Reel to Real Filming Locations: Psycho (1960)

Phoenix real estate secretary Marion Crane has a nooner with boyfriend Sam Loomis, who is riddled with debt. When asked to bank $40,000 by her boss, Marion steals the money and heads for Fairvale, CA. Inclement weather has her check into The Bates Motel, where she encounters proprietor Norman Bates and overhears him being berated by his mother. After conversing with him over sandwiches, Marion takes a shower and is stabbed repeatedly.

Marion's sister, Lila arrives in Fairvale along with Private Investigator Arbogast, who heads out to the motel to question Norman. He too ends up on the wrong side of a knife. Lila and Sam then head out to investigate only to find the mummified body of Norman's mother and Norman wearing women's clothing and a wig brandishing a knife. At the police station, it is revealed that Norman killed his mother and her lover ten years ago out of jealousy and has since took on an alternate personality. When Norman find a woman attractive, Mother takes over.

Hitchock's masterpiece among masterpieces. Psycho is the grandaddy of slasher flicks or the inspiration for them depending on who you ask. Anthony Perkins and Bernard Herrmann deliver what should have been Oscar-nominated performances. It's most remembered for its shocking shower scene, but Psycho also explored controversial topics of the time, including a toilet being flushed on screen. Its legacy lives on through sequels, a television series and a genre that just won't die.

Psycho was filmed in Universal City, North Hollywood, Gorman, Fresno and Bakersfield, CA and Phoeniz, AZ

Location: Marion & Sam's Hotel Room

Address: 101 S. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ

Location: The Real Estate Office

Address: 28 N Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ

Speical thanks to Robert Patterson at Set-Jetter for his photo editing skills...

Location: Marion's Traffic Light

Address: N Cental Avenue & E Adams Street, Phoenix, AZ

This is the same intersection where the real estate office would've been...

Location: Marion Pulls Over

Address: Near 38833 Gorman Post Road, Gorman, CA

If you're heading north on Gorman Post Road, it is just after 38833...

Location: The Car Dealership
Address: 4270 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA

This area has changed a bit. The first garage has been enclosed with brick and window but the door to the office still lines up...

Location: The Bates Motel & House
Address: Universal Studios Backlot, Universal City, CA

The Bates Motel and Psycho House has been moved twice since filming. The original spot is where the Best Little Whorehouse In Texas house currently resides, just up the hills from Jaws Lake....

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Studios Tram Tour, visitors were able to get off the tram at the Bates Motel to get an up close look...

Location: The Swamp
Address: Old Falls Lake, Universal Studios Backlot, Universal City, CA

Norman dumps Marion's car in Falls Lake, which from 1926 to 1986, was located in a different area than the current Falls Lake. The original location is on what is now Steven Spielberg Drive, just west of where Colonial Street currently resides...

The Bates Motel interiors, including the infamous shower scene were filmed on Stage 18...

Interiors of the Bates House was filmed on Stage 28, which was demolished in 2014.

In 2016, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City had an usual display on it's rooftop - salvaged barn pieces constructed in the form of one of cinema's most sinister dwellings - The Psycho House. It stood about 2/3 of the scale of the actual house with only two finished sides...