Peter Latham raises an interesting problem, first pointing out the similarities of content and genesis between "Psycho" and "Peeping Tom," then asking why two such similar films had such opposite effects on their respective directors' careers. There are probably several roads into this discussion - I'll just suggest that in Hitchcock's case, "Psycho" could be seen as a culmination, or at least the next logical step, of certain themes he had been developing throughout his career. In Powell's case, "Peeping Tom" seemed very different from his previous work, which probably contributed to the public shock. Also, in "Psycho" the primary victim, Marian Crane, is one of a long line of guilty Hitchcock heroines, and as ghastly as her fate is, there is a whiff if retribution which complicates audience sympathies. In "Peeping Tom," the various victims probably step over the bounds of sexual propriety as they were set in the late 1950's, but they generally seem more purely "innocent." We should remember that Hitchcock and his various advisors and assistants were unsure about the good sense of making and distributing such a story, which is why it is filmed in black-and-white, and made on a significantly lower budget than Hitchcock was used to by this point. Remember, he had just made "Vertigo" and "North By Northwest." Stephen Rebello discusses some of these issues in his "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of 'Psycho.'" Stephen Brophy Cambridge, Mass. ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]