MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1960) Discussion > A Post About Psycho: 15 Miles

A Post About Psycho: 15 Miles

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
3 replies | jump to latest

ecarle, here.

I think two of our recent threads are very on point in relationship to Psycho...Bates Motel, of course, and Feud(given the roots of Baby Jane in Psycho and Psycho's influence WITH Baby Jane on the "hag films" that followed -- or "Grand Dame Guignol."

But this is a Psycho board, and -- while it is wonderful to see the "old" imdb Psycho board reproduced and usuable, I'm figuring I can help get some "Psycho" posts up here.

Some new Psycho ideas may occur to me, but perhaps with new participants, some that I've raised before might be worth at least putting up on display here.

And so: 15 Miles.

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To get from Phoenix Arizona to the Bates Motel, Marion Crane may well have travelled over 1000 miles! Its about 600 from Phoenix to where the highway patrolman finds her(near Gorman, California), and then about another 500 up from Gorman to Shasta County(where, the map on the wall in the DA's office proves, the Bates Motel is.)

So 1000 miles Marion Crane drove...and stopped...15 MILES from her destination. Fairvale. Home of her lover Sam Loomis.

Hitchcock drills down on the irony all through Psycho(Sam WOULD have married her and let her live in that back room), but no where as much as with the 15 miles concept.

Norman: There's a diner about 10 miles up the road, near Fairval.
Marion: Am I that close to Fairvale?
Norman: 15 miles.

But Marion doesn't travel on. We can figure on the reasons:

She's bone-tired and wet and Sam shouldn't see her like this.
She needs some sleep.
But most importantly: Marion needs time to THINK. She's almost to Sam, almost to her plan being revealed to someone near and dear. Does she really want to go through with it?

I think that's likely the main reason Marion elects not to travel those 15 miles. And, indeed, she decides to drive back to Phoenix.

Too late for her.

I would expect, as the years went by, Sam Loomis came to realize that the only reason his lover Marion even ended up AT the Bates Motel is that...Sam lived only 15 miles from it! 15 miles! Can you imagine the guilt piled onto the guilt? Marion Crane lived 1000 miles away. If she'd never met Sam, she would have never met Mrs. Bates.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

The 15 miles from the Bates Motel to Fairvale are excruciatingly tragic and ironic for Marion Crane.

But Hitchcock makes sure that we are always thinking about those 15 miles -- whether consciously or unconsciously -- all through the film. Psycho is about a lot of things, but it is very much about time (Friday December 11th in Phoenix to Sunday night December 20 in a cell for Norman...and then a few days later to drag the cars out.) And it is very much about SPACE. Or at least distance.

The distance from Phoenix to the Bates Motel.

The distance from the Bates Motel to Fairvale. 15 miles.

Next up: Arbogast.

After being thrown off the property by Norman, Arbogast finds a roadside gas station, gets in a phone booth, reports everything to Lila(off screen on the phone) and says he's going back to the motel to try to find the mother:

Arbogast: No...no, you stay there. I'll be back in an hour. Or less.

An hour..or less.

Figure 15 miles at 60 miles an hour...15 minutes. Figure the gas station is five minutes from the Bates Motel(whereas the diner is 10.)

So Arbogast could drive back to the motel in five minutes, subtract 15 minutes for the drive back to Fairvale...and visit with Mom for, say 40 minutes.

It makes sense...even if an hour or less seems awfully short. But then, Arbogast got the goods on Norman(Marion was here, Mother's Up There) in less than 20 minutes.

But Arbogast never gets to talk with Mrs. Bates. She kills him.

And the stressed-to-the-max Lila (and Sam) wait a WHOLE THREE HOURS for a man who said he'd be back in an hour or less. You can FEEL Lila's unbearable outrage and suspense. Hitchcock really turns the screws.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Sam's turn to drive the 15 miles. He makes the frantic Lila stay in the darkened hardware store(adding to her unsettled torment) because "one of us has to be here if (Arbogast) comes back." So now Lila has to wait at least another 30 minutes(15 miles both ways for Sam) plus Sam's wandering around time(yelling Arbogast, pounding on the door.)

For Sam, those 15 miles are driven in the dead of night, in darkness, and we can only imagine what he feels. Creeping dread about the missing Marion(she was HERE! and she never came to him.) MORE creeping dead about Arbogast(that makes two missing.)

And probably, on the 15 mile drive back, Sam felt sad as well as frustrated.

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The next morning -- Sunday, BEFORE church -- we learn that Sheriff Chambers managed to drive the 15 miles to the motel, question Norman "see the whole place"(yeah, right) and drive back the 15 miles before church to report. Those 15 miles are getting a lot of travelers, by day AND night.

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And we finally SEE some of those 15 miles (in a background process shot) when Sam and Lila elect to drive out there to find out what the hell is going on(this is a HUGE moment for Lila, the one who has been kept away from the motel and HAS to find the truth.)

Hitchcock cut several pages of dialogue between Sam and Lila on those 15 miles of driving -- about their fears about the missing Marion, about Marion and Lila's adult orphan/roommate lifestyle. But Hitchocck cut it, probably didn't film it. Those 15 miles got betrayed on that one.

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The final and chilling use of the the 15 miles -- in our imaginations alone -- comes when Hitchcock dissolves out on Norman captured in the fruit cellar while Dead Mother laughs in the lamplight. The dissolve takes us to the County Courthouse, where Norman is in a cell -- but how did he GET there?

Sam likely had to restrain Norman in the fruit cellar until Lila could find a phone(in the house? the one we saw at the motel that Norman hung up?), call Sheriff Chambers and then Sam and Lila had to wait an agonizing 15 minutes or more for help to arrive. In the company of Norman(fighting? flaccid?) And Mother. The stuff of nightmares.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

The 15 miles between the Bates Motel and Fairvale serve a lot of purposes in Psycho, some very intentional(irony, theme, plot) and some perhaps not -- such as the mood established as we can only IMAGINE the 15 miles, for the most part(we never see the gas station, really), as driven by Arbogast, Sam, Sheriff Chambers, and Lila. These are miles driven in the dead of night(which gives us a certain emotional feeling) and in the bleak brightness of day(as secrets will come to light.)

I believe that the 15 miles are thus an important part of how Psycho works on our emotions AND our minds.

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