Making of Hitchcock

The scene is the premiere of Psycho, the 1960 classic that stunned audiences in its day by killing off its leading lady just a third of the way into the picture. Alfred Hitchcock, its director, unable to watch the film on which he has staked his reputation as well as a good chunk of his fortune, is hovering in the theater lobby. Through closed doors, he hears the famous first notes of composer Bernard Herrmann's shrieking violins, signaling the beginning of the movie's shocking shower scene, now indelibly imprinted on the minds of anyone who has ever seen it: the head-on shot of the shower head, the shadowy silhouette of a knife-wielding woman seen through the shower curtain, the furiously slashing knife. On cue, the audience screams can be heard.