A Few Words About A few words about...™ Psycho (import) -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Cineman]

I was only 7 years old in 1960 when I sat with my family in a theater watching the initial release of PSYCHO and I can remember to this day the groan of disappointment from the men in the audience at Hitchcock's ultra-precise cut away from the shot of Marion (Janet Leigh) juuuust as she shrugged off her bra and we didn't get to feast our eyes on what Norman got to see a split second later. The attendant emotions were immensely complex, no simple titillation of the kind we might have felt in other movies of the day. We envied Norman's view, wished we could see what he saw, wanted to "be" him for just that tiny moment, yet felt guilty for wanting such a thing because of the sneaky/creepy way he went about it...but hadn't we gone to the movies that night in order to "spy"? Hitchcock had gotten us so close to seeing...perhaps if we didn't blink for the next few minutes we could catch another forbidden glimpse of this beautiful, young woman as she takes her shower...


Hitchcock had our minds, bodies and souls exactly where he wanted them for those next few minutes. The censored version that cuts away waaaayyy early, as Janet Leigh merely reaches for the waistband of her slip loses much of the madness in Hitchcock's methods. The impact of the shower scene is lessened, diluted in a significant way by the edit. It is no trivial case of censorship, it really does turn a moment of emotional peak into a sequence that pretty much comes and goes without much import other than informing us about Norman's little spy hole secret.


Similarly, the more lingering shots of Norman looking at his bloody hands, matched by more lingering shots of him regarding them, thinking about them, suggests something far more complex about Norman's mind than his merely seeing the blood on his hands and thinking, "Oh, dammit, I've got blood on my hands. Better wash it off". Among other things, it suggests he might be getting a bit of an erotic charge out of it. Is there a second or two there where he is deriving some perverse, unacknowledged pleasure in looking at the blood on his hands? Again, the edit is no insignificant case of censorship just to eliminate a few frames of seemingly unnecessary or redundant bloodiness. It quite literally changes the nature of the moment. The prolonging of his regard for the blood on his hands "means" something and, now that we have been brought to this new and frightening identification with Norman Bates, we ought to be disturbed by a consideration of what it means, even if it is brief and fleeting.


The two extra stabs of Arbogast after he falls to the floor? I feel as though we have seen those extra stabs returned to the theatrical and home video versions, haven't we? I honestly don't know for sure but it seems to me that somewhere along the line I have seen those two extra stabs before the fade out in both theatrical and home video presentations. Could be wrong about that though. However, I know Marion's bra removal shots and the more lingering shots of Norman's bloody hands and his looking at them have gone missing even in theatrical prints since the movie was sold to television because I have never since those initial theatrical release screenings felt anything nearly as complex and powerful in those critical moments.


I always wondered why Pat Hitchcock and others close to the master and so interested in preserving his work had not put up a greater fuss about truly presenting the "uncut" version of this masterpiece as it has falsely been advertised all these decades.

 

[Konstantinos]

I'm sorry did you say 7 years old when you first watched Psycho??

 

[bujaki]

I was all of 10 years old when I saw Psycho during its premiere engagement, and I went by my own little self. I probably looked about 8 at the time.

 

[haineshisway]

I was twelve. And I'd just finished the book two days before seeing the film.

 

[Robert Harris]

Is the Burns, perchance, the art house cinema built (or rebuilt) on the site of the old Rome Theater in Pleasantville? God, how many great Saturday Matinees I attended there as a youth! Having read your description of its projection system (you mentioned a change-over), it sounds as though they are still running 35mm. Is that so? If so, Bravo!

It is

 

[Dick]

I already quoted the above in my original post. So what have you added other than being the department of redundancy department and that you're unhappy that others are unhappy?

 

[Cineman]

I'm sorry did you say 7 years old when you first watched Psycho??

lol. That was a time when our parents sent us to the store to buy cigarettes for them by age 7! "Remember, don't get the box pack Winstons. Get the soft pack."


By age 7 and 6 my brother and I would be expected to hop on a bus after school and travel 30 minutes into Cincinnati, Ohio, wade through that big city's bus terminal...just the two of us, him holding my hand...and meet my working mom at her downtown skyscraper office building at 5PM to have dinner at the local cafeteria. There was apparently a TON less worry about something untoward but statistically tiny happening to kids in those days. Just about every kid in my Catholic grade school class had seen PSYCHO within months of its initial release and could recall scenes from it. After all, there was no age restriction on who the theaters could sell a ticket to, no Parental Guidance ratings in those days. To most of us, PSYCHO was just another scary movie hit like HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. Only better.


