Psycho (1960) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

August 14, 1960

When I was much younger, and far more willing to believe the ballyhoo, I wondered how film venues enforced the "no admittance after the picture starts" requirement. The truth is they did not. While I am sure that the earliest (i.e. opening day or special early screening) showings made a bit of show of "enforcing" the supposed requirement, it was just marketing hype. Hitchcock was not all that different from William Castle, or any other exploitation film huckster, in that respect.

One casual, and debatable, observation on my part. Psycho might qualify as Hitchcock's last undisputed "significant" film, as well as his most famous work. While Hitchcock's post-Psycho filmography did offer up such entertaining and memorable highlights as The Birds and Frenzy, their successes, commercially and critically, were just a faint echo of the wallop that had been made by Psycho.