Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Continuity mistake: When Arbogast reaches the top of the stairs, Mother Bates stabs him in the chest; but when the camera angle changes, the wound is on his face.
Suggested correction: That's blood splatter, not the wound.
Revealing mistake: After Marion has been murdered there is a close-up of her face. If you look down to her neck you can see her pulse.
Norman Bates: A boy's best friend is his mother.
Trivia: Psycho was the first American movie to show a toilet, and hear one flushing - both viewed as inappropriate in that era.
Question: Am I right in thinking that the absence of Norman Bates' mother in his life left himself to replace her, by dressing as her, talking like her and so on? Because the film says that sometime he was half Norman half Normans mother and sometimes all Normans mother. If this is true then who checked Marion Crane into the motel. Later in the film when Norman is in the police cell after questioning his mothers voice says Norman blamed her, so I am confused could anybody clear this up? If possible could somebody give me a full explanation.
Answer: Norman and his mother lived together in the house on the hill above the motel. Norman's mother was such a demanding, controlling, overbearing woman that Norman was eventually driven to kill her. The enourmous guilt of this action, combined with the strain he was already under from her treatment of him, caused him to develop a sort of modified split personality: in addition to the existing Norman, he constantly heard his mother's voice in his mind and even had conversations with it. As time passed, the "Mother" voice in his brain began to have some occasional control over his body. Thus, sometimes Norman was in control, sometimes his mother was in control, and sometimes they could "speak" back and forth within his mind. Norman checked Marion into the hotel, but the sexual attraction caused by her presence made his disapproving Mother personality manifest and kill Marion. Having dealt with the situation, Mother retreated and Norman cleaned up, not remembering. At the end of the film, Mother blames Norman for the crimes because she is once again controlling his life and not wanting to take the blame herself. At the same time, this represents Mother forcing Norman down to some corner of his consciousness or even destroying it altogether, meaning that it is unlikely that Norman will ever manifest control again. This is why we hear Mother's voiceover and not Norman's at the end.
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