Hitchcock Killed His Star in the First Half of Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock had already broken several Hollywood rules before Psycho. He had directed for television. He had taken creative control over his own marketing. He had built a public persona — the wry silhouette, the cameo in every film — that signaled what to expect. With Psycho, released in June 1960, he broke the most basic rule of star casting. He killed Janet Leigh's character, the apparent protagonist of the film, forty-seven minutes into a 109-minute movie.

Marion Crane has stolen $40,000 from her boss, fled Phoenix, checked into the Bates Motel under a false name, and decided in her shower that she will return the money. She is an audience identification figure. The film has been about her decisions for nearly half its runtime. Then she is murdered, on-screen, by a figure the audience cannot quite see, and the body is mopped up by Norman Bates, a young man who had just been introduced over a sandwich.

Hitchcock protected the surprise with a campaign no studio had previously attempted. He bought up as many copies of Robert Bloch's source novel as he could from booksellers. He extracted no-spoiler agreements from the cast and crew. Theaters were instructed in writing — language Hitchcock dictated personally — that no one would be admitted after the film began. The lobby cards announced 'No one … BUT NO ONE … will be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance.' Audiences who tried to walk in mid-screening were turned away.

The shower scene runs about 45 seconds and contains roughly 78 camera setups. Bernard Herrmann's score — which Hitchcock had not asked for and almost cut — became the most quoted three notes in horror cinema. The film cost $806,948 and grossed about $50 million worldwide on its first run. Hitchcock had financed it himself.