Imagine paying to get in only to be confronted someone tapping their watch, with the words ‘It is required that you see Psycho from the very beginning!’ and a big reminder of the exact time the next showing starts.
And more to follow: ‘The manager of this theatre has been instructed, at the risk of his life, not to admit to the theatre any persons after the picture starts. Any spurious attempts to enter by side doors, fire escapes, or ventilating shafts will be met by force.’
Cripes. That’s before the film has started…
The identity of the watch-tapper was Psycho’s great director Alfred Hitchcock, whose signature appears at the bottom of this highly unusual poster next to the more soothing final message: ‘The entire objective of this extraordinary policy, of course, is to help you enjoy Psycho more.’
A copy of the 1960 poster is on offer at Battle, East Sussex, auction house Burstow & Hewett in the May 3 picture sale, estimated at £300-400.
It is part of a collection of around 500 film posters in that sale. Mark Ellin from B&H says: “They date from the 1960s to the ‘80s, collected by a local couple who ran the Odeon cinema in Hyde Park, London, during that period.”
Also included are Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, James Bond and Walt Disney films, and “huge quantities of lobby photo cards”. Around 150 lots in total, adds Ellin, coming up for sale immediately before the main picture sale.
More Psycho posters
Psycho (1960) first release British Quad film poster sold for a hammer price of £2400 at Aston’s Auctioneers of Dudley in the West Midlands.
Psycho film posters can deliver big results at auction. On January 17 this year Aston’s Auctioneers of Dudley in the West Midlands sold a Psycho (1960) first release British Quad film poster with full colour style artwork for a hammer price of £2400 against an estimate of £400-600.
The 2ft 6in x 3ft 4in (76cm x 1.02m) design printed by by Leonard Ripley and Co of London shows stars Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh – and, at the bottom, a finger-wagging Hitchcock and the words ‘no one… BUT NO ONE… will be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance of Psycho’.
Maybe someone can come up with a modern version with the legendary director wagging his finger at mobile phone addicts.
