Shamley Productions

Paramount Pictures looked at Psycho and said, "Blech." (That's not a direct quote.)

Hitchcock had a long-term relationship with Paramount in the late 1950's, so he tried to get them interested in his film. How about it? he said. We've got a cross-dressing murderer, oodles of blood, death and sex everywhere—and, oh, yeah, the main character gets killed off halfway through.

No thanks, Paramount said. (Again, these are not direct quotes.)

But Hitchcock was tricky. He'd already established his own production company, Shamley Productions, to shoot the anthology horror television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (which ran from 1955-1962). Hitchcock told Paramount he would self-finance the film, use his Shamley Productions television crew to shoot it, and then let Paramount distribute it.

Paramount agreed… much to the chagrin of many of Hitchcock's closest associates. Many in his production team thought the project was too extreme, and were nervous about not working directly with Paramount.

The choice to break with the studio had huge consequences for the film. Hitchcock had wanted a small-budget look for Psycho anyway, but even so, the cutbacks from his earlier features were drastic. In the past, Hitchcock had used big name stars like Carey Grant and Jimmy Stewart, and big name screenwriters like Ernest Lehman (who wrote North by Northwest). He was able to pay for expensive locations too.

There would be none of that in Psycho.

Instead, Hitchcock made the film with a cast of mostly unknowns (though Janet Leigh was already a star), cheap sets, and a look that was low-budget exploitation, rather than big Hollywood bonanza. Everyone thought the filmmaker was psycho—but as it turned out, when the movie was his biggest hit, he wasn't psycho.

He was wealthy. Very, very wealthy.

And he didn't even toss the money in the swamp like Norman Bates.