Pretty Poison-Movie Review

Pretty Poison

Dir. Noel Black
USA, 1968
16mm 95 min.

Predating Heathers by almost 20 years, Noel Black's darkly comic tale of a New England teenage rampage stars Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins in what many argue are their best roles ever.

Perkins plays a young arsonist recently released from a mental institution who gets an inconspicuous job at a chemical factory in a small town where nobody knows about his dark past.

Tuesday Weld plays the fresh-faced high school majorette Sue Ann who gets sucked in by his fabricated tales of being a secret agent. They play dangerous games that result in murder.

But it soon becomes apparent that Sue Ann is the more unbalanced of the two, and Weld's performance as the manipulative teen is astounding, outshining even the former Norman Bates (the two would be teamed up again later with Play It As It Lays).

A rare, offbeat treat written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. , who would go on to work for Dino De Laurentiis (King Kong, Flash Gordon).

Kier-La Janisse

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