Written by Mr. Mouseburger 27th Mar 2006
Kindly submitted by Thomas Ricard
This is surely one of the most unforgettable scenes in cinema history and arguably the most memorable murder ever committed on screen.
It's as simple as this: Marion has been a very naughty girl. She has stolen some money and has been running away from the cops. She decides to rest from the road in a rather shabby motel, owned by the creepy-but-pretty-nice-looking mama's boy, Norman Bates.
It is getting late, and so Marion decides on having a little shower, to wash away the day's ordeals, before retiring to bed. However, as she's busy getting clean, she doesn't notice a dark figure approaching behind the curtain...and the slowly reaching hand moving towards the shower curtain.
The curtain is suddenly ripped open, Marion turns around and utters an immortal scream of terror as she is stabbed continually with a knife by a robed figure that is, in fact, Norman, who is dressed as his mother. Having inflicted inordinate stab wounds onto Marion’s body, Norman leaves leaving Marion clinging to life. Even though she is slowly dying, Marion reaches out one last time to grab the curtain and pulls it down with her, as she lies in the tub, dead.
This may be a standard death, but it does attract extra points for a) the nice camera work and b) the originality of it, for the time it was filmed. Interesting to note that despite the many stabbings inflicted, we never once see the knife enter Marion’s body.
I was under the impression that she was actually slashed, I guessed stabbed would make more sense, but I believe that I hold a valid point.
This scene was parodied several times.
The memorable music score for this scene also should earn it points as it added to the memorability of such a shocking and intense moment.
One thing to note is that Hitchcock often has policemen in his films portrayed as imposing and cruel; due to a fear of the police he'd had since he was three years old. His father had sent him over to the police station with a note and gave it to the one at the desk. The policeman looked it over, then grabbed the young Alfred and stuck him in a jail cell and left him there for several minutes. Turned out his father had arranged all this(the note had instructed the cop to lock Alfred in the jail cell for several minutes) because he was trying to scare Alfred into behaving himself by showing the consequences of what would happen if he were not to, but instead had traumatized him.