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The Cover of the "New" Psycho Blu-Ray (The German Version)

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

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I just saw it and wanted to comment.

For some time now(a year?) there has been an American Blu-Ray of Psycho with the "missing German footage" that TCM showed in theaters last year. The lost footage is very, very minimal, but telling: more of Janet Leigh's back and side boob undressing for her shower; a longer take of the blood on Norman's hands; and (most suspiciously) extra stabs down on the unseen Arbogast that look like "repeater film" to me.

Its the cover of this DVD that intrigues me.

Three elements: the famous shot from the Psycho poster of Janet Leigh in her bra and half slip, seated on a bed; the famous production still of the Psycho house in late afternoon, with Norman's shadowy figure looking a bit like Frankenstein's monster; and a production still of Anthony Perkins with one hand over his mouth and the other outstretched, fingers splayed, almost as big as his head. There is also the phrase Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, with the famous logo(slashed horizontally and down through the C.)

In a concept of mine called "My Psycho Is Not Your Psycho"( which I haven't really dragged out in quite awhile), I have talked of a chilling billboard placed all over Los Angeles to promote the local late night premiere of Psycho in November 1967. Both as a billboard and as an advertisement in the TV Guide and the Los Angeles times, that imagery gripped and haunted me as a young lad.

Here's the thing: that billboard had these elements: the shot of the house with Frankenstein Norman, and the shot of Perkins with the outstretched hand and "Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO" with the slashed logo.

So I'm wondering: did Universal elect to "recreate the billboard" for this DVD cover? And to throw in Janet in her half-slip for good measure.

Maybe. Maybe somebody else remembers that 1967 billboard. Or maybe somebody has been reading at this board(eh, don't flatter myself, eh?)

I will say this: putting Janet in there along with Tony and the house rather screws up the "horror flavor" of that original billboard. Perhaps that bilboard "locked in" for me the idea that Psycho was ABOUT Anthony Perkins and the house.

And I will say this: just putting Tony with the outstreched hand and the house with Frankenstein Norman on the DVD cover does NOT recreate the rather spooky and modern-Gothic atmosphere of that billboard. That billboard -- viewed by a too-young person(me) with visions of a much bloodier movie in my mind -- scared me for what it SUGGESTED: that house looked terrifying, Frankenstein Norman was menacing, that hand over the mouth obscured Perkin's beauty and played up his weirdness.

Oh, well, there is just ENOUGH of that original 1967 billboard in the new DVD cover to bring back the memories of that movie that spent the whole second half of the 60's scaring me without barely getting to see it at all.
The

[–] swanstep (2619) 3 years ago

Some versions of the new (German-material-inclusive) Psycho Blu-ray have the following cover shot:
https://tinyurl.com/danyjj7k
Often you can't *see* the bottom of the image because of sticker overlays, but the bottom *is* a doozy: The Psycho house looms in blue in driving rain (with a stabbing Mother in the clouds that you don't notice on first viewing!) and at the bottom the shower drain glowers in bloody red.

I'm not sure that I like it, but it's interesting and memorable.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Some versions of the new (German-material-inclusive) Psycho Blu-ray have the following cover shot:
https://tinyurl.com/danyjj7k

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Hmmm..well, more than one way to sell a movie..

I would note that Norman "below and to the right of the house" is the image from the 1983 poster for Psycho II, which FINALLY elected to put the famous house in the poster. (As did the one for 1986's Psycho III -- with Tony Perkins himself filing most of the frame in the foreground, dangling a Bates Motel key in his hand while grinning menacingly.)

But this: the Psycho II shot of Norman(pretty clearly Anthony Perkins) standing by the house -- arms out, in a kind of "menaced" position...to me undoes the GREATNESS of that original 1960 production photo where Norman(less clearly Anthony Perkins -- but those are his big broad shoulders on a skinny frame) seems a bit like Frankenstein's monster, hands in pockets.

THIS was part of the terror of that 1967 billboard, I remember it. (There is also the slight effect, if you squint, that "Frankenstein Norman" is in his mother's dress...and monstrously so.)

----
Often you can't *see* the bottom of the image because of sticker overlays, but the bottom *is* a doozy: The Psycho house looms in blue in driving rain (with a stabbing Mother in the clouds that you don't notice on first viewing!) and at the bottom the shower drain glowers in bloody red.

---

Its a nice, creepy effect...as is "Mother" in the clouds. And that drain is at the heart of matters with Psycho, isn't it...other than the house and motel.

---I'm not sure that I like it, but it's interesting and memorable.

---

Its more smooth, artful and intelligent than the rather pasted together one with Norman/the house/Marion...but I will go with my 1967 nostalgia here. I like THAT cover better. Also this one reminds me of the Psycho II poster.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

CONT

I will always wonder if, in 1960, it was Hitchcock or Paramount who elected NOT to put the house in the poster for the original Psycho. Nor the motel. Nor the shower. Such key elements.

Mainly the poster sells that sock-o Psycho logo(Hitch paid as much for it as the book -- it NEEDED to be there) and Janet Leigh in her undies, which I've never found particularly erotic given the Bond Girls who were just around the corner.

With Perkins, Gavin(shirtless to match Janet in her undies) and Miles sort of around the edges.

I suppose it is like the "Exorcist" poster -- which DOES feature a house with a lit upstairs window -- create a "mood" for the movie, but keep the content secret.

Unless you see the trailer in 1960!