Psycho

“Derann Film Services, that very enterprising library, enters the package movie market with a bang – or do I mean scream? For here is one of the most famous modern shock sequences in modern cinema, now available for shrieking at, or dissective study, in your own home.

Very nicely abridged into eight minutes that include the original titles, or most of them, here is the full and uncensored, I might add, stabbing sequence from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 shocker, his last black-and-white work, and, many would consider, his last masterpiece.”  

That’s how Denis Gifford describes this little 200′ extract in his book ‘The Armchair Odeon’.

For those who are new to the group, ‘Psycho’ was one of the ill fated titles Derann had acquired in late 1969. Derann and Powell Films had both clinched deals with Universal. Derann picked up the rights to ‘Magnificent Obsession’, (1954); ‘Flower Drum Song’, (1961); ‘The Evil of Frankenstein’, (1964); ‘The Invisible Man, (1933);  ‘Blue Skies’, (1946); ‘To Hell and Back’, (1955); and ‘Psycho’ (1960), while Powell secured amongst others ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, (1962), ‘Touch of Evil’, (1958), ‘Winchester 73’, (1950) and ‘Munsters, Go Home!’ (1966). Both Derann’s and Powell’s contracts abruptly ended, following a phone call from Universal, and it soon became apparent that the Universal employee who had sold the rights, didn’t occupy a position to do so. I’d once been lucky enough to own a copy of the full feature of Psycho, but in all my 36 years never saw a print of the 200′.

This one reeler label was another printed and designed by Derek himself.

Label courtesy of Peter Brooke at ‘SPROCKETS’  and special thank’s to Mark Young for his help with that quote from ‘The Armchair Odeon.