Saturday, October 29, 2022

Psycho-Sexual


Sam Loomis: 
Well, we could laze around here a while longer. 
 

Marion Crane: 
Checking out time is 3 P.M. Hotels of this sort are interested in you when you come in, but when your time is up... oh Sam, I hate having to be with you in a place like this.

Psycho (1960)

I couldn't do a series on Alfred Hitchcock without including the opening scene from Psycho.  Although Hitchcock's films are filled with sexual themes, sexual innuendo and issues of sexual power, (usually with women) there are very few actual love or sexy scenes.


The 'after-sex' scene with Sam Loomis and Marion Crane sets the tone, and reveals the motive, for what's about to come.  The delicious John Gavin is the perfect Sam Loomis.  You and completely understand why Marion went to the lengths she did in order to be with him.


Although there is no actual nudity, thanks to the actors, the scene is incredibly intimate and erotic.  I certainly haven't seen all of Hitchcock's films, but I know it's rare to see such intimacy so sensually presented.  


Hitchcock has many scenes of passion and longing, but it's usually done through close-ups of the actor's faces, music and even locations.  An actual love scene is quite rare in his works. The love scene was controversial at the time, as was another odd face and moment in the film. 


'While you can understand the puritanical demands of the times meant they balked at Janet Leigh in a bra at the beginning (Hitch actually wished he could have had her bare-chested like her scene colleague and on-screen lover John Gavin), as well as the suggestiveness of their illicit love-making, rather more peculiar was their problem with a flushing loo.'
Yahoo News


Psycho (1998)

Although not nearly as controversial, the same scene from the 1998 re-make did have it's moments. In the Gus Van Sant modern retelling, the director has a shot-by-shot vision he moves away from as little as possible.  In this version, Anne Heche plays Marion with Viggo Mortensen as Sam.


As you can see briefly, very briefly, Van Sant does have Mortensen's Sam nude in the motel room scene.  Although in the released versions of the film we get a brief  blurry view of Sam's ass, and a clearer view of the top of his butt, there was a version at one point that gave a more complete viewing of Viggo.


Back in 2012, I did a piece featuring some caps someone did of the VHS version that showed Sam's butt in it's entirety. (HERE:)  Given how often Viggo has been nude in film, and given it was just his butt, it's a Hitchcockian mystery as to why someone would remove Viggo's full butt shot from future releases...

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