Cinema: Good Joke

PSYCHO II

Directed by Richard Franklin Screenplay by Tom Holland

You smell good," Norman Bates murmurs softly to Mary, the pretty young woman with whom he is chastely sharing the old family mansion — the one just above and beyond the old family motel of blessedly spooky memory. What is the secret of her success in eliciting a near-normal sexual response out of Norman? A new Parisian scent? A wristlet of wild flowers? A walk in the spring rain?

Not quite. It is the redolence of toasted cheese sandwiches, just like the ones his mother used to make.

Until that point, veterans of Alfred...

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