Watch Pretty Poison For Free

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

He is weird and disturbed,she is clever cold blood and poison as suggest the title,when they meet something is gonna happen....Anthony Perkins was made for this kind of character,mentally unbalanced,Tuesday Weld in your best performance ever play a pretty girl who find a interesting young man which self called CIA's spy,she soon realize that could be take advantage of this unstable guy using him for another purpose....quickly he is in your net without notice,this low budge movie has a very clever premise which the hunter is catch by the prey.....remarkable forgotten gem to the sixties that every movie fan must to see!!! Resume: First watch: 2000 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 8.25

A quirky little picture based on a quirky little novel—Stephen Geller's 'She Let Him Continue' (E.P. Dutton, 1966)—'Pretty Poison' delves, Hitchcock-like, into realms of psychotic violence that sometimes lie just beneath the facade of tidy American normalcy. Already firmly typecast as a perpetual deviant, Anthony Perkins ('Fear Strikes Out'; 'Psycho') plays Dennis Pitt, a mentally disturbed young man who is out on parole after serving a long stretch behind bars for setting a house fire that killed his aunt when he was fifteen years old. Temporarily evading his parole officer (John Randolph) by relocating to "Winslow" (actually Great Barrington) Massachusetts, Dennis takes a job at a small chemical factory but indulges his overactive fantasy life by pretending to be a CIA agent. His self-imposed "secret mission": to sabotage the discharge pipe that dumps the mill's polluting effluent into the river. At a nearby lunch wagon Dennis meets Sue Ann Stepanek (Tuesday Weld), a pretty, blonde 17-year-old high school student and drum majorette who seems to personify the all-American girl-next-door. Dennis enlists Sue Ann in his sabotage mission but Sue Ann turns out to be much more than Dennis bargained for; she bludgeons the night watchman who interrupts their caper then proceeds to shoot her own mother (Beverly Garland) to death—and blames both murders on Dennis, whose track record leaves him highly vulnerable to such charges. With Dennis back behind bars, Sue Ann is last seen seducing another gullible young man, though under the watchful eye of Dennis's suspicious parole officer: a scene tacked on after preview audiences reacted negatively to the film's evident cynicism toward wanton killing (Sirhan Sirhan had just assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy). A modest hit when it first appeared, 'Pretty Poison' has achieved enduring cult status, thanks no doubt to Lorenzo Semple Jr.'s savvy script, David Quaid's picturesque cinematography, and the disarmingly witty acting of Tony Perkins. (Tuesday Weld blamed an uncharacteristically dull performance on director Noel Black, a shy, socially awkward man who was not able to bring out the best in her). Lawence Kasdan's 1981 noir thriller, 'Body Heat', utilizes a similar plot. DVD (2006).

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

The film starts with Perkins being released from an insane asylum or some sort of confinement (as the plot is rather muddled, it is not clear who he is and what his past is). With Perkins playing a character much like Norman Bates, this could almost be seen as a sequel to "Psycho," except that some hack named Noel Black directed this instead of Hitchcock. The plot is nonsensical and the main characters don't resemble real people. There is no flow to the proceedings. It just rambles along aimlessly and bizarrely, unsure of whether it's a drama, a thriller, or a black comedy. The only thing the film has going for it is the mercifully short running time.