Editing Alfred Hitchcock (section)

====''North by Northwest'' and ''Psycho''====
{{see also|Psycho (franchise)}}
After ''Vertigo'', the rest of 1958 was a difficult year for Hitchcock. During [[pre-production]] of ''[[North by Northwest]]'' (1959), which was a "slow" and "agonising" process, his wife Alma was diagnosed with cancer.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=217}} While she was in hospital, Hitchcock kept himself occupied with his television work and would visit her every day. Alma underwent surgery and made a full recovery, but it caused Hitchcock to imagine, for the first time, life without her.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=217}}

[[File:Hitchcock Leigh Psycho.jpg|thumb|upright|alt= Photo of Alfred Hitchcock & Janet Leigh from the 1960 film ''Psycho''|Hitchcock shooting the shower scene of ''Psycho'' (1960)]]
Hitchcock followed up with three more successful films, which are also recognised as among his best: ''North by Northwest'', ''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]'' (1960) and ''[[The Birds (film)|The Birds]]'' (1963). In ''North by Northwest'', Cary Grant portrays Roger Thornhill, a [[Madison Avenue]] advertising executive who is mistaken for a government secret agent. He is pursued across the United States by enemy agents, including Eve Kendall ([[Eva Marie Saint]]). At first, Thornhill believes Kendall is helping him, but then realises that she is an enemy agent; he later learns that she is working undercover for the [[CIA]]. During its opening two-week run at [[Radio City Music Hall]], the film grossed $404,056 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.404056|1959|r=1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}), setting a non-holiday gross record for that theatre.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,864921,00.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530114819/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,864921,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 May 2012 |title=Box Office: For the Books |date=31 August 1959 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine called the film "smoothly troweled and thoroughly entertaining".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,937893,00.html |title=Cinema: The New Pictures |date=17 August 1959 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=21 August 2017 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530114820/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,937893,00.html |url-status=dead }}{{pb}}
{{cite news |title=Hitchcock Takes Suspenseful Cook's Tour: ''North by Northwest'' Opens at Music Hall |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E7D91631EE3BBC4F53DFBE668382649EDE |date=7 August 1959 |work=The New York Times |first=A.H. |last=Weiler |access-date=21 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929123524/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E7D91631EE3BBC4F53DFBE668382649EDE |archive-date=29 September 2013}}</ref>

''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]'' (1960) is arguably Hitchcock's best-known film.<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 260">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=260}}</ref> Based on [[Robert Bloch]]'s 1959 novel ''[[Psycho (novel)|Psycho]]'', which was inspired by the case of [[Ed Gein]],<ref>{{harvnb|Rebello|1990|pp=7–14}}</ref> the film was produced on a tight budget of $800,000 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.8|1960|r=1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) and shot in black-and-white on a spare set using crew members from ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=261}}</ref> The unprecedented violence of the shower scene,{{efn|A documentary on ''Psycho''{{'}}s shower scene, ''78/52'', was released in 2017, directed by [[Alexandre O. Philippe]]; the title refers to the scene's 78 camera setups and 52 cuts.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Owen |last=Gleiberman |title=Film Review: '78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene' |magazine=Variety |date=24 January 2017 |url=https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/7852-review-psycho-1201966555/|access-date=12 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213011034/https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/7852-review-psycho-1201966555/|archive-date=13 December 2017}}{{pb}}
{{cite news |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Peter |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/13/7852-review-hitchcock-psycho-shower-scene |title=78/52 review – Hitchcock's Psycho shower scene gets an expert autopsy |work=The Guardian |date=13 October 2017|access-date=27 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227195616/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/13/7852-review-hitchcock-psycho-shower-scene|archive-date=27 December 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>}} the early death of the heroine, and the innocent lives extinguished by a disturbed murderer became the hallmarks of a new horror-film genre.<ref>{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=262}}</ref> The film proved popular with audiences, with lines stretching outside theatres as viewers waited for the next showing. It broke box-office records in the United Kingdom, France, South America, the United States and Canada, and was a moderate success in Australia for a brief period.<ref name="Leigh 1995">{{harvnb|Leigh|Nickens|1995|p=99}}</ref>

''Psycho'' was the most profitable of Hitchcock's career, and he personally earned in excess of $15&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|15|1960|r=-1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}). He subsequently swapped his rights to ''Psycho'' and his TV anthology for 150,000 shares of [[MCA Inc.|MCA]], making him the third largest shareholder and his own boss at Universal, in theory at least, although that did not stop studio interference.{{Sfn|Rebello|1990|p=182}} Following the first film, ''Psycho'' became an American horror [[Media franchise|franchise]]: ''[[Psycho II (film)|Psycho II]]'', ''[[Psycho III]]'', ''[[Bates Motel (film)|Bates Motel]]'', ''[[Psycho IV: The Beginning]]'' and a colour [[Psycho (1998 film)|1998 remake]] of the original.{{sfn|Verevis|2006|p=22}}