Psycho is a 1960 American horror film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam. The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh), shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) and his disturbed mother. A private investigator (Balsam), Marion's lover Sam Loomis (Gavin) and her sister Lila (Miles) investigate her disappearance.

Plot

Marion Crane, a real estate secretary in Phoenix, Arizona, steals $40,000 in cash from her employer after hearing her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, complain that his debts are delaying their marriage. She sets off to drive to Sam's home in the town of Fairvale, California, switching cars in Bakersfield after an encounter with a suspicious policeman. A heavy rainstorm forces Marion to stop at the secluded Bates Motel just a few miles from Fairvale. Norman Bates, the proprietor, whose Second Empire style house overlooks the motel, registers Marion (who uses an alias) and invites her to dinner with him in the motel's office. When Norman returns to his house to retrieve the food, Marion overhears him arguing with his mother about his desire to dine with Marion. After he returns, he discusses his hobby as a taxidermist, his mother's "illness" and how people have a "private trap" they want to escape. When Marion suggests that Norman should have his mother institutionalized, he becomes greatly offended and insists that she is harmless.

Awards