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Post by josecruz on Mar 3, 2010 19:18:53 GMT
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Post by dem bones on May 27, 2012 12:25:00 GMT
Robert Bloch - Psycho (Corgi, 1977: originally Simon & Shuster, 1959) Blurb THE STORY THAT ALFRED HITCHCOCK MADE INTO HIS MOST SPINE-CHILLING FILM
She stepped into the shower stall. She let the warm water gush over her. That's why she didn't hear the door open. At first, when the shower curtains parted, steam obscured the face. Then she saw it ...
A face, peering through the curtains. A head‑scarf concealed the hair, and glassy eyes stared inhumanly. The skin was powdered dead-white and two spots of rouge were centered on the cheekbones.
She started to scream. Then the curtains parted further and a hand appeared, holding a butcher's knife ...You have to feel a twinge of envy for those who encountered Psycho before Hitchcock put his dabs all over it. When we meet Norman, he's forty, fat and bespectacled, salivating over a grisly passage in Victor W. Von Hagen's The Realm Of The Inca's. We should be thinking Ed Gein crossed with the perverted old-timer from Lovecraft's The Picture In The House, but instead it's nigh on impossible to shake the twitching spectre of tall, lean Anthony Perkins from your brain. Anyway. Norman, engrossed in his book, until mother creeps downstairs to bawl him out for not switching on the 'vacancies' sign. Why isn't he in the office? What if a customer stops by? When Norman dares protest that it's pointless, there's a storm raging outside and nobody comes this way since they built the new highway, she lets fly with some home truths. He's a mothers boy, always was, always will be. No backbone. Just sits there reading his filthy psychology books and wonders why he's never had a girlfriend. He can argue that she never allowed him to talk to any girls but that only proves her point. One chapter in and we can't help but think it's very lucky for Mrs Bates that her son "lacks gumption", otherwise he'd have murdered the despicable old boot years ago ... Mary Crane, 27, has made the marathon drive north from Texas to surprise her fiancé, Sam Loomis. Twenty miles short of her destination, she's taken the worst wrong turning of her life. Maybe it wouldn't do to drop by on Sam in this bedraggled state anyhow, Why not book a room for the night, freshen up and get her story straight? It's not like she's short of money. There's $40, 000 stuffed in that Manilla envelope and, Tommy Cassidy won't know she's stolen it until the banks re-open on Monday. The theft was an impulse thing and she's not even sure how she'll explain away her sudden wind-fall to her husband-to-be, but she had to do it!. On his father's death, Sam inherited the old man's hardware store along with several thousand dollars worth of debt. As principled as he is industrious, Sam has opted to stay in Fairvale, revive the business and pay off his creditors inside the next two years, whereupon he and Mary will marry. She can't wait that long! Why should a decent man struggle to clear a debt that is not of his own making when vultures like her boss, Mr. Lowery, and Tommy Cassidy - lecherous creep! - cream off huge profits from the financial misery of others? It's not like they need any more money than they already have. Up ahead she spots an old house on a hill and the Bates Motel ....
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Post by noose on May 27, 2012 13:00:47 GMT
Corgi cover by John Holmes
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Post by David A. Riley on May 28, 2012 9:39:19 GMT
I keep meaning to read this novel. I've had a copy for ages and it's only slim. I don't know what keeps stopping me, unless it's those opening pages and the description of Bates that you mention, dem, where you realise Mr Bates is completely different to the image you have from the film.
I also have a hardback copy of Psycho 2 by Robert Bloch, published by Whispers Press years ago (it was sent to me by the publisher, Stuart Schiff, as a gift) but I've never been able to finish that either.
Hitchcock has a lot to answer for, even though his movie version is an undoubted and brilliant classic!
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Post by Dr Strange on May 28, 2012 10:29:32 GMT
I'm not a big fan of Bloch's short stories, but I read Psycho just a few years ago and thought it was rather good. Knowing the film inside-out really didn't spoil things at all - which I see as being something to be grateful to Hitch for.
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Post by dem bones on May 28, 2012 17:14:23 GMT
I also have a hardback copy of Psycho 2 by Robert Bloch, published by Whispers Press years ago (it was sent to me by the publisher, Stuart Schiff, as a gift) but I've never been able to finish that either. Had a terrific time with Psycho 2 (in case you're unaware, all it shares with the movie of that name is the title), the Bates-free Psycho House less so (the premise - revamping the Motel as a tourist attraction for the terminally ghoulish - possibly inspired in part by Richard Laymon's The Beast House) - it's maybe for the best that he pulled the plug on the sequels after that one. This is the fourth time i've read Psycho, already quit breaking off to jot down notes, and it's not as if i've anything of the slightest worth to add to what's already been written. Hitchcock remained faithful to the storyline but he certainly cleaned up Norman. I can't remember him drinking in the movie but here, in defiance of his mother's zero tolerance approach to liquor, he's knocking back the whiskey like there's no tomorrow. |
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Truegho
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 135
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Post by Truegho on May 21, 2017 16:04:14 GMT
What a great pity the sequel novel, Psycho II, was nowhere near as good as the first book. In fact, I don't think the original Psycho novel will ever be bettered. Alan Toner Horror Author www.alantoner.com |
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Post by ramseycampbell on May 23, 2017 12:39:32 GMT
Bob told me he liked the casting of Anthony Perkins. I've come to see the novel as a variation on "The Thing on the Doorstep" - interesting that in the book Norman has a collection of occult books.
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Post by helrunar on May 24, 2017 1:08:19 GMT
Ramsey, that is a really fascinating take on PSYCHO. And that makes a lot of sense. I have never read Bloch's original novel.
I'm sure you've heard the theory (or maybe it's old just old fannish gossip) that the idea for the relationship between Norman and Mother was "suggested" by Bloch's experience of Cal Beck (late editor of the fabulous mag Castle of Frankenstein) and his own Mom (who was, however, alive and very much kicking).
Thanks for sharing that!
H.
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Post by jamesdoig on May 24, 2017 8:40:02 GMT
Bob told me he liked the casting of Anthony Perkins. I've come to see the novel as a variation on "The Thing on the Doorstep" - interesting that in the book Norman has a collection of occult books. I remember the book Norman was overweight and drank, apart from that the movie follows the book pretty much precisely. The scriptwriter tried to claim the credit for the film, but that's rot - it was all Robert Bloch's novel. |
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Post by dem bones on May 24, 2017 12:20:53 GMT
Bob told me he liked the casting of Anthony Perkins. I've come to see the novel as a variation on "The Thing on the Doorstep" - interesting that in the book Norman has a collection of occult books. For years I was under the impression - from somewhere - that Ed Gein's literary interests ran to occult books but that doesn't seem to have been the case. Find this interesting. According to Joseph W. Smith III's The Psycho File: A Comprehensive Guide to Hitchcock’s Classic Shocker (McFarland, 2009) " ... Bloch may have had particular justification for being disturbed by Gein's deeds; found among the countless magazines stacked in Gein's house were issues of pulp magazines like Startling Detective, Unknown Worlds, and Marvel Tales - some of which contained stories written by Bloch." Other sources claim Gein was big on lurid 'Men's Adventure' publications, too. He seems to have amassed a considerable pulp library. |
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jun 6, 2017 13:04:11 GMT
The scriptwriter tried to claim the credit for the film, but that's rot - it was all Robert Bloch's novel. Well, not entirely - the expansion of Marion Crane's episode contains a lot of inventive writing. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 6, 2017 21:29:36 GMT
The scriptwriter tried to claim the credit for the film, but that's rot - it was all Robert Bloch's novel. Well, not entirely - the expansion of Marion Crane's episode contains a lot of inventive writing. Ramsey, thats true. I guess I don't like Stephano's dismissal of the book as "strange little pulp fiction" - he was basically calling it trash. Hitchcock himself was more generous: " Psycho all came from Robert Bloch. Joseph Stephano...contributed dialogue mostly, no ideas." |
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jun 20, 2017 11:33:44 GMT
Stefano was certainly wrong about that!
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Post by cathaven on Jun 27, 2017 16:28:29 GMT
It would certainly have been a lot more interesting had they remade the film to be more like the original book, rather than simply copying the Hitchcock film.
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