# Just saw Hitchcock - Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153 "2012-12-16T03:31:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/1 "2012-12-16T03:31:03Z")
Didn’t know quite what to expect, but it was excellent. Have a few questions: Is the house portrayed as his in the movie his real house? Will this movie have any appeal to those who did not grow up with him and his work? Lastly, and if there is limted age-related appeal, are the financial expectations of FOX adjusted in advance? Again, great movie. I hardly moved in my seat for the 2 hours. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/2 "2012-12-16T19:32:29Z")
Part of me really wants to see this film, but I just recently saw the HBO movie, “The Girl” about Hitchcock and sort of feel like, “been there, seen that”. It is unfair of me to think this, but the previews of the film look almost exactly like that HBO film. I wonder if that HBO movie took the thunder out of the box office for this film? ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/3 "2012-12-16T22:46:34Z")
I’ve seem both. They are both great, but I think that _Hitchcock_ is a little better. If anything seeing the HBO movie made Hitchcock a bit more enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Rollo\_Tomasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/4 "2012-12-16T23:25:09Z")
Regarding the last question in the OP about the studio’s expectations, I think it’s worth pointing out that **Hitchcock** is produced by Fox Searchlight. This is the specialty-film arm of the larger 20th Century Fox studio. The movies produced by Searchlight (and similar companies such as Sony Pictures Classics and Focus Features [part of NBC Universal]) are made on smaller budgets with the company executives’ full knowledge that they aren’t going to be big moneymakers. These smaller divisions tend to focus more on prestige or company branding when it comes to the movies they make and distribute. Of course, if **Hitchcock** had grossed $100 million dollars, Searchlight execs would have wept with joy, since they’ve only produced [six movies](http://boxofficemojo.com/studio/chart/?studio=foxsearchlight.htm) in their entire company history that have grossed over $50 million. But if Helen Mirren gets an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, they will consider that a satisfactory return on their investment. They were under no illusions about the movie’s box office potential, or lack thereof. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/5 "2012-12-18T04:47:54Z")
I’m trying to figure out if I’m the only person to have seen “Hitchcock” without ever having seen “Psycho.” Still, a really enjoyable film for me with some quite-good acting. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/6 "2012-12-18T04:56:01Z")
The wife of Psycho’s screenwriter is pissed. > **['Psycho' Writer's Widow Says 'Hitchcock' Full of Lies and Mistakes](https://patch.com/california/montrose/psycho-writers-widow-says-hitchcock-full-of-lies-and-mistakes)** > > Marilyn Stefano, widow of screenwriter Joseph Stefano, takes action against the portrayal of her husband and his work in the film "Hitchcock," which filmed in Montrose. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/7 "2012-12-18T06:34:01Z")
Wait? Biopic is not entirely accurate in representation of facts? I’m shocked. Next you’ll tell me that Hitchcock didn’t have hallucinatory conversations with Ed Gein! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/8 "2012-12-19T01:34:49Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Wait? Biopic is not entirely accurate in representation of facts? I’m shocked. > > Next you’ll tell me that Hitchcock didn’t have hallucinatory conversations with Ed Gein! Agree or don’t but her viewpoint is that is goes far beyond poetic license to libel. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/9 "2012-12-21T15:33:48Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > The wife of Psycho’s screenwriter is pissed. > > [Montrose-La Crescenta News, Breaking News in Montrose-La Crescenta, CA](http://montrose.patch.com/articles/psycho-writers-widow-says-hitchcock-full-of-lies-and-mistakes) For a screenwriter’s wife, she doesn’t seem to know much about cinematic shorthand. (Yes, I understand she’s talking libel, but I’m not seeing the libel there. She doesn’t seem to deny that her husband did, indeed, see a shrink daily.) ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-hitchcock-questions/644153/10 "2012-12-21T16:11:26Z")
So who wants to tell Mrs. Stefano that 30 seconds on Wikipedia would have told her that Marion is killed off very early in the book and that the “slashed letters” cover is the original first edition cover of the book? > **[Psycho (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%28novel%29)** > > Psycho is a 1959 horror novel by American writer Robert Bloch. The novel tells the story of Norman Bates, a caretaker at an isolated motel who struggles under his domineering mother and becomes embroiled in a series of murders. The novel is considered Bloch's most enduring work and one of the most influential horror books of the 20th century. > The story was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock's seminal 1960 film of the same name, and also loosely adapted into the Bates Motel television series (2013–201...