David Bianculli

Most of Psycho was photographed quickly and cheaply by the same crew Hitchcock used for his still-running TV anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The budget for Psycho was $800,000, making it one of the most profitable films in Hollywood history.

And one of the most influential, too.

Psycho elevated the suspense and murder genre to a higher level and has been copied, saluted, even remade by generations of subsequent movie makers.

Today, we're going to hear from actress Janet Leigh, the star of Psycho.

Well, the star for the first third of the movie, anyway.

Terry spoke with her in 1999.

Leigh wrote a memoir in 1995 about the making of Psycho.

They started with a clip from the film.

Janet Leigh plays Marion Crane, who has stolen some money, is on the run, and has checked into the Bates Motel run by Anthony Perkins as a mild-mannered Norman Bates.

He offers her a sandwich, they sit in the parlor eating, and he tells her about living with and caring for his invalid, mentally unstable mother.

Marion suggests he put his mother in an institution.

Janet Leigh speaking with Terry Gross in 1999.

Janet Leigh died in 2004 at age 77.

Her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, starred in her own low-budget influential slasher horror film, 1978's Halloween.

Coming up, more about Hitchcock with Evan Hunter, the screenwriter of Hitchcock's The Birds.

This is Fresh Air.

We're looking back today at a couple of Alfred Hitchcock films.

We just heard about the making of his 1960 movie, Psycho, which was released 65 years ago.

Next, we focus on the film he made in 1963.