I don't think adults then were nearly as concerned about "protecting" young minds from good books, good movies, good television shows, good plays and so on, without regard for whether or not they had been produced by Disney to target children under the age of whatever. In fact, even the Disney animated features of the 1940s/1950s seemed edgier and "scarier" than they do today.

 

[bujaki]

So true, Cineman, so true. We weren't even shielded from death (Bambi's mom, the horror), and girls didn't expect to grow up to be princesses. I feel sorry for these "shielded" children when the reality of the world will finally hit them.

 

[Cineman]

On the subject of movies, I think it is far more potentially damaging to the art form if not the entire society when adults are regularly exposed to material ratcheted down in order to be suitable for children than for children to be exposed to material meant to stimulate an adult mind, the latter being in most cases quite positive.


Wish I could fit that on a bumper sticker. lol!

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Well, there would obviously be a reasonable market for a complete Psycho on Blu ray if it were possible to restore those cuts. I'd double-dip for sure.

 

[Cineman]

^ I agree. I would think if the footage exists anywhere in almost any condition, on the German television version for example, it could be cleaned up, digitally improved and restored somewhat seamlessly. At least from my very limited knowledge and observation of the restoration process it appears possible. Wouldn't the challenge be similar to what Mr. Harris achieved to restore the damaged footage of Scottie exiting Judy's apartment in VERTIGO from an existing 16mm print?


Which prompts a few questions for EnricoE...

soooo, i just revisted the movie for the first time on blu-ray. what can i say, it looks and sounds great. but it's still cut. the uncut version was shown a few months ago on german television, which i was able to record

while the trimmed scenes are not that long or even special to todays audiences, i still feel cheated by universal not releasing the true uncut version of the movie on home video. funny side note: the re-release trailers on the blu-ray advertise the uncut version and yet the dvd and blu-ray do not include


so will universal ever release the uncut version on blu-ray? proably not. this mean, i better hold on to my tv capture of the uncut version

EnricoE, would you please tell us more about that German television version? For instance, does the original aspect ratio appear to be seriously compromised, are there German subtitles within the frame or below in a blank space, or is it dubbed? Would you say the general condition of the print is fairly clean?


Hell, I'd love to watch a stream of that German version if it is available online. But a search for it turned up nothing so far.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

lol. That was a time when our parents sent us to the store to buy cigarettes for them by age 7! "Remember, don't get the box pack Winstons. Get the soft pack."


By age 7 and 6 my brother and I would be expected to hop on a bus after school and travel 30 minutes into Cincinnati, Ohio, wade through that big city's bus terminal...just the two of us, him holding my hand...and meet my working mom at her downtown skyscraper office building at 5PM to have dinner at the local cafeteria. There was apparently a TON less worry about something untoward but statistically tiny happening to kids in those days. Just about every kid in my Catholic grade school class had seen PSYCHO within months of its initial release and could recall scenes from it. After all, there was no age restriction on who the theaters could sell a ticket to, no Parental Guidance ratings in those days. To most of us, PSYCHO was just another scary movie hit like HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. Only better.


I don't think adults then were nearly as concerned about "protecting" young minds from good books, good movies, good television shows, good plays and so on, without regard for whether or not they had been produced by Disney to target children under the age of whatever. In fact, even the Disney animated features of the 1940s/1950s seemed edgier and "scarier" than they do today.

Yes, I was on regular runs for my father's cigarettes at that age ... and also off running down to our local butcher's on weekends with money in fist to place bets on the local horse races ... the butcher was our local (and very illegal) Starting Price bookie, known here in Australia as an SP Bookie.

I even remember when I was 17 managing to get into an art-house cinema rated for 18 and over to watch a Swedish movie where A YOUNG WOMAN ACTUALLY TOOK OFF HER BLOUSE AND YOU COULD SEE HER BREASTS! The film was 'One Summer of Happiness', for those with long fond memories of small fond mammaries .....

 

[Oblivion138]

^ I agree. I would think if the footage exists anywhere in almost any condition, on the German television version for example, it could be cleaned up, digitally improved and restored somewhat seamlessly. At least from my very limited knowledge and observation of the restoration process it appears possible. Wouldn't the challenge be similar to what Mr. Harris achieved to restore the damaged footage of Scottie exiting Judy's apartment in VERTIGO from an existing 16mm print?


