Pretty Poison's an odd film that doesn't fully live up to its potential, but it certainly wasn't bad. Its set-up sounds great, with an unstable man meeting and falling for an even less stable young woman after he tells her he's a secret agent. Things get more outlandish and dangerous as the film goes on, but the progression never feels super satisfying or well-plotted. It definitely has a start and end point, quite clearly, but meanders a great deal between beginning and end. Something feels weirdly loose about it all, and I think the approach did the story a disservice.
But at least Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld are both pretty good in the lead roles, and the whole thing gets more entertaining if you try to imagine it all as taking place between Psycho and Psycho II (a wacky misadventure for Norman Bates, because sometimes it's hard to see Perkins as anyone else but his most iconic character).
But at least Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld are both pretty good in the lead roles, and the whole thing gets more entertaining if you try to imagine it all as taking place between Psycho and Psycho II (a wacky misadventure for Norman Bates, because sometimes it's hard to see Perkins as anyone else but his most iconic character).