Cinema: The New Pictures, Jun. 27, 1960

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock; Paramount) at first seems to be a typical Hitchcock spine tingler, whose moral is that heaven may protect the working girl but not if she takes long lunch hours in hotel rooms. The film commences with Janet Leigh bouncing about in her bra while her lover (John Gavin) tries to persuade her to take an early dinner as well as a late lunch ("We could laze around here"). She says pettishly that she wants to get married. He explains that he has no money. That afternoon she steals $40,000 from...