Which prompts a few questions for EnricoE...



EnricoE, would you please tell us more about that German television version? For instance, does the original aspect ratio appear to be seriously compromised, are there German subtitles within the frame or below in a blank space, or is it dubbed? Would you say the general condition of the print is fairly clean?


Hell, I'd love to watch a stream of that German version if it is available online. But a search for it turned up nothing so far.

There is no dialogue during any of the cut footage, so even if there were subtitles burned in, those shots could be reintegrated into the film with little trouble. It is, of course, simply a matter of the image quality of said footage. The best that could be found, that is.

 

[AshJW]

are there German subtitles within the frame or below in a blank space, or is it dubbed?

It is most likely dubbed. I cannot imagine that RTL ever aired a movie that was not dubbed.

 

[Brent Reid]

I'd settle for now with seeing the cut/extra footage as a future Psycho release extra, perhaps included in a new featurette, but given Universal's track record on the film to date, that seems unlikely. YouTube upload anyone?

EnricoE, instead of banging on about your rare cut for several posts, you could have spent some of that time actually sharing it with us and the rest of the world. Or do you just like to tease?

 

[Lord Dalek]

This is just getting silly now. There's no evidence provided that suggests this German footage was in the version of the film released by Paramount in 1960. Furthermore, there's even less evidence that this German version is Hitchcock's "director's cut".

Remember, Gus Van Sant had to actually add gore and a masturbation scene to his version of Psycho to justify that R rating.

 

[Brent Reid]

Precisely. That's why I deliberately referred to it as "cut/extra footage". I'm pretty sure that what we currently have is the director's cut and the German TV cut's extra few seconds (!) are just interesting snippets that add nothing of overall value to the story. Hence why I'd be happy just to see them even in lo-res on YouTube.

 

[Cineman]

This is just getting silly now. There's no evidence provided that suggests this German footage was in the version of the film released by Paramount in 1960. Furthermore, there's even less evidence that this German version is Hitchcock's "director's cut".

Remember, Gus Van Sant had to actually add gore and a masturbation scene to his version of Psycho to justify that R rating.

Precisely. That's why I deliberately referred to it as "cut/extra footage". I'm pretty sure that what we currently have is the director's cut and the German TV cut's extra few seconds (!) are just interesting snippets that add nothing of overall value to the story. Hence why I'd be happy just to see them even in lo-res on YouTube.

How would someone in Germany get "extra footage" of a movie from a director who famously had final cut authority and even more famously rarely if ever shot "extra footage" that a studio head or distributor could monkey with to create a version of his movie that he did not intend? Is it likely that Alfred Hitchcock would allow "extra footage" of his female star's nudity, even if he hadn't planned to leave it in the film or eventually agreed to remove it before theatrical release, fall into anyone's hands for future hijinks to be made of it? And, it appears to me such "extra footage" of her removing her bra also includes more than we see on that German television version. Just a few more frames and we would see nipple. Was whoever supposedly got ahold of the footage Hitchcock supposedly never intended to be in his theatrical release too shy to go all the way with what he had?


Aside from my clear memory of the scene of Marion removing her underwear going way beyond what we now see in USA and most other home video and theatrical presentation since the initial theatrical release, where it cuts away as she merely reaches for the waistband of her slip, I believe you can tell from the underlying Bernard Herrmann music track that some kind of "jump" has occurred because of the excised footage. I am absolutely positive neither Alfred Hitchcock nor Bernard Herrmann would have stood for a "jump" in the music soundtrack at such a moment for the theatrical release.


Again, I strongly believe those cuts change the nature of the scenes and are not insignificant. True, they don't change the story. But they definitely change the emotional state of the viewer, in all cases, diluting what were much edgier, more highly charged moments to the point that all they convey now is "story" and nothing near the more complex and multi-layered emotional response that was the hallmark of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest masterpieces.

 

[mikeyhitchfan]

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=1921

 

[funkymonkey62]

For what is is worth... I remember this longer version was the one released on sell thru VHS in the UK many, many years ago. CIC video with a slipcase. Perhaps this version was actually the European cut and the film was trimmed for the US. Only now with a universal master the trimmed version prevails...