Psycho Page #9

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MARY:

(After a long

thoughtful pause)

Yes, and just one time can be enough.

(Rises)

Thank you.

NORMAN:

(Cheerfully, correcting)

Thank you, Norman.

MARY:

Norman.

NORMAN:

You're not going to... to your room

already?

MARY:

I'm very tired. And I'll have a long

drive tomorrow. All the way back to

Phoenix.

NORMAN:

Phoenix?

MARY:

I stepped into a private trap back

there -- and I want to go back and...

try to pull myself out.

(Looking close at

Norman)

Before it's too late for me, too.

NORMAN:

(Looking at her)

Why don't you stay a little while,

just for talking.

MARY:

I'd like to, but...

NORMAN:

Alright. I'll see you in the morning.

I'll bring you breakfast. What time

will you...

MARY:

Very early. Dawn.

NORMAN:

Alright, Miss...

(He has forgotten her

name)

MARY:

Crane.

NORMAN:

That's it.

(He frowns, as if

bothered by not being

able to match the

name to the memory

of the name in the

registration book)

MARY:

Good night.

She goes out of the parlor. We see her, from Norman's

viewpoint, as she crosses the small office, goes out into

the night. Norman turns and looks at the table, and we see

his face now. It is bright with that drunken-like look of

determination and encouragement and like resolve. He starts

to clean up the table, pauses as he hears the closing of

Mary's door in the cabin next door.

He holds still, listens. He goes into the office and looks

at the book.

C.U. - THE NAME "SAMUELS"

M.S. - NORMAN

He goes back into the parlor with a mystified expression.

The sound of Mary moving about her room come over, soft

SOUNDS, somehow intimate in the night quiet. Norman turns

his ear from the direction of the SOUNDS, seems to be fighting

an impulse to listen, or more than listen.

But slowly, he is forced to surrender to the impulse and,

resisting himself, he goes to the wall, presses the side of

his head against it. The SOUNDS come louder, as if we too

had our ear pressed against the wall. Now Norman looks at a

picture hanging on the far end of the wall he is leaning

against. Slowly he starts toward it.

He reaches it, touches it, reluctantly lifts the small frame

off the wall.

A tiny circle of light hits Norman's face, coming from the

hole in the wall behind the picture. This end of the room is

very dim and thus we are able to see clearly the light

striking Norman's face.

We move close to Norman, extremely close, until his profile

fills the screen. The tiny spot of light hits his eye. See

the small hole through which the light comes. Norman peeps

through.

NORMAN'S VIEWPOINT

Through the hole we look into Mary's cabin, see Mary

undressing. She is in her bra and halfslip. She stoops over

a bit, places her hands behind her upper back, begins to

unhook her bra.

NORMAN - ECU

He watches as Mary removes her bra. We see his eye run up

and down the unseen figure of Mary.

NORMAN'S VIEWPOINT

Mary, just slipping into a robe, covering her complete nudity.

NORMAN:

He turns from the hole, faces us for a moment, continues

turning until he can look out the small parlor window.

We see, as he sees...

THE HOUSE IN THE BACKGROUND

NORMAN:

He turns his face away, quickly, resentfully. In his face we

see anger and anguish. And then resolve.

Quickly, precisely, he rehangs the picture over the hole in

the wall, turns, starts out of the parlor. We see him go

through the office and out onto the porch, not even bothering

to close the door behind him.

CUT TO:

EXT. THE MOTEL OFFICE PORCH - (NIGHT)

Norman walking along the porch, in the direction of the big

house. Once on the path he pauses, looks up at the light in

the bedroom window, then pulls himself up, squares his

shoulders, strides manfully up the path.

CAMERA follows behind him. He opens the door of the house,

enters. We see him pause at the foot of the stairway, look

up at the bedroom door just at the head of the stair. He

holds for a moment, and then his resolve and courage

evaporates. His shoulders slump, sadly, mournfully. He by-

passes the stairs and slowly makes his way to the kitchen.

At the far end of the hall. He enters the kitchen, drops

wearily into a chair. After a moment, he stretches out a leg

and gently pushes the kitchen door closed.

CUT TO:

INT. MARY'S MOTEL ROOM - (NIGHT)

Mary is seated at the small desk, engrossed in figuring in a

small notebook. We see from these figures a calculation which

indicates her intention to make a restitution of the money

she has used of the forty thousand dollars. We see, too, her

bankbook. The paper reads thus: top figure, 40,000; directly

beneath it 500, the amount used for the new car; total after

subtraction, 39,500. In another spot we see a figure which

matches the balance in her bankbook; 624.00.

Beneath this is the figure 500, and the amount after

subtraction, 124.00. She studies the figures, sighs, not

wearily but with a certain satisfaction, with the pleasure

that comes when one knows that at any cost one is going to

continue doing the right thing. After a moment she tears the

page out of the notebook and, rising, begins to rip it into

small pieces. She goes into the bathroom, drops the pieces

into the toilet bowl, flushes the toilet. Then she drops her

robe and steps into the tub and turns the shower on.

INT. MARY IN SHOWER

Over the bar on which hangs the shower curtain, we can see

the bathroom door, not entirely closed. For a moment we watch

Mary as she washes and soaps herself.

There is still a small worry in her eyes, but generally she

looks somewhat relieved.

Now we see the bathroom door being pushed slowly open.

The noise of the shower drowns out any sound. The door is

then slowly and carefully closed.

And we see the shadow of a woman fall across the shower

curtain. Mary's back is turned to the curtain. The white

brightness of the bathroom is almost blinding.

Suddenly we see the hand reach up, grasp the shower curtain,

rip it aside.

CUT TO:

MARY - ECU

As she turns in response to the feel and SOUND of the shower

curtain being torn aside. A look of pure horror erupts in

her face. A low terrible groan begins to rise up out of her

throat. A hand comes into the shot. The hand holds an enormous

bread knife. The flint of the blade shatters the screen to

an almost total, silver blankness.

THE SLASHING:

An impression of a knife slashing, as if tearing at the very

screen, ripping the film. Over it the brief gulps of

screaming. And then silence. And then the dreadful thump as

Mary's body falls in the tub.

REVERSE ANGLE:

The blank whiteness, the blur of the shower water, the hand

pulling the shower curtain back. We catch one flicker of a

glimpse of the murderer. A woman, her face contorted with

madness, her head wild with hair, as if she were wearing a

fright-wig. And then we see only the curtain, closed across

the tub, and hear the rush of the shower water. Above the

shower-bar we see the bathroom door open again and after a

moment we HEAR the SOUND of the front door slamming.

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