Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

  • The Moment of 'Psycho'

  • How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder
  • By: David Thomson
  • Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
  • Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Moment of 'Psycho'

By: David Thomson
Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

It was made like a television movie, and completed in less than three months. It killed off its star in 40 minutes. There was no happy ending. And it offered the most violent scene to that date in American film, punctuated by shrieking strings that seared the national consciousness. Nothing like Psycho had existed before, and the movie industry, even America itself, would never be the same.

In The Moment of Psycho, film critic David Thomson situates Psycho in Alfred Hitchcock's career, recreating the mood and time when the seminal film erupted onto film screens worldwide. Thomson shows that Psycho was not just a sensation in film - it altered the very nature of our desires. Sex, violence, and horror took on new life. Psycho, all of a sudden, represented all America wanted from a film and, as Thomson brilliantly demonstrates, still does.
©2009 David Thomson (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
History & Criticism
Show More Show Less
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho cover art
Sleeping with Strangers cover art
Murder and the Movies cover art
Warner Bros cover art
Tiny Terror cover art
Mind of an Outlaw cover art
Maureen O'Hara: The Biography (Screen Classics) cover art
Monsters of the Week cover art
Scarface: The Ultimate Guide cover art
Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress, Revised and Updated cover art
Raising Hell cover art
The Film Actor's Handbook cover art
James Bond in the 21st Century cover art
Daniel Day Lewis cover art
Reading the Silver Screen cover art
Woody cover art

Critic reviews

"Psycho's impact on the movies is undeniable, a key moment in Hitchcock's oeuvre that has had as lasting an impact as anything the great auteur ever directed. David Thomson's rereading of Psycho a half-century after its release shows us just how far we've come. And in some ways, how far we've fallen." (The Weekly Standard)
"[Thomson] makes a powerful — and sometimes surprising — case for the movie’s importance in film and cultural history. Building on the work of François Truffaut (who first helped establish Hitchcock’s reputation as an auteur) and the writings of the critic Robin Wood, Mr. Thomson does a deft job in this volume of reappraising Hitchcock’s work, even as he deconstructs “Psycho” and its complex cinematic legacy." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

What listeners say about The Moment of 'Psycho'

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
No Reviews are Available