Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello
Open Road
99 pages
Non-fiction; Hollywood
4/5 stars

Source: Received a free e-copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Read: Today is Alfred Hitchcock Day and I recently rewatched Psycho so I thought this would be a good way to celebrate.

This book is a good summation of the path Psycho took to becoming film. First a real-life crime inspired novelist Robert Bloch to write the novel that Hitchcock would end up optioning in order to create something new for audiences after the failure of Vertigo. He assembled a cast and crew and made the film in a manner more reminiscent of a television program than the usual lavish color films. And it was a huge success-audiences around the world loved it. But Hitchcock was never able to replicate that success in his other later films, instead struggling to find quality scripts and to keep the audience in suspense.

As expected from the title, Hitchcock is the central figure. I was most intrigued by Saul Bass's claim to have directed the famous shower scene based on storyboards he created. I'm in the Hitchcock camp; he had his ideas and it was his picture, his set-no one but him would have final control.

I would have liked to read more about Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh's careers after Psycho. As far as I know, neither worked with Hitchcock again and neither had such success. In fact, I've read that Perkins was typecast and struggled a lot with that post-Psycho.

Overall: A fine work and good reading for those who would like to know more about this iconic film. If you haven't seen Pyscho, you should definitely check it out and then maybe give this book a read.

Alfred Hitchcock is quite a famous person. You may have heard of him. He has made somewhere around 50 films, a fair amount of them considered classics. As great as most of his films are, there is one in particular that was so great that it changed the world forever. If you can’t figure it out, I’m talking about the almighty Psycho.

Psycho is a brilliant film. This film is a prime example of why Hitchcock was called the Master of Suspense, with its plot twists, drama filled scenes, breath taking moments and downright horror, as well as some of the most famous bits in movie history. Yes I am talking about the Shower Murder scene. But Hitchcock went through a lot of trouble to make this film, and that is exactly what this book is about.

This book is not so much about Hitchcock himself, but more about the process and trouble he went through to make Psycho. Because imagine making a movie about a killer who dresses up as his mother in 1959, a time where little things like showing a toilet get flushed made the censors scream. It’s not going to be easy, but Hitch did it and boy did he do a good job.

A quick, easy and above all interesting read. I would have preferred some bits about how Hitchcock was going mentally, like in the film Hitchcock (based on this book and some other books about Hitchcock) but what I got was perfectly fine. It goes through every single bit of work that went into Psycho and helps you learn how they made films back then.

I did found it interesting how Hitchcock got rid of most of his filming problems by having every scene planned to the finest detail and the process he went through to get the film past the censors. I also like the small bit towards the end how it’s talking about Hitch never being able to live up to the hype of Psycho and his films started to become crap and not make any money (although the film he made after Psycho, The Birds, is a very good film) which you could tell made him depressed.

R.I.P Sir Alfred Hitchcock. You were a genius and it’s sad to hear your greatest work was you undoing. But if you didn’t make Psycho, the world would be such a different place.
I loved the book, if you care even the slightest bit about films you should read this, just so you can learn how ground breaking Psycho was. And then you can watch the film, realise how great it is, then you can go watch more Hitchcock films, which will create one more Hitchcock fan, which is never a bad thing.

An absolute classic Making Of book.

Of course when it comes to Hitchcock this means that pretty much all the research quickly becomes common knowledge so it didn't contain all that much I hadn't heard of but it was good having all the background info available in a single tome.

Published in 1990, this precedes most making of features and everything on the Internet about Hitchcock and Psycho. Rebello tells the story of the film’s development, production, release, and impact quite well. There are quotes from many of Hitchcock’s creatives and it’s an enjoyable read for fans.

Excellent look at the making of a classic, the author interviewed pretty much everyone involved and I learned a whole lot of things about the movie I didn't know before.

You can read my review at HorrorTalk.com.

For a movie as compelling and suspenseful as "Psycho," a making of book should have been more meaty. Nothing revealing is included in this book aside from the descriptions of how Hitchcock worked with the movie's stars. Even for a rabid fan of Hitch and the film like me, it was hard to get through this book. For the hardcore fans only, and even then, it is not a must read.

Fascinating insight into the making of what is arguably Hitchcock's most notorious film. Highly recommended for cinephiles.

A good book for anyone who likes to know the nitty-gritty details of making movies. It's not laden with gossip and scandal, but it gives a glimpse into how Hitchcock made his films, as well as the culture of films in the late 50s/early 60s.
Hitchcock comes across as intimidating and all about the attention to detail. It's incredible to read that this film was not seen as a usual Hitchcock piece, and how it was seen as schlocky and nasty.
The photos in the book was great to look at, especially the breakdown of the shower scene and the staircase scene.
Things get a bit too detailed for my liking during some parts of the book, but I enjoyed learning about how they got some of the shots using the tech of the day.