"Mother, She's....Well...She's Not Quite Herself, Today!!!!!!!!"

                                       Darlings, let me make it clear--since those of us who have were old enough to first read Robert Bloch's novel, "Psycho," or see the Alfred Hitchcock movie, one was never the same afterwards.  I recall first seeing it, in my teens, one late Friday night on Channel 9 (WOR-TV).  I had heard so much about it up till then I knew everything, except the experience of seeing it.  And that experience did live up to expectations.

                                         But, when the film ended, I never forgot its initial effect on me.  I turned off the TV, ran through the rather large house I lived in at the time, ran madly up the stairs, and practically dived onto the bed, pullling the  covers over me, shivering in terror!  And for the next week, whenever I showered in the upstairs bathroom, I made sure the door was locked, and something propped against it.
And  if I heard a sound, or a creak...oh, boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          Not uncommon, one's first time out with "Psycho."  To get currrent, several weeks ago, I was waiting for Monsieur in that haven for sophisticates--the Strand Bookstore, and what did I see on a table, but the Robert Blcoh novel???  I had not read it in ages--at least twenty years; and darlings, it is scary, I am telling you, being in a postion to measure off increments of time such as ten, fifteen or twenty years so blithely, reminding  me of my own age and mortality--and I had long ago lost the mass market paperback copy I had.  I even thought it had gone out of print.  But there it was, and I thought, "Hmmm...it would be fun to reread this."

                                            And so I did.  Coming on the heels of "East Of Eden," you might think I am rereading classic novels turned into clsssic movies. Well, let me just say, the book I am reading now I have yet to read, and am doing so for very spectfic reasons, which will be discussed, when I complete it.

                                            But back to "Psycho."  Yes, it is all here--the Bates Motel, the Shower Scene, the discovery in the fruit cellar,. the psychological explanation, right down to that final line about not even hurting a fly!!!!!!!!  It's all there, just like in the movie.

                                               It is what is not there, and what is not in the movie that makes "Psycho" faacinating to read.  For example, it does not open in a Phoenix, Arizona hotel at 2:43 PM, with Sam Loomis and Marion Crane, finishing a tryst.  Marion and Sam are in the book,  to be  sure, but here she is called Mary Crane, and has a backstory--she was the older sister, sacrificing much of her youth to care for an ailing mother and see that her younger sister--yes, Lila!!!!--gets through college. Being a good sisiter, Lila returns the favour by gifting Mary with a cruise, where she meets and begins her long distance relationsship with Sam Loomis.  He still has his debts, but due more to his father's profligacy; there is no mentnion in the novel of a wife, or alimony.

                                                 As for Norman Bates, one of fiction's most famous psychotic characters, he is as different in the novel as might be imagined.  For one thing, he opens the novel; sitting in his living room one afternoon, reading and musing.  In the novel, Norman is quitte welll read on all sorts of things from the occult to psychology; he practically diagnoses his own disorider.  When he is"normal"  enough to recognize it.  But he is not a trim, good looking fellow, like Anthony Perkins in the movie; rather, he is a 40ish bespectacled, schlubby (meaning stoop shouldered and heavy) guy.  As bad as Gus Van Sant's reamke was, Vince Vaughn's Norman was actually physcially closer to Robert Bloch's!!!!!!!!!!!  For the film, Hitchock came up with the brilliant idea of Norman, at times, nibbling from a bag of candy corn.  In the novel, he actually drinks liquor, and, under the influence, goes into his fugue state, where he blacks out and "becomes" Mother, and she does the dirty work!  Then, he comes to himself, and has to clean up "Mother's" messes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                  There is more dialgoue in the book than the movie. For example, the famous climactic scene in the fruit cellar, is done all to Bernard Herrman's score!!!!!!!!!  When Norman appears, finally, dressed as "Mother," we hear screams in the background.  But, in the novel, when that entrance is made, he screams out, "I am Norma Bates!!!!!!!!!"   Norman, Norma, get it????????????

                                                     In case anyone comes to "Psycho" unknowingly, Bloch makes the duality credible.  It is possible, I think, someone uninformed, would be convinced, for much of the novel, that Norman and Mother ARE two different people.  It reminds me very much of what Thomas Tryon similarly did with twins Niles and Holland Perry, in "The Other"--another one of my faves, both in print, and on film!!!!!!!!!!  Maybe he was influenced by Robert Bloch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                        A boy's best friend may be his mother, but not when she is like Mrs. Bates!!!!!!!!!  Anyone interested in "Psycho" is well adivised to read Robert Bloch's orginal novel.

                                                          "Put me down!   Norman!!!!!!!!!!  Put me down!"