Rather strange, psychological "thriller" about two societal/psychological misfits getting together and ultimately being coupled in murderous crimes. Anthony Perkins plays Dennis Pitt, a young man let out of a psych hospital for a juvenile record of arson and killing his aunt in the fire. Perkins is to go to a new town and work on a new job and forget all of his highly imaginative theories of conspiracies(that must have been behind his actions as an adolescent). Pitt is given this new lease of life by John Randolph's character as his parole officer. Well, Pitt moves to a city other than the one he was to take, takes a different job, and never checks in with Randolph. Oh, and by the way, he still has this highly imaginative mindset that everyone and everything is working against him or society. His job at a factory is producing a toxic that soon they will unleash on the drinking supply of the world. Perkins, playing the fragile yet innocuous disturbed, meets a young senior in high school who he enlists in one of his conspiracies. Tuesday Weld plays Sue Ann. She is adorable, beautiful, and turns out very deadly. Without going into the particulars of the plot, Perkins is the relatively normal one in this bizarre relationship. While the film does indeed drag at times, Perkins and Weld are both very good and ably assisted by Beverly Garland as Weld's mother, Dick O'Neill as a boss, and Randolph as Perkin's parole officer and friend. Pretty Poison is an interesting look into minds - what constitutes a really disturbed person juxtaposed against someone who is homicidal. What is normal - ostensibly or otherwise? The twists come plentifully in the end and the building of Weld's and Perkin's relationship is interestingly done.
Review of Pretty Poison
