By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Two crushes for the price of one! Sweet, innocent, charming Anthony Perkins along side minx, fem goddess, starlet Tuesday Weld is enough to get my toes curling before opening credits. PRETTY POISON is all types of 1960s naughty sultriness that makes me swoon aloud.
It begins with Dennis Pitt (Perkins) being released from a correctional institution. He’s a lovely fun gent with a genuine smile and a coy appeal that makes everyone around root for him. He spots Sue Ann Stepanek (Weld) performing a cute little color guard routine and he’s smitten. He immediately wants to possess her and opts to do it with an innocent con.
Sue Ann comes across as an innocent and naive thing. She falls for Pitt’s lies. He tells her that he works for the C.I.A. and her eyes light up like a Christmas tree. He hires her and she is ready and willing to perform any and all tasks. She is a very dutiful, but wickedly dangerous gal. She can bat her eyes like a lost kitten and pout her lips in a way that will make every knight-in-shining-armor come calling and when they do, she will stab them 100 times with a blade so sharp that it killed on the first slash. I love absolutely everything about her.
By day, Dennis works in a factory and tries to stay on the up-and-up. After work, he grabs a burger from a truck where Sue Ann stops by. He wants her and makes a sly move. He hands her a bottle and tells her that they are under surveillance. She must meet him later to give it back. She follows the instructions precisely and he knew it would. He’s so good, but his bad boy streak is delightful. When he goes to see her later, he takes the bottle and pretends he’s uninterested in her. This of course makes her follow him. Dennis must be careful. He’s tempting a girl thirsty for danger. Didn’t he learn anything from Eve? Still, what a yummy little team they are.
He takes her to make-out point so they can talk. She hints that she’s having mommy trouble and asks him to check out her mother’s beau. He agrees readily. That vamp already has him wrapped around her beautiful little finger. She pushes him for more info and he elaborates his lie. He says that he’s a secret agent who works at the plant as a cover because an alien group is going to poison the water supply. He then forces a kiss pretending that people are watching them.
The next day, he pretends to watch her mother’s boyfriend. He then takes her to the lake. He gives her a bit of LSD and the two enjoy some colorful and magically hallucinogenic moments before having a passionate romp in the field.
Soon, the need for adventure and desires to push the limit overtakes Sue Ann. It’s easy to see that Dennis felt more for her than she did him. She is out for herself and makes no apologies about it. I love the breaking point in this. After they make love, Dennis tries to be strong over the phone. He tells her that he’s not sure if she’s worth his techniques anymore and she plays it perfectly. She’s nonchalant but reminds him about how good the sex was – and then she was suddenly worth the techniques again. She’s such a fem and I love it.
This is a sensational flick. It’s such a powerhouse fem film. Sure, Sue Ann is a villain in it, but she is brilliant in her wicked ways. She uses all of her femininity and wiles to control everything around her. She’s a witch and her powers live in her eyes and her smile.
Tuesday Weld is an eternal goddess who just owned every scene she was in. She showed so much strength in Sue Ann. The way she conveyed the manipulation under Sue Anne’s innocent surface proves her an expert in her craft.
Of course, Anthony Perkins is fantastic. He shows the weakness in Dennis and how it’s exploited. It is his insecurity and the defense mechanism of lying which is his downfall. Falling for a femme-fatale didn’t exactly help things, but who could blame him?
I can’t recommend this enough. I own this, but I found that it is currently on YOUTUBE for free.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8.5/10
