Psycho and the KABC Six O'Clock Movie
As a person of a certain age and generation, I'm trying to leave behind a few "I was there" throwbacks to Psycho that might prove at least of trivia value.
That said "I wasn't there" for the 1960 release of Psycho in any way that I can remember. But I WAS there for its 1965 re-release (the whole neighborhood, it seems, talked about it as horrific thing) and its off and on journey to television showings in 1966(CBS cancelled it nationwide) and 1967(local channels got to show it in a few American cities, late at night.)
I've noted that Psycho got a "Los Angeles Television Debut" on November 18, 1967, and that I was not allowed to watch it. It was on at 10:30 pm on a Saturday night(I figured the 10:30 slot allowed the local channel to claim prime time ratings for it.)
But I've only remembered recently something that I DID do with regards to that November 18 showing, and it goes like this:
"KABC" was the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles. While it showed primetime network fare like Batman, The Fugitive and The FBI, KABC had "local hours" allowed for things like news broadcasts..and theatrical movies.
Saturday night was reserved for something big -- like Psycho or The Bellboy or Rio Bravo.
But Monday through Friday at 6:00 pm -- around the dinner hour -- KABC had The "Six O'clock movie."
The Six O'clock movie was a good thing (theatrical movies) that was really a bad thing. Only 90 minutes were allowed, so most movies were edited for time -- butchered, sometimes --with commercials. You were basically watching a "condensed" version of a movie.
KABC put a lot of "Universal-International fluff" on the 6:00 movie -- Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, The Creature Walks Among Us -- but as time went on, some very major movies ended up on the 6:00 movie. To their detriment.
After North by Northwest played CBS in 1967 and 1968, it ended up on the Six O'clock movie on ABC(local) in 1970. I remember that one time , it played in two parts. The first part ended with Cary Grant arriving at the cornfield to meet the crop duster. You had to wait to 6:00 pm the next day to see the rest.
Then one year, something worse happened: They showed North by Northwest in ONE PART on the Six O'clock Movie. All 136 minutes of it rammed into a 90 minute slot(more like 75 minutes, less commercials.) Here's what they did: they removed everything from when Roger's car crashes into the police car(his drunk drive ending) to when he went to the UN and ended up in a murder mix-up. In short, all of "Mama Thornhill's" scenes were removed. In that same broadcast, the crop duster scene was gutted: Roger got off the bus and suddenly the crop duster was chasing him. All the "long wait" stuff(and the farmer) were removed.
But I watched it. It was the only way to see ANY of NXNW. At least the Mount Rushmore climax was intact.
The only escape from the "editing butchery" of the Six O'clock movie was to seek out "revival theaters" (which started to pop up in LA quite a bit.) Eventually, VHS movies and cable would save the day. But not back in the time of the Six O'clock movie...which was roughly the 60's and the 70's.
Anyway. Psycho was set to debut at 10:30 pm on Saturday November 18. I knew I couldn't watch it. But I ALSO knew that on the "Friday night" edition of the Six O'clock movie, somewhere in the first hour, KABC would run a short clip from "Tomorrow Night on the Saturday Night Movie!"
So I watched the Friday night, November 17 Six O'clock movie(whatever it was) and eventually the commercial and clip arrived:
"Tomorrow night on the Saturday Night Movie! Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho! Here's a scene!"
I watched "the scene." It was: the End of the Shower Scene. The clip began on dead Marion's feet in the tub, following the flow of black and white blood to the drain, spiraling INTO the drain and then spiraling OUT of the drain and into that classic slowly spinning extreme close-up of Marion's dead eye and then back to see her entire dead head on the floor.
As I recall, they cut the shot BEFORE the camera moved out of the bathroom to Cabin One, the window and "Oh, God, Mother..."
But I saw that blood go down the drain and that eyeball shot and Marion's dead accusing face.
And: it didn't scare me. It didn't sicken me. But it DID enthrall me. I already knew that this Hitchcock guy was a Big Deal with a Big TV show and Other big movies on TV. But in that instant, I knew(as a pre-teen knows, I suppose, with too much over-emotion) that dang, he was some kind of GENIUS...and that great movies like Psycho had shots like that.
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