Pretty PoisonWhat do you get when a scheming but naive man-child teams up with a teenybopper harboring latent psychotic tendencies? Pretty Poison is a suspense thriller that borrows narrative beats from film noir classics like Out of the Past and Double Indemnity. Released on probation from a mental institution, Dennis Pitt (Anthony Perkins) works in a small town chemical plant, trying to assuage his boredom by plotting to sabotage it, since it is dumping waste into the local reservoir. Masquerading as a CIA operative, Dennis "recruits" a beautiful teenage girl named Sue Ann Stepenek (Tuesday Weld), using his "mission" as an excuse to spend time with her. What Dennis doesn't count on is that Sue Ann is playing her own game with him, and that below her bubbly exterior lies a poison heart.
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Pretty Poison takes place almost exclusively from the perspective of Dennis, who is highly intelligent and learned, which contributes to his arrogance and boredom. Released after having been incarcerated at a young age for arson and the accidental manslaughter of his abusive aunt, he jokes with his parole officer, Morton Azenauer (John Randolph) that his "talents are wasted" in menial labor, and that his interest in astrophysics should qualify him as an astronaut. Dennis uses sarcasm with those he considers to be intellectually inferior, and enjoys playing games at the expense of others; consider how he leaves clues for his landlady, implying that he is developing secret pictures he took with his spy camera. Dennis does this because he cannot admit that his life is boring and without purpose, especially when he dreams of something more exciting. Fantasies are Dennis's primary recreation; he watches the high school marching band perform from a distance, fixated on the lovely Sue Ann waiving a flag--the stereotypical "All-American Girl Next Door". While he is supposed to be monitoring the small bottles of undefined chemicals on an assembly line, he envisions them as the teenagers marching in their red uniforms. Dennis is working up to his grand revenge scheme against the chemical plant, run by the gruff Bud Munsch (Dick O'Neill), which involves causing the pipe which has been leaking chemical runoff into the river to collapse. (Although Dennis considers himself an ecological freedom fighter, the irony is that this would likely cause even worse damage to the environment than if he simply opted to release his incriminating photos to the authorities.) For all his complicated ruses and petty vandalism, Dennis is a sympathetic--even tragic--figure; even the musical score leans toward melancholy when Dennis is alone. He confesses to Sue Ann in a moment of vulnerability that although he knowingly started a fire in the basement of his aunt's house--using the sticks she beat him with after he was caught "playing doctor" with a neighbor girl--he didn't know she was inside. Dennis sees destruction of property as a fundamentally harmless way of getting back at those who have wronged him, but it's clear that he doesn't actually want to hurt anyone. This event also molded his attitudes toward sexuality, which Sue Ann challenges almost exclusively by the mere fact of being so pretty. Dennis is sexually frustrated; just thinking about Sue Ann causes a "build up of pressure" that leads to explosions, like at the plant or when a steam kettle blows up at the lunch stand when he first meets her. Confronted with a nubile "nymphet", Dennis's sexual anxiety recalls Stanley Kubrick's Lolita; both Dennis and Humbert are ineffectual men who ultimately let a young girl weaken their already fragile grip on reality. The biggest difference between Lolita and Pretty Poison, however, is that Dolores "Lolita" Haze is the victim of a sinister pedophile, while Sue Ann is a full-on femme fatale in a cardigan and plaid skirt.
Pretty Poison begins as a fairly lighthearted film; Dennis is lying to Sue Ann about being a CIA operative, but he does it to impress her--like young men will do for girls, albeit not usually to such an elaborate extent. He overhears about a place dubbed "Make Out Lane" by the locals from the cook at the lunch counter, and subsequently has Sue Ann take him there as a cover to plan out their mission. Dennis has manufactured elaborate props for his alias, like a special modification to his work ID so that it changes when viewed through a colored filter. After he invites her later to a secluded spot by the river, he gives her "government issued" and "non-addictive" drugs. Dennis believes that all of these gimmicks impress Sue Ann enough to make her fall in love with him, leading to the inescapable question: how stupid is Sue Ann to fall for such a contrived scheme? Since Pretty Poison is from Dennis's point of view, he believes that his schemes are working, because she plays along with them. Sue Ann is actually a cunning girl who sees an opportunity in Dennis, and exploits his self-deception. Pretty Poison foreshadows the trouble Dennis is getting himself into with Sue Ann through phrases Dennis says or hears or other moments of irony that should shake him out of his obliviousness. When Dennis shows Sue Ann a bottle of chemicals he has used as the McGuffin in his secret agent scheme, he comments that it "looks so innocent...what a damned deceptive world"--a phrase that could just as easily describe Sue Ann. By the time that Dennis wakes up from his fantasy, and understands that Sue Ann is a deranged and manipulative schemer, it is too late. The tragedy of Dennis is that despite being naive, delusional, and conceited, he