Considered for the role of Marion were: Eva Marie Saint , Piper Laurie , Martha Hyer, Hope Lange,Shirley Jones, and Lana Turner.
The film only cost $800,000 to make yet has earned more than $40 million. Hitchcock used the crew from his TV series to save time and money.
In 1962 Hitchcock exchanged the rights to the film and his TV-series for a huge block of MCA's stock (he became their third largest stockholder).
Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Bloch for just $9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could to keep the ending a secret.
The painting that Norman removes in order to watch Marion undressing is a classical painting depicting a rape.
For a shot right at the water stream, the crew had to block off the inner holes on the shower head so that the water sprayed past the camera lens.
The shower scene has over 90 splices in it, and did not involve Anthony Perkins at all. Perkins was in New York preparing for a play.
During the shooting of the shower scene, Hitchcock arranged for the water to suddenly go ice-cold when the attack started. Janet Leigh denies this in the new DVD extras,
Hitchcock originally envisioned the shower sequence as completely silent, but Bernard Herrmann went ahead and scored it anyway and Hitchcock immediately changed his mind.
The blood in the shower scene is actually chocolate sauce.
The close-up of Marion's dead body and the pullback scene is a still frame. Hitchcock's wife saw the original version and told her husband ``You can see her breathing'', so he changed it.
Hitchcock tested the ``fear factor'' of mother's corpse by placing it in Leigh's dressing room and listening to how loud she screamed when she discovered it.
The last shot of Norman Bates' face has a still frame of a human skull inserted in it : is that of "Mother"
There is a rumor that the this film was not passed for release because it was claimed that Janet Leigh's nipple was visible during the shower scene. Hitchcock didn't edit it out, but merely sent it back, (correctly, it seems) assuming that they either wouldn't bother to watch it, or miss it the second time.
After the film's release Hitchcock received an angry letter from the father of a girl who refused to have a bath after seeing Diabolique (1954) and now refused to shower after seeing Psycho. Hitchcock sent a note back simply saying ``Send her to the dry cleaners''.
At the beginning of the movie when Marion goes into her place of work, the woman sitting at the other desk is Alfred Hitchcock's daughter Pat.
Appearances of the Psycho House and Bates Motel
1959 The Psycho House and Bates Motel are built on the backlot in an vacant area of the backlot, on a hill on Laramie Street next to (the then) Singapore Lake (which is now used as 'Jaws' on the tour). Originally the house was constructed with only 2 walls - the left and front facade.
December 1959 Filming commences for Hitchcock's Psycho. The Psycho House and Motel are left as 'standing sets' after filming completes.
1960 The house is used for exteriors in 'Boris Karloffs Thriller' TV program, epsiode 7 "The Purple Room" starring Rip Torn Richard Anderson and Patricia Berry. This is probably the first use after Psycho.
1961 The "Psycho" house interiors (staircase, etc.) were used in the episode, Masquerade of the "Boris Karloff's Thriller Show," It had a vampire theme. Tom Poston and Elizabeth ("Bewitched") Montgomery played a couple whose car breakdown leads them to an old house...
1964 Universal Studios open the studio tour on July 15th one of the key attractions is the Psycho House. The Bates Motel (although still in place) is not seen by the original tour.
1964 The house features in the Yul Brenner western, Invitation To A Gunfighter. The house has a right- hand side wall constructed for the movie. The house still has no rear wall - and would remain so until the house was "boxed in" for Psycho II in 1982.
1964 The exterior of the Motel's office appears in the Ronald Regan film, The Killers.
1965 The exterior of the house is in the Alfred Hitchcock Hour "An Unlocked Window." Several nurses are trapped in the Psycho house (different interiors) with a psycho on the loose trying to get in. It has a very "Psycho" twist at the end.
1965 The original Bates Motel exterior is used in the Alfred Hitchcock Hour "Off Season." This was the final Alfred Hitchcock TV show ever made, and starred John Gavin!
1965 The house features is The Virginian, the episode,"Farewell To Honesty"
1967 The house features in the Western TV Series , Laredo, Episode Fifty-Two, "Small Chance Ghost".
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