Despite the fact that Hitchcock was British, the film address's American themes. The themes of corruption by money, lack of privacy, and multiple identity are all resultant of Hitchcock's reaction to American Society of the late 1950's. At the time, the American Society was booming. However this economic growth and prosperity would eventually lead to a growing corruption, and Hitchcock is warning of this growing threat, and Marion's death is directly linked to her stolen money. The theme lack of privacy comes from from the communist paranoia of the era, and the resulting intrusion of neighbors and government into the personal lives of the people. Similarly, the theme of multiple identity comes from the idea of the apparent two faced nature of the "communist spies" that pervaded the era.
The film takes place in Arizona, and was shot in the Universal Backlot.
Historical Context
The messages from WW2 were clear: no matter how heroic your men, how skilled your generals, how staunch your supporters on the Home Front, at the end of the day it was technology that counted. Bigger. Better. Deadlier. Like the atom bomb. The horror films of the 1950s are about science and technology run riot, an accurate enough reflection of reality for a confused populace, wary of the pace of technological change. The 1950s are also the era when horror films get relegated well and truly to the B-movie category. The studios were too busy incorporating technical changes such as widespread color production and trying to meet the challenge posed by TV to have much truck with making quality horror pictures.
Also, Psychology was beginning to develop as a legitimate study at the time. Interestingly, developmental and child psychology were major schools of thought at the time and relates to the plot of Psycho: Norman Bates witnessed his mother in bed with her lover and brutally murdered them for it. His mother also kept him very sheltered and was his only interaction for much of his life. As a result, Norman is a quiet but psychologically deranged man because of these events. His childhood development negatively effected his ability to deal with fatherly and motherly figures. I would say personally that the film fell under the revisionist point in its genre at its time. Before this film many horror films were creature features. The non conformist storytelling structure and new techniques used would have made it a completely new style of horror at the time. However, it could be argued to be a classic. In the current state of the horror genre today, Psycho has influenced an entire sub genre (which has become one of the most popular), the slasher genre. It set the standard for many films to follow and
Cited http://www.shmoop.com/1950s/economy.html
http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1950sa
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