The Father of Popular Culture Hitchcock Managed to Capture and Throw Back at Us the Essence of Our 20th-Century Fears

Orr, Deborah, The Independent (London, England)

AN ELDERLY woman is talking about her experience as one of the first people to see a screening of Psycho, in 1960. She talks of her horror and surprise, going on to qualify her reaction with the explanation that at that time you never, ever saw actresses wearing only brassieres and waist-slips.

Even the first minutes of the film, in which Janet Leigh meets her married lover in a hotel room at lunchtime, had shocked this woman rigid. Later in the screening, when the shower scene is shown for the first time to the general public, the woman can't look at all. Others around her scream, vomit ,or angrily walk out of the cinema.

The film is roundly denounced by the …

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Publication information: Article title: The Father of Popular Culture Hitchcock Managed to Capture and Throw Back at Us the Essence of Our 20th-Century Fears. Contributors: Orr, Deborah - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: August 13, 1999. Page number: 5. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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