Psycho

[cigarjoe]

Got this email

I thought it's always been uncut

[txfilmfan]

16 minutes ago, cigarjoe said:

Got this email

I thought it's always been uncut

Same here, but IMDb trivia states that until the 4K remastering was done, the home video release had several cuts made in the late 1960s:

Spoiler alert, if there's anyone who hasn't seen the movie...

 

The version previously on home video is an edited version of the movie. It is missing a shot from the shower undressing scene, a lingering close up of bloody hands, and additional thrusts of the knife for the killing of Arbogast inside the house. The movie was edited for content in 1968 when the ratings system was first established (the movie initially went in without a rating in 1960 due to no such system existing yet) to obtain an R rating. This version for the past several decades has been the only one available on home video up until the recent 4K release from Universal which will for the first time ever include the original uncut version as seen in 1960 and the previously available edited version.

[cigarjoe]

So you are saying we've been seeing a cut version on TCM or that just the VHS and DVDs had the cut version?

[txfilmfan]

1 minute ago, cigarjoe said:

So you are saying we've been seeing a cut version on TCM or that just the VHS and DVDs had the cut version?

I can't say one way or the other.  Although I've seen it numerous times, I don't know it shot-for-shot.  I agree that there is an implication in the trivia post, though, that what we've seen on TV here in the US was a slightly cut version.  In looking into this further, the uncut version was released earlier this year for the home media market.

I found this site, which compares the German version to the US cut version:

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=1921

Apparently some foreign versions of Psycho were never cut.  In looking at the screen grabs from the site above, and from what I recall seeing before, I don't recall seeing the extended undressing scene before.  But human memory is notoriously faulty, so I can't be sure.

I'm sure others know the film much better than I do and can comment on what version TCM has shown in the past.

 

[Sepiatone]

This is all very interesting, although I don't get the need to cut close up shots of hands covered in chocolate syrup.   

But I too, don't remember the movie shot-for-shot, except maybe any scenes with Janet Leigh in nothing but under garments.   

Now I'm interested in the "uncut" version.  

Sepiatone

[speedracer5]

2 hours ago, cigarjoe said:

So you are saying we've been seeing a cut version on TCM or that just the VHS and DVDs had the cut version?

As far as I can tell, it seems we've all been watching the "cut" version unless someone was lucky to see it in 1960 when it released.  Unfortunately, my parents weren't even alive then, so I definitely wasn't there.  I didn't realize that I'd been watching an edited version my entire life (I feel so deceived! Lol) I looked up information about the uncut version versus what we've been watching all these years, and apparently it amounts to an extra 13 seconds of footage. 

I love Psycho and would love to see this in the theater again, but unfortunately, the theaters in my area aren't open.  The closest open theater showing Psycho is about a two hour drive away.  Not sure if that's worth a 4-hour round trip on a Sunday afternoon for an extra 13 seconds of footage.  I may see if my library gets a hold of the 4K version of Psycho, or maybe someone will bootleg this extra footage onto You Tube.

[cmovieviewer]

Both cuts are on the recently released 60th anniversary edition blu-ray:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Psycho-Blu-ray/272706/

https://shop.tcm.com/psycho-60th-anniversary-edition/191329145302

[txfilmfan]

If I correctly understand these cuts, it's rather ironic that the cuts were made in order to satisfy the MPAA ratings people in order to get an "R" rating,  when the film was originally released with those 13 or 14 seconds intact, under the supposedly more restrictive production code.  It's hard to imagine nowadays that those additional few seconds would have warranted an MPAA "X" rating in 1968.

[Hibi]

I would love to see it on the big screen, but I don't want to spend 20 bucks to do so (or whatever they are charging now) Also, it would be assigned, reserved seating and I'd have to purchase with a credit card beforehand. I won't do movie business that way.

[Vautrin]

I saw Psycho on the big screen many years ago, I just can't remember where.

[hamradio]

A cut version?

[slaytonf]

That would never have been in the movie.

[NipkowDisc]

an interesting fact is that there are no drums in Bernard Herrmann's psycho music.

there is something about it that makes me think of a chalkboard.

 

[txfilmfan]

37 minutes ago, NipkowDisc said:

an interesting fact is that there are no drums in Bernard Herrmann's psycho music.

there is something about it that makes me think of a chalkboard.

 

In fact, there are only stringed instruments in the entire score.  Supposedly this was done to save money, as the budget was limited by Hollywood standards.

Also, Hitchcock originally wanted the shower scene to have no music and instructed Herrmann thusly.  Herrmann ignored the direction and wrote the now-famous shrieking strings theme anyway, and the rest is history.