Anthony Perkins(1932-92), who is well known as Norman Bates in "Psycho", gets to play something close to him in "Pretty Poison". Perkins plays Dennis Pitts, a paroled mental patient who was sent there for arson. Now that he's released, he gets to start over life. He acts like a "Secret Agent" when he starts taking pictures. While he works at a factory, he meets a blonde teenager name Sue Ann(Tuesday Weld), she would tag along on his missions. However, he doesn't know that her agenda is a far cry from his own. When they started dating, her mother starts to have her negative views of Dennis. Appalled by her behavior, Dennis is made uneasy. On his "mission", he wants to create espionage at the factory he works at, Sue Ann takes out the guard on duty, and kills him. She would take his gun, and use it to kill her mother. Knowing that he won't condone to murder, he would go to prison, because he will feel safer there than on the outside. Unlike Norman Bates, Dennis Pitts is a little more out there. With such an imagination, this man is fun to be around. Not as questionable as Bates. Just a little tamer. A fun movie to watch. 2 out of 5 stars.

This has everything of a 6 or a 7: the plot, setting, cast...but turns out to be more of an 8ish, or at least a superior grade than one would think of giving it before having watched it full. We're given a synopsis that quickly reveals itself to be misleading, while not being a lie either. The evolution the movie is subjected to is a very refreshing and entertaining boost to it at the mid-film mark, where one thinks he's got the film just about figured out, and then it sees itself completely rejuvenated with gusto and new intrigue. The acting is good, and for both lead roles a difficult job because complexly ambiguous. The pace is lively, and the events and dialogs in the film coherent and pertinent to the plot.Ultimately I believe this film was highly influential, possibly even a pioneer in what it did. I can think of many plots from here and there following its core concept.

A low-budgeted romance-cum-crime dark comedy from director Noel Black, his debut feature PRETTY POISON was dead on arrival upon its release, but its reputation has been rescued ever since, arguably categorised as a "Neo-noir", it stars Anthony Perkins, 8 years after PSYCHO (1960), as an apparently self-referential young man Dennis Pitt, who was a teenage arsonist and has been recently released from mental institution on parole and works in a lumber mill, he looks normal, a breezy lad is ready to embrace his freedom. But a forewarning from his parole officer Morton Azenauer (Randolph) "you steps into a tough world where it got no place at all for fantasies" reveals his concerns.Dennis has a crush on a blond local high-schooler Sue Ann (Weld) and tries to impress her by claiming himself as a secret agent, and it works! A guileless Sue Ann believes him and spurs him to do something exciting together. Smitten with her, Dennis invents a series of missions including sabotaging the chute of the mill where he works, under the fancy of a water-poisoning conspiracy theory. But during their jejune mission, things escalate into murder, and guess who is the perpetrator, it's Sue Ann, it turns out that she has no conscience of killing at all, she is the real psychopath and from then, the scale has been tipped. Dennis behaves more like a normal person while Sue Ann's escape plan goes wilder and scarier, there is no way this will end like Oliver Stone's anti-social affidavit NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994), so the only safe way for Dennis to cut off with her completely, is that he goes back behind the bars and leaves the pretty poison to the next victim and hopes one day, she can get her comeuppance.The passive, self-preserving ending where vice gets away with murder is shockingly at odds with most Hollywood commodities, but the story itself has a semblance of food for thought. Anthony Perkins credibly juggles levity and seriousness with his unique greenness, he is less neurotic and more sympathetic here. Tuesday Weld, on the other hand, is much too calculated to underline an 18-year-old murderess' twisted frame of mind, and Beverly Garland is quite memorable as her controlling mother who doesn't have any inkling about the true nature of her daughter - surprised but not scared, when her doom abruptly arrives, that's the bloody irony of parenting.

Out-on-parole arsonist Anthony Perkins (as Dennis Pitt) gets a job in a small Massachusetts lumber yard, which turns out to be a polluting chemical plant. He's not a good worker, daydreaming about the high school majorettes in mini-skirts he enjoys watching. While at "Pete's" outdoor eatery, Mr. Perkins meets mature-looking 17-year-old Tuesday Weld (as Sue Ann Stepanek), probably the prettiest of the marching cheerleaders. Perkins intrigues Ms. Weld with secret agent-type behavior. Believing Perkins works for the CIA, she asks him to investigate her typist mother Beverly Garland, who is "not queer" but "mixed up" with a mysterious man. "He could be subversive," Weld explains. Perkins tells Weld suspect enemy agents are plotting a terrorist attack through the water supply. Perkins may be playfully psychotic, but Weld could be deadly..."Pretty Poison" is perfectly cast. Looking ten years younger, Perkins pulls off a different psycho characterization; he is not the man you're expecting. Weld counterpoints beautifully; she polled at #2 in the annual "Best Actress" contest held by The New York Film Critics. If the film were a hit instead of a sleeper, Ms. Garland might have received some "Supporting Actress" attention. The east coast helps provide a great extended cast. Three day players from "Dark Shadows" appear, with the show's "Mrs. Johnson" Clarice Blackburn (as Mrs. Bronson) offering the usual good support. Dick O'Neill (as Bud) and Joseph Bova (as Pete) are likewise perfect. There is also a good role for intuitive John Randolph (as Morton Azenauer), a parole office pivotal in imagining what might happen between Weld and gullible Ken Kercheval (as Harry Jackson).******** Pretty Poison (7/19/68) Noel Black ~ Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld, Beverly Garland, John Randolph