Is The Birds a Prequel to Psycho? pt 2

Can The Birds be a portrait of Norman Bates’ life prior to him killing his mother?

For this to be the case, Hitchcock would have to show us a mother & son in The Birds with a similar relationship to that of Mrs Bates & her son Norman in Psycho.  

In addition, Hitchcock would also have to leave the viewer a way of tying these two different Mother-Son relationships together.  

Please remember what follows is quiet speculation & comparison all of which is a reading between the lines. Also remember we’re looking at what’s being shown to the viewer as Hitchcock is showing it to the viewer.  

Let’s start with the primary characters involved. First we have the character of Son:  

Hitchcock doesn’t show us there’s no actual Mrs Bates till the very end of Psycho. Nevertheless, up until the psychologist-exposition scene, all that Hitchcock shows us about Norman is actually about Norman 

In The Birds - just like Psycho - only one adult son is ever shown: a good first basis to start the comparison,

Mitch Brenner & Norman Bates. Have we been given any similarities between these two men?  

• Single sons with cute smiles, dark hair, attractive. 

• Charming, considerate, conversational, marrying age.  

• Hard-working: Mitch is a Lawyer & Norman runs a Motel.
• Passionately idealistic: Mitch believes in the law & Norman believes in familial responsibility.

• Devoted to their mothers: Mitch comes home every weekend to care for his mom & Norman lives with his mother & would rather die than put her in a home. 

• Both sons have a thing for irresponsible, attractive, young blonde women: Marion likes to steal cash & Melanie goes to courts for her antics.   

Remember the Sheriff’s wife in Psycho? Remember her reaction when hearing the term “Mrs Bates”?  

Norman took a wife?  

Could that shock be related to the Sheriff’s description of Norman?  

This fellow lives like a hermit.   

Now compare these sentiments with Annie Hayworth’s assessment of Mitch Brenner:  

Maybe there's never been anything between Mitch and any girl.   

Certainly, the first temptation in rejecting this theory is to cite Norman’s state of wackadoodle insanity that Mitch Brenner clearly doesn’t have.  

However, the big twist at the end of Psycho was Norman being Mother and, if you were shocked at this reveal, it means you had no idea Norman was wackadoodle nuts. 

That means the entire film Norman had all the viewers fooled. Until one sees him falling out his mother’s dress, the viewer suspects nothing.  

What warning vibes did Norman give? He was just a frustrated young man caring for his mentally ill mother and feeling the tremendous burden of it.  

Norman’s mother was the looney. Norman was as sympathetic as one can get.  

However, Norman’s mother wasn’t looney. because Norman’s mother had been dead for quite some time. All we were left with is Norman.  

Similarly, even at the end of The Birds - whatever clues may or may not be left for us - no one suspects anything of Mitch just like no one suspected anything of Norman.   

It must, though, be pointed out that Mitch’s mother is still alive at the end of The Birds. Equally important is that we don’t hear of any real issues in Norman’s life until after his father died.

Norman didn't kill his mom after his father died, rather it was after his mother took a lover and discarded hers & Norman's creepily codependent isolationist relationship.  

All we know about Mitch is that his father has died, he has a close relationship with his mom, his mom is pretty controlling and she has not found a lover yet.

Well, not yet - almost.

For more information on that "almost" please consider the death of Dan Fawcett from The Birds which can be found discussed here. One can see Mitch's mother finding a new mate and making Mitch obsolete may be closer to Mitch's horizon.

So one can at least appreciate where the idea of “prequel” may be gaining merit.

More to come.

Film Discussion: The Birds (1963)