Pretty Poison

I'm sure it's just the Tuesday Weld connection but I kept thinking of I Walk the Line (1970) and compared this unfavorably. This time she falls in love with Elizabeth Holmes as played by Anthony Perkins. Zing! This is worth a watch but it's a quiet and calm watch despite some of the mayhem.

The turn of events is quite well plotted out and develops in interesting directions. The film also has a French New Wave aura to it at times, with the quick flashbacks and characters pretending to be something else... I definitely felt a Band of Outsiders meets Shoot the Piano Player vibe. Weld and Perkins are playing much younger than their actual ages, and it shows, but otherwise their performances are solid. Very intriguing little cult film.

Anthony Perkins is a young man recently released from a mental institution. He is set up with a job in a lumber mill in a small town and seems to be half lost in a vivid, private fantasy life. He meets Tuesday Weld and lures her into his fantasy where he is a CIA agent spying on the lumber mill which is involved in a sabotage plot. The problem is ... she's far more dangerous than he is. This is a decent little flick with amazing performances from both Perkins and Weld.

Anthony Perkins always Norman Bates, always.

What a bizarre little flick. Anthony Perkins once again plays the seemingly benevolent psycho, but with a twist. The clever framing of the film in mirroring the psychosis turns it all around here. The obvious question to ask is: who is the psycho and who's the normal one? It's not always obvious to tell the difference and the sure signs turn out not to be so sure. A flick that continuously descends from a carefree pace to one of more sinister and unnerving undertones.

A thriller directed with considerable style. Perkins is excellent, and Tuesday Weld does the best work of her career.

This fairly well paced and edited film has a lot to say about American life: the small town, police power, environmental impacts and the criminal justice system. What exactly it says about all these things isn't always clear other than nothing is really what it seems. Weld's and Perkins' characters flip so convincingly that it's believable and shocking at the same time.

A very deadpan black comedy with some hilarious moments. It's hard to imagine it working without Perkins. He expresses everything from cunning and conniving to bafflement and terror with great precision and timing.