Psycho shower scene voted top film moment

Janet Leigh’s shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho has been voted the best film moment of the last 50 years.

The battle sequence in Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, where Darth Vader devastates the Rebel base is second in the poll.

Stanley Kubrick’s horror movie The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson, comes third in the UCI Cinemas survey, for the scene were Scatman Crothers “shines” in his bedroom.

Fourth is The Italian Job for the Mini car chase through Turin, followed by Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, where Col Kilgore (Robert Duvall) and his helicopters swarm out of the dawn light to flatten a Vietcong village.

UCI spokesman Katy Harris said: “Today’s computer generated graphics that have helped to make films like the Matrix and the Star Wars trilogy such a success.

“But the choices show that what makes a memorable movie moment is much more about how we make an emotional connection to the screen images, through humour, tragedy, fear or disbelief.”

The survey, of 500 people, also came up with the best movie moments for each decade.

1950s

From Here to Eternity (1953): Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr kissing in the surf.

1960s

Psycho (1960): The editing, shrieking music and camera angles in the shower scene.

1970s

Apocalypse Now (1979): where Col Kilgore (Robert Duvall) and his Air Calvary helicopters swarm out of the dawn light to flatten a Vietcong village.

1980s

The Empire Strikes Back (1980): The AT-AT attack.

1990s

The Matrix (1999): The sequence with Carrie-Anne Moss jumping, kicking and flying through the air.