Best Hitchcock movie? Best Hitchcock movie.

Just don't tell Mother.

- You thought J.J. Abrams was crazy with his mystery box? Hitchcock went to extreme measures to ensure no one would have the ending of Psycho spoiled. He bought vast quantities of the original novel to ensure no one in the audience went in knowing what to suspect, made his cast and crew swear to silence (he made them raise their right hand and everything) and then only showed them the script for the ending when they were shooting it, released trailers that only gave the vaguest descriptions of the movie possible, didn't hold advanced screenings for critics (meaning they saw it the same way regular audiences did), and demanded that no one would be allowed entrance into the theater once the movie started (so people who came in late didn't feel cheated when the film's biggest star mysteriously never shows up).

- Unfortunately, that little "no critic screenings" stunt got the movie a good amount of negative reviews. People were a bit more vengeful back then, you see.

- The first time a flushing toilet was seen onscreen in a major American motion picture.

- Hitchcock only paid author Robert Bloch $9,000 for the rights to his book.

- The shower scene took 7 days to film and was composed of 78 shots, each with their own unique composition. As such, the room was specially built so each wall could be removed to allow the camera to shoot from every possible angle. The sequence was originally conceived as silent, but composer Bernard Herrmann wrote music for it anyway, and Hitchcock thought it sounded good, so in it went.

- The score is made up entirely of string instruments.

- For years, Saul Bass, the storyboard artist and title credits designer, asserted that he was the one who directed the shower scene. Janet Leigh herself denied this claim.

- Hitchcock took to calling Anthony Perkins "Master Bates" on the set.

- No, the water in the shower wasn't turned ice cold to get a stronger reaction out of Janet Leigh. Hitchcock did, however, test the fright power of the corpse dummy used in the climax of the film by placing it in her dressing room.

- Joseph Stefano was in therapy dealing with mother issues while writing the film.

- Walt Disney refused to let Hitchcock film at Disneyland based because he made "that disgusting movie, Psycho".

- Hitchcock was very unhappy with how the rough cut turned out, but changed his tune once he heard the score. Not only did he increase Bernard Herrmann's salary, but he gave him second billing in the credits (before his own name).

- Norman Bates, a guy who stuffs birds for a hobby, takes an unusual amount of interest in Marion Crane.

- Purposely shot in black and white because Hitchcock thought the amount of blood in the movie would be too much for contemporary audiences. Chocolate syrup was used for the blood in the drain.

- HItchcock's daughter cameos as Marion's coworker at the beginning of the movie.

- I love this movie. This may be the most perfect movie scene ever:

Whoops, spoilers.