★ 6 / 10
**_A psychopath is loose in western Massachusetts_** When
Wuchak
**_A psychopath is loose in western Massachusetts_** When a young man is released from a mental institution for a crime committed when he was 15 (Anthony…
**_A psychopath is loose in western Massachusetts_**
When a young man is released from a mental institution for a crime committed when he was 15 (Anthony Perkins), he gets a mundane job at a chemical factory while drawn to a fetching high school cheerleader (Tuesday Weld).
"Pretty Poison" (1968) is a psychological drama with a couple crime-oriented thrills that some consider a subtle black comedy. It comes in the tradition of “Gun Crazy” from eighteen years prior. Debuting eight years after Perkin’s breakout success with “Psycho,” he’s still relatively young at 35, but looks ten years younger. It came out between Weld’s “Lord Love a Duck” and “I Walk the Line” (1970) and is sort of a meshing of those two films.
While it failed to acquire an audience at the box office, it went on to cult status and thus was remade in 1996 with Grant Show and Wendy Benson-Landes, albeit shot in Montreal. It was also the inspiration for Bart Simpson’s girlfriend in an episode of The Simpsons, as well as influenced future flicks, like “Joyride” (1977).
There are some interesting psychological gems to mine and I liked the locations (listed below), but I found the drama relatively boring. Those enamored with Perkins and Weld should find it more rewarding.
It runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, and was shot in southwestern Massachusetts in the area of Great Barrington and Egremont, as well as North Adams, which is an hour’s drive north of there.
GRADE: B-
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★ 8 / 10
The Pitt and the Poison. Pretty Poison is
John Chard
The Pitt and the Poison. Pretty Poison is directed by Noel Black and adapted to screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Junior from the novel “She Let Him Continue”…
The Pitt and the Poison.
Pretty Poison is directed by Noel Black and adapted to screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Junior from the novel “She Let Him Continue” written by Stephen Geller. It stars Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld, Beverly Garland, John Randolph and Dick O’Neill. Music is by Johnny Mandel and cinematography by David Quaid.
Pure definition of a culter movie? Probably Pretty Poison. A wonderfully odd neo-noir that’s as cunning as a fox, Noel Black’s movie flummoxed many upon release but the underground swell of the cult enthusiasts has ensured this particular poison is still around to be swallowed.
Plot finds Perkins as troubled Dennis Pitt, an arsonist as a youth and fantasist as an adult, he’s just been released from a mental health facility, in spite of his parole officer’s reservations. Beginning his employment at a chemical factory, Dennis comes into contact with young high school drum majorette, Sue Anne Stepanek (Weld), and lets her believe he is a secret agent. Little does he know, but Sue is only too happy to indulge his fantasies, since she herself is harbouring some unhealthy desires.
Much like the brilliant film noir movie Gun Crazy (1950), Pretty Poison upturns the standard boy and girl crime spree formula by having the girl be the one doing the damage. Dennis Pitt has absolutely no idea how not in control of the relationship he is, he’s beguiled by Sue, thinking he has finally found a soul mate to share in his fantasies, but she’s pulling all the strings, luring him into a web of chaos from which he is completely incapable of escaping from.
With the characterisations firmly in place, where both Weld and Perkins are on top form, Black and his tech team pump discoloured blood through the picture’s veins. Pic actually breathes as a black comedy, for the first third the makers are toying with us the audience, making us unsure as to if we should be laughing? Or feeling edgy? Maybe even daring us to walk out? Yes! The film “is” that off-kilter with its tonal flows. Then the light dawns on us, but not the hapless Dennis of course, that we are in a deceptively menacing Americana, one that’s even strangely sexy, and cynical into the bargain.
Subversive, intelligent and utterly compelling, Pretty Poison deserves to be better known. 8/10
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★ 8 / 10
The title says it all
AlsExGal
Dennis Pitt (Anthony Perkins) is a young man who is being released from a mental hospital after having committed arson. He burned down his aunt's house at age…
Dennis Pitt (Anthony Perkins) is a young man who is being released from a mental hospital after having committed arson. He burned down his aunt's house at age 15. What he didn't know was that she was in the house at the time, and so she died in the fire.Dennis has a job waiting for him at a chemical company, but it is mind numbingly boring work - sitting on an assembly line all day making sure that bottles of chemicals are OK and that they proceed down the assembly line OK, which they almost always do. Since Dennis' root problem is that he is subject to a rich fantasy life, this lack of something upon which to occupy his mind has him drifting into the exciting world of make-believe and out of dull reality in short order.He gets involved with a pretty high school student, Sue Ann (Tuesday Weld), and tells her that he is an undercover CIA agent. Sue Ann seems to be a gullible thrill-seeking teen at first, impressed with Dennis's exciting stories of secret missions, maybe wanting to believe it, maybe actually believing it. Dennis has plans to sabotage the chemical plant where he works because it is dumping toxic chemicals into the river next to it. In his mind, some vandalism for the sake of his fantasy life and the environment is within the limits of acceptable behavior. But Sue Ann has a darker agenda, one that soon has Dennis unwillingly mixed up in murder. Complications ensue.The 60s is not my favorite decade for film because so much of it is of two minds - You either have entries that are trying to push the envelope as it existed at the time such as "Midnight Cowboy" and "Bonnie and Clyde" or lighter fare such as Oliver or Mary Poppins. Sometimes you have both tendencies in the same film! But this one just clicks and rings true. Perkins was great as the doomed misfit, with a role that for sure is trying to capitalize - eight years later - on his role in Psycho, except here he's not a psycho as much as he is a gullible patsy. Then there is Beverly Garland as Sue Ann's hard drinking tough talking hypocritical mother just a year before she becomes the stepmother to My Three Sons - for sure this was a departure from her usual doe-eyed roles.Note the brief scene at the end with Ken Kercheval, who played JR Ewing rival Cliff Barnes on Dallas some ten years later.I'd recommend this one as it seems unfairly forgotten.
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Seems interesting with Anthony Perkins as a former but rehabilitated (cured) mentl case.