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>> Screen legend Janet Leigh on Hitchcock, Orson Welles and dodging the knife by MATTHEW HAYS Janet Leigh has been making the entertainment news lately, despite not having had top billing on a feature film in years. She's been touring extensively, promoting numerous projects: there's the new version of Touch of Evil, the 1958 oddity that has been recut to the late director Orson Welles' specifications; the latest sequel in the resilient series, Halloween: H20, which has Leigh in a supporting role alongside her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis; and her memoir, Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller (Harmony Books).
"I feel so lucky to have worked with so many people. As well as Hitchcock and Welles, John Frankenheimer, Anthony Mann, Bob Fosse. I feel blessed. I've been very fortunate in my professional life." Though the film work has slowed down lately, Leigh's CV is packed with cinematic landmarks, credits she gained during the busiest period of her acting career--the late '50s and early '60s. When the Los Angeles Times listed the 50 greatest films of all time six years ago, Leigh was the only actress to have appeared in three of them (Psycho, Touch of Evil and The Manchurian Candidate). Now Leigh says that no one could have foreseen the life these films would take on, particularly Touch of Evil and Psycho. "Though through entirely different methods, I was aware we were doing something new, innovative, different and courageous for the times. You never really know what the result is going to be. In the case of Psycho, it was embraced immediately, and then went spiralling upwards. In the case of Touch of Evil, however, it was too far ahead of its time and the studio didn't know what to do with it." Border dispute Leigh is now ecstatic that Touch of Evil--which she refers to as "a sort of ugly duckling"--has earned its rightful place in the film canon and has been recut properly. "Charlton Heston [her leading man in the film] and I are really happy that the film is being screened the way it was envisioned."
"Welles was such an exciting adventure to work with. His spirit, his creativity, you could see his whole body come alive and draw you into the wonder of what you were doing. He welcomed any kind of input and experiment. Hitchcock planned every shot and Welles could plan, as evidenced by the opening shot, but he also loved to improvise and would see a background that he thought looked dramatic and would say, 'Let's make up a scene.'" Psycho-a-go-go Of all the roles Leigh has acquired, without question the most memorable is that of Marion Crane, the larcenous protagonist at the heart of Psycho. The film's centrepiece and most famous sequence has Leigh stabbed to death in the shower. "I had never thought twice about taking a shower before making that movie," Leigh says of one of her key Psycho revelations. "It was automatic--nothing unusual about taking a shower. It made me realize how completely defenseless we are. We're bare, we're naked, we can't hear because of the water, we can't see because of the curtain--you're there for the taking." Leigh has favoured baths over showers ever since making the film. "Hitchcock's brilliance was in his ability to manipulate audiences to a point where they took over. I spoke with one sophisticated lady once who said, 'My god, Janet, I've never forgotten the blood spurting out all over the place.' And I rest my case, because she was describing something she'd never actually seen, but that she'd imagined. Once the audience's imagination takes over, there's no stopping it." Some fans' imaginations have gotten the best of them. So fixated were some on the shower scene that Leigh received vast numbers of letters, many of which were deeply disturbing. "The FBI had to be called at one point. It set off some kooks saying, 'I'm going to do to you what Norman Bates did to Marion Crane in the shower.' Face to face, the scariest moment came when I was leaving a radio station after doing an interview concerning the Psycho memoir. We were in a corridor and this figure came towards us. We thought nothing of it, but suddenly he reached into his briefcase and pulled out this huge butcher knife. We all froze, and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Then he said, 'I'm not a kook! I'm not a kook! I just want Miss Leigh to sign this knife!' It turned out he wasn't crazy, just a fan. I mean, shower curtains I'll sign. But that was a bit much." The new generation Leigh doesn't see either Welles or Hitchcock as the least bit misogynist, despite the alarming imagery in Evil (in which Leigh is strapped to a bed and rape is suggested) or Psycho (the shower thing). "We all have fantasies, they just had the chance to express theirs. If both men had focused only in that direction, I might agree with you. But since the work of both has been so diverse, I don't think you can really say that." Leigh made some news again recently when press reports quoted her as saying she wasn't going to attend the new Psycho movie directed by Gus Van Sant. While the reports intimated she was in some kind of a huff over the remake--which will star Anne Heche in the Marion Crane role--Leigh states that the only reason she doesn't want to attend the premiere is because she doesn't want to steal anyone's thunder. In fact, she wishes the new Psycho generation luck. For her part, Leigh says one of the thrills of the past year came with her first opportunity to play a scene with her daughter, fellow scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, in Halloween: H20. "It was great to be able to have this moment together, to have that give and take that's part of what makes acting such fun. Then to realize, 'This girl's good,' and then to realize that this girl's my daughter. That was really lovely." As our conversation draws to a close, Leigh wishes me a happy Halloween. But surprisingly, this icon of the horror genre does little to mark the pagan ritual. "We live on top of a mountain, so we don't get any children visiting up there. My daughters celebrate it with their children, of course. My husband and I just sort of stay in and make sure our dogs don't get scared." Touch of Evil opens Friday, October 30 at the Cinéma du Parc. See repertory listings for showtimes. Halloween: H20 reopens Friday, October 30. Psycho (1960) is available on video. Psycho (1998) opens Friday, December 4
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Yes, the touring does require that Leigh spend a lot of time waxing nostalgic. Even the new Halloween film has her playing up the winks and nods to the audience in reference to her Psycho role. But Leigh isn't complaining.
In Evil, Leigh plays the innocent-but-feisty newlywed bride to Heston, who plays a Mexican(!) cop. As the two head off for their honeymoon, a border town they're passing through becomes the scene of a bombing murder. As Heston investigates, Leigh is kidnapped and the extent of corruption blanketing the town becomes all too apparent.