John Gavin in Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is honestly my most favorite film, ever. Not only did it break new ground in term of storytelling and marketing (the female lead we were led to believe died when the film barely started!), but its ability to do so much with so little; Hitchcock used his TV show crew to film this feature, even the now iconic score by Bernard Herrmann, was written with just the string section of an orchestra.

And that title sequence by Saul Bass—the graphic designer in me is drooling.

The Film

Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks, and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday, Marion is trusted to bank forty thousand dollars by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into the Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.—IMDB Synopsis

The Man

The rest of the cast is overshadowed by Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, for very valid reason. But since this blog is also about physical beauty, let us spend some time giving Mr. John Gavin ('s body) the spotlight. Kudos to Mr. Hitchcock's direction of this opening scene, the voyeuristic setup made the scene felt more lewd than what was actually on display—like the icing on a cake, the fact we felt like a peeing tom observing Mr. Gavin's exposed torso, made it that extra steamy!