Pretty Poison
Directed by Noel Black
Lorenzo Sempel Jr. based on a novel by Stephen Geller
1968/US
IMDb link
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Sue Ann Stepanek: You are some character, Dennis. I’m surprised the C.I.A. lets you out without a keeper.[/box]
Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins made this a must-see for me.
Dennis Pitt (Perkins) is released from the psychiatric institution where he has been an inmate since the age of 15. He is ill-equipped to re-integrate into society and is still delusional Then he skips out on his case-worker and moves to a city where he has no support. He meets high-school cheerleader Sue-Ellen (Weld). She believes it when he tells her she is pretty and when he tells her he is a spy.
It turns out that Sue Ellen has problems of her own – problems that make them a perfect couple.
This is a nice little thriller. Perkins had the dazed, sensitive, disturbed look down pat by 1967 and he employs it to the hilt. I will watch Weld in anything. Not a must-see but entertaining.
