Paramount's readers called Robert Bloch's 1959 novel impossible to film and repulsive, so Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights himself for $9,500, waived his $250,000 directing fee in exchange for 60 percent ownership of the negative, and financed the roughly $800,000 production out of his own pocket. This episode explores how that gamble, and the constraints that came with it, produced Psycho. We cover the Ed Gein case that loosely inspired the book, the decision to hire television writer Joseph Stefano, the transformation of Norman Bates from an unsympathetic middle-aged drunk into a vulnerable young man, and the audacious structure that builds an entire first act around Marion Crane's stolen $40,000 before killing her halfway through.

We then get into the production: the use of the crew from Hitchcock's TV show, black and white cinematogra ...