Do you consider "Psycho" a comedy?

[WI_DEM]

Hitch was once quoted as saying, "I think it's my best comedy." I think he must have meant a black comedy. That shower scene is a real howl!

[terrya]

1. Hitch certainly had an interesting sense of humor.

I really didn't see anything funny in "Psycho" at all.

[mikeytherat]

2. "Psycho" is a helluva lot funnier than "The Trouble with Harry"

and that was supposed to be a comedy.

mikey_the_rat

[Fenris]

3. The remake was certainly hilarious

[cemaphonic]

4. Hmm. Interesting quote.

I would think that 'Rope' or 'Strangers on a Train' would fit better, but comedy is notoriously individual.

He definitely had a weird and perverse sense of humor, though not quite as weird and perverse as Roman Polanski.

[catmandu57]

5. Well no, but,

I laughed my ass off when I watched The Exorcist the first time.

[graywarrior]

9. So did my mother.

She was howling in the audience. Embarrassing as hell.

[mockmonkey]

6. Ted Knight

was funny in it. Good Night and Good News!

[anarch]

7. it's not as outright hilarious as The Birds

[Hugin]

10. 'The Birds' was a hoot!

:thumbsup:

[Hugin]

8. Hitch was correct...

What? You thought he did drama or horror?

[begin_within]

11. I posted a question about this on the imDb message board for "Psycho"

and a few people there answered it as best as they could, but no matter what they said, I still don't find anything funny in the movie. Unfortunately this was about 7 or 8 months ago, and all those posts have expired. I didn't save them. I bet that if you go to that message board, which has a lot of fans of "Psycho" posting, and put the same question there, you would get a lot of interesting answers.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/board/threads/

[Cannikin]

12. The rocking chair turned and it was his dead mother...that was a hoot

[dback]

13. Leonar Maltin's book calls it a "jet-black comedy"

It's more an ironic black comedy once you've seen it, when certain lines ("My mother...what is the phrase...she isn't quite herself today") take on additional resonance. There are throwaway little lines involving the money ("I declare!" "I don't--that's how I get to keep it.") and the strange woman in the hardware store who may or may not be buying insecticide to off someone ("...but they do not tell you whether or it is painless, and I say insect or man, death should always be painless.")

However, when I showed it to a bunch of friends in high school, as Vera Miles raced through the house and started--oh no!--down towards the basement, a male friend commented "Do you notice how we're all smiling?" Maybe, as Hitchcock says, it's like a carnival ride through a haunted house.

Still wouldn't watch it with the lights off.

(Then again, in the latest version of his book, Maltin rates "Crash" higher than "Brokeback Mountain," so there you are--he also had the original "Alien" at 2 stars for years, and it's slowly crept up in the ratings decade by decade based on its reputation.)