Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho reputation, including "Rope", "Rear Window", "To Catch a Thief", "The Man Who Knew Too Much", and "North by Northwest". The project, which Hitchcock tackled in part to compete with financially successful, low-budget, youth-oriented horror movies, went on to astound many by becoming a cultural watershed, an international box-office success, a film classic, and a forerunner of the violent, disorienting films and real-events of the turbulent 1960s and '70s. "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho" was initially distributed in hardcover print by W.W. Norton for Dembner Books on April 15, 1990 in the United States. A trade paperback edition was
Alfred Hitchcock given an idea and then we are turned loose to develop in any way we want to.' I said 'That's not acting. That's writing.'" Walter Slezak said that Hitchcock knew the mechanics of acting better than anyone he knew. Critics observed that, despite his reputation as a man who disliked actors, actors who worked with him often gave brilliant performances. He used the same actors in many of his films; Cary Grant worked with Hitchcock four times, and Ingrid Bergman three. James Mason said that Hitchcock regarded actors as "animated props". For Hitchcock, the actors were part of the film's