmann, in which Herrmann ignored Hitchcock's instructions. The second one, over the score for Torn Curtain (1966), resulted in the end of their professional collaboration. A survey conducted by PRS for Music , in 2009, showed that the British public considers the score from 'the shower scene' to be the scariest theme from any film. Swamp Swamps and marshes are specific types of wetlands that form along waterbodies containing rich, hydric soils. Marshes are wetlands, continually or frequently flooded by nearby running bodies of water, that are dominated by emergent soft-stem vegetation and herbaceous plants. Swamps are wetlands consisting of saturated soils or standing water and are dominated by water-tolerant woody vegetation such as shrubs, bushes, and trees. Swamps are characterized by their saturated soils and slow-moving waters. The water that accumulates in swamps comes from

6888-414: Was right next to his camera for every one of those seventy-odd shots." Green also rebuts the claim: "There is not a shot in that movie that I didn't roll the camera for. And I can tell you I never rolled the camera for Mr. Bass." Ebert, a longtime admirer of Hitchcock's work, summarily dismissed the rumor: "It seems unlikely that a perfectionist with an ego like Hitchcock's would let someone else direct such

6972-524: Was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film, North by Northwest (1959), as it was filmed on a small budget in black-and-white by the crew of his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents . Initially, the film divided critics due to its controversial subject matter, but audience interest and outstanding box-office returns prompted a major critical re-evaluation. Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards , including Best Director for Hitchcock and Best Supporting Actress for Leigh. Psycho

7056-492: Was shot at Revue Studios, the same location as his television show. The film was shot on a tight budget of $ 807,000, beginning on November 11, 1959, and ending on February 1, 1960. Filming started in the morning and finished by six p.m. or earlier on Thursdays (when Hitchcock and his wife would dine at Chasen's ). Nearly the whole film was shot with 50 mm lenses on 35 mm cameras. This provided an angle of view similar to human vision, which helped to further involve

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