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.
I saw this at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood on a double bill with Play It As It Lays. Pretty Poison is great! God, that scene where she kills the security guard and the look on Anthony Perkins’s face when he realizes that she’s noticeably crazier than he ever pretended to be!
It was pretty great. I really loved Play It As It Lays.