'Psycho' Screening Kicks off New Film 91301 Program

By Judi Uthus

Agoura Hills residents will now have a film program connecting local entertainment industry talent to the community. Zach Miller, recreation manager for the city of Agoura Hills, announced at the recent Movies Under the Stars screening of  Psycho that the city’s Cultural Arts Council is launching a Film 91301 program. 

“Under the direction of the council, Film 91301will bring interesting film programs like this one to the public and inspire new young filmmakers with educational opportunities,” Miller said.

Saturday night's screening of the classic Hitchcock thriller was a packed house of fans of all ages who came to meet guest speaker Marilyn Stefano. The Agoura Hills’s resident is the widow of  the late screenwriter Joseph Stefano, who adapted the book Psycho by Robert Bloch to the screen. She discussed the making of the 1960 film that became one of the Hitchcock’s greatest movies.  

She said her husband was new to Hollywood when he got the opportunity to work with the master of suspense. 

“Working with Hitch gave my husband an education in film he never could have gotten at any school,” she said. “The only word Hitch wanted to change when the screenplay was completed was ‘lurid’ because he just never liked the word. But that didn’t change either.”   

The cast had no knowledge of the movie’s final scene and there was no premiere to assure the ending would be remain a secret when it opened on June 30 at the El Rey Theater on Wilshire Boulevard.  

“People got so involved,” Stefano said. “When the basement scene came, everyone stood up and said, ‘Don’t go down there!'” 

In discussing the relationship that the Stefanos had with the Hitchcocks, she made reference to the recently released movie Hitchcock about the filming of Psycho. 

“My husband was not like that at all,” she said of the nervous, disheveled characterization portrayed by actor Ralph Macchio. “He was always well dressed and calm. He never would have broken into a sweat like that, particularly when working with Hitch.”  

Stefano also did the screenplay for Psycho 4. 

After the discussion, movie goers settled in to experience the original Psycho outdoors on a comfortable summer evening. 

Agoura Hills resident Julie Markovitz organized a group of friends for the movie and a picnic. 

“I took my daughter to a movie under the stars at the Hollywood Cemetery and we really enjoyed it,” she said. She said was very happy to hear Agoura Hills will now have its own program.