When a paroled psychiatric patient (Anthony Perkins) convinces a pretty young girl (Tuesday Weld) to accompany him on “top secret missions,” she is all too eager to raise the stakes further than he ever anticipated. The pair’s escalating mania and the savage climax will leave audiences wondering, “What brought a nice kid like Sue Ann to a shocking moment like this?” Pretty Poison is a shook-up story of the uptight generation.
“A remarkable first feature . . . which presupposes an attentive and intelligent audience. Anthony Perkins gives what may be his most sensitively conceived performance” – Pauline Kael
“An offbeat, original, totally irreverent examination of violence, refreshing in its subtlety and intelligent in its delivery” – Rex Reed
“Showing its social jaundice between grotty bursts of violence, this acidly comic late-’60s noir lets Tuesday Weld’s teen queen with a taste for mayhem out-psycho Anthony Perkins.” – Bill Weber, Slant Magazine
Kim Morgan writes about Pretty Poison on the New Beverly blog.
