78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson October 7, 2018

There have been several excellent books that chronicle the making of Psycho. Stephen Rebello's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho (adapted into the 2010 feature Hitchcock) and David Thompson's The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder immediately come to mind. Additionally, there have also been scholarly studies undertaken by academics such as Raymond Durgnat and Robert Kolker. The extremely prolific Laurent Bouzereau also produced a feature-length documentary for the 1998 DVD of Psycho. It would seem that there would be little left to say that's not already been said about this monumental classic. However, Alexandre O. Philippe's outstanding documentary 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene fills an important piece in the historical discussion about Psycho's enduring legacy and continuing influence. Philippe interviewed well-known filmmakers, prominent literary figures, and Hitchcock scholars with a backdrop that looks like the interiors of the Bates Motel and Mrs. Bates's house on the Universal lot. Camera operator Robert Muratore has shot the interviews in black and white and in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which maintains the fidelity of Psycho's original viewing experience. The participants occasionally watch Psycho on a vintage Muntz or tube TV console from the late fifties. We get to hear from Tere Carrubba (Hitchcock's granddaughter), Jamie Lee Curtis (Janet Leigh's daughter), Osgood Perkins (Anthony's son), director Peter Bogdanovich (who interviewed Hitch on several occasions), Guillermo del Toro (author of a 500+ page book in Spanish on the Master of Suspense), Oscar-winning sound editor Walter Murch, actor/producer Elijah Wood, novelist/screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis, and several other directors, sound designers, and editors.

Janet Leigh's body double drives to the Bates Motel.

The title of this doc refers to the 78 shots lensed by cinematographer John L. Russell and the 52 cuts that editor George Tomasini made to one of the most shocking and terrifying scenes in film history. Philippe doesn't restrict his doc from only dissecting the shower scene, however. He looks back at a few of the McCarthy-era Red Scare movies that preceded Psycho and examines American culture at the time of Psycho's release. We learn more about how and why Hitchcock was such a visionary and experimental filmmaker well ahead of his time. Philippe extracts a number of Hitch's silent and sound films, bringing together a bricolage of visual motifs and aesthetic patterns from the Master's oeuvre as it pertains to his conception for Psycho. He also employs this device to exemplify how Psycho is markedly different from its auteur's predecessors, too. More, various filmmakers articulate how Psycho has informed and shaped their own works in distinctive ways.

For some of the original cast and crew members who are no longer with us, Philippe has intercut clips from Bouzereau's making-of doc. Apparently, Martin Scorsese wasn't available to do an on-camera interview so Philippe has spliced in his remarks about how particular aesthetic cues from the shower scene were a model for a fight scene in Raging Bull. I wish Philippe had done the same for Psycho's remake director Gus Van Sant, who is curiously absent from 78/52. Philippe was able to interview Van Sant's editor Amy Duddleston and his musical adapter/supervisor, Danny Elfman. Unfortunately, Bernard Herrmann's inestimable contribution to the central scene is only given a short segment. Philippe may feel (as many do) that the screechy violins speak well enough on their own but comments and analysis from a Herrmann scholar would have been most valuable. Still, don't let these drawbacks preclude you from seeing this smart and nugget-filled doc on one of cinema's most impactful masterworks.

78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout! Factory and IFC Midnight have released 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene as a Blu-ray/DVD combo. The former sports an AVC encode on a BD-50. The recently filmed interviews and reenactments are presented in 1.85:1. This black-and-white footage looks clear with no visible artifacts. You'll notice that the interviewee's name is displayed in a Book Title style and their movie/TV roles shown in all caps (see Screenshot #s 7, 11, 12, and 14-17). For the new footage, the only color photography is of painting(s) Hitchcock either used or may have considered for wall display in Norman's parlor (see #20). Clips from a combined sixty-eight feature films and TV shows are excerpted. The quality obviously varies but to my eyes, the stock footage (for movies, at least) is on par with the best DVD and Blu-ray transfers of those titles. The MPEG-4 1080p transfer carries an average bitrate of 31998 kbps.

Shout! has provided twelve chapter markers for this documentary.

78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (3332 kbps, 24-bit) and a downsampled DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (1721 kbps, 24-bit) for the doc's sound track options. Each interviewee speaks in English (including del Toro, whose very fluent in his second language). Spoken remarks are audible and clear enough at normal listening levels. Composer Jon Hegel has written a fine score that's supple accompaniment and doesn't sound that much like Herrmann's music for the 1960 film (probably by design so it wouldn't distract the viewer from concentrating on the commentators' remarks). When Hitchcock's speaks from an archived AFI seminar recording, for example, his subtitled comments are shown in a yellow, sans sarif font (see #19).

The documentary comes with optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Extended Interview with Walter Murch (55:13, 1080p) - an hour "master class" with Murch. Coppola's longtime collaborator gives a wide-ranging interview, including a tutorial on camera setups. In English, not subtitled.

• Extended Interview with Guillermo del Toro (22:13, 1080p) - del Toro's English is excellent as he dissertates about the place Psycho holds in Hitch's body of work. This unused interview has a white background.

• "Stabbing Melons" with Director Alexandre O. Philippe (2:52, 1080i) - B-roll footage of some of the twenty-seven varieties of melons that Philippe re-enacted for the audience to demonstrate the intended sound effect Hitchcock sought for the butcher knife. In English, not subtitled.

• Original Theatrical Trailer - a trailer for 78/52 that ran to promote its limited theatrical release.

• Bonus Trailers - previews for other IFC Midnight titles that load before we reach the main menu. These can be skipped.

78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Along with Citizen Kane, Psycho is one of the most analyzed American films in cinema history. This is a testament to Welles and Hitchcock for imbuing their works with rich and multilayered meanings, enabling each successive generation to find fresh interpretive methods to reckon their significance. Alexandre O. Philippe's terrific documentary 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene adds an important conversational piece to Psycho's lasting importance. It's a hugely insightful piece that packs a ton of information in ninety-two minutes. If you want to learn more, I'd also suggest checking out the books, Psycho in the Shower: The History of Cinema's Most Famous Scene by Philip J. Skerry and The Psycho Records by Laurence Rickels. The deleted extended interviews with del Toro and Murch on this Blu-ray are well worth watching. 78/52 is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to all movie fans.