Pretty Poison

Dennis has just come out of an institution; he set a fire as a boy and spent years under supervision. Now he works at a chemical plant and reports regularly to a parole officer. In town he sees Sue Ann; a high school senior, in the marching band, everyone's model child. Dennis tells her he is a secret agent. She believes him, or acts as if she does, and joins the game. They plan a sabotage. One night by the river the thing turns serious, and from that moment it changes who is playing whom. Noel Black directs. Anthony Perkins plays Dennis and Tuesday Weld plays Sue Ann. Beverly Garland and John Randolph are in the cast. It is an American production. The film got no wide release when it came out; over the years critics rediscovered it and it took a place as a cult item. The matter it treats is the gap between appearance and fact; the man the town thinks dangerous and the girl it holds up as a model change places. Perkins plays a fragile, suspect man once again, and that choice is part of the film's game. Tuesday Weld never plays the character as wicked in any scene, and that is where her effect comes from. The film gives small town life in bright colours and with a calm surface. The narrative moves between comedy and crime and does not settle its tone in one place. The parole officer is the only realistic voice in the story and nobody listens to him. The ending hands justice to the wrong place. Its limit is age; the narrative is short, the plot thin, and some transitions abrupt. Who it is for: viewers who like sixties noir and stories that turn on you. Who it is not for: it is dated, short, and the ending cold.