Why is Dial M for Murder in color and not Psycho.?

Favorite Answer

There are a number of reasons why Hitchcock may have chosen to use black-and-white for his film "Psycho" (including budget issues or a desire to imitate the 1954 French thriller "Les Diaboliques"), but the most likely one is because he believed that the shower scene would have been too gory in color.

I found out this information by using my library's access to Film Indexes Online (which direct you to authoritative sources on film). When I performed a search I was directed to a number of indexes and chose AFI (American Film Institute) Catalog simply because it came first. It offers encyclopedic information on the film, including this quote:

"Hitchcock later stated repeatedly that he used black and white because color film would have made the shower sequence too gory."

I believe that answers your question! If you ever have more questions like this, you should consider the resources that your local library has to offer, or take advantage of its Virtual Reference services. You can ask this question over chat and have it answered quickly and accurately by a librarian in real time!...Show more

Alfred Hitchcock's choice. One of the reasons it's said that he chose to go for black & white for Psycho was to keep the costs lower, & probably looking to see it's success on a lower budget on what he knew would be a hit...Show more

Psycho was lower budget, funded entirely by Hitchcock himself with personal money and a lot of loans, so he decided, for cost reasons more than style, to forego expensive color film and stick with black and white....Show more

Hey I'm here for the first time. I found this question and I find the answers really helpful. I'm hoping to offer something back to the community and help others too....Show more

Dial M is probably colorized. Pyshco is considered art, and is protected from being colorized. Same as Citizen Kane....Show more