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Here is the complete inside story on the making of psycho, the forerunner of all psychothrillers. Rebello takes us behind the scenes at the creation of one of cinema’s boldest and most influential films. From Hitchcock’s private files and from new in-depth interviews with the stars, writers, and technical crew we get a unique and unparalleled view of the master at work. Rebello’s carefully researched book tells us everything we could ever want to know about the making of psycho. Starting from the gruesome crimes that inspired the novel on which the film is based, he takes us through the novel’s adaptation into a screenplay and the film’s preproduction, shooting, postproduction, and ultimate reception. Rebello’s technique is as painstaking and thorough as Hitchcock’s—he includes an incredible amount of detail and in doing so reveals what mattered the most to Hitchcock in the process of making his movies. ** ### Amazon.com Review If you don't believe us when we say that Stephen Rebello's *Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho* is a killer book concerning the killer movie of all time, then why don't you listen to Tony Perkins, the star? Perkins called this scholarly yet super-readable volume "marvelously researched and irresistible ... required reading not only for *Psycho*-philes, but also for anyone interested in the backstage world of movie creation." And *Time* critic Richard Schickel (biographer of Clint Eastwood) calls Rebello's book "one of the best accounts of the making of an individual movie we've ever had." It's even more reliable than Francois Truffaut's magisterial interview book *Hitchcock*, because Rebello interviewed the fat master himself, plus many *Psycho* insiders less cagey and truth-dodging than he. At last, thanks to Rebello, we know all about the celebrated shower murder scene and all that swirls around it. Like Ernst Lubitsch, who conveyed the thrill of adultery by having the lovers open a door and cast their shadows on a bed, Hitchcock knew that, in film, artful discretion can be the most shocking effect of all. *--Tim Appelo* ### From Library Journal In some ways a groundbreaking film, Psycho has been extensively written about and minutely analyzed. Rebello's anecdotal approach could well have been entitled The Saga of Psycho . Beginning with the story of the actual crimes upon which Robert Bloch's novel was based, it covers every aspect of the film's production, its subsequent reception, and, briefly, the later films inspired by Psycho . Although this somewhat parallels Richard Naremore's Filmguide to Psycho (Indiana Univ. Pr., 1973. o.p.), Rebello's book has added considerable color gained from extensive interviews with Hitchcock and others who worked on the film. This is a readable, albeit occasionally rambling, account and is a useful adjunct to Naremore and the numerous other books about the Hitchcock canon. Movie/Entertainment Book Club selection. *- Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles* Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.