Give the Motion Picture Academy credit for at least respecting Psycho enough to nominate Alfred Hitchcock for Best Director. That was a fairly nervy statement for a relatively stodgy era and mindset. Oscars and Oscar nominations generally went to prestige-level dramas and spectacles, and never before to a stark black-and-white horror film that involved knives, nudity, lunch-hour “matinees”, cross-dressing and a mummified corpse.

Yes, Academy members were essentially saluting Hitch for Psycho‘s huge impact on film culture and for making a lot of money, but still…

57 and 1/2 years have elapsed since the 1960 Oscars were handed out on…good God, 4.17.61. Once again, HE considers whether the top-ranked winners were appropriately feted or over-praised.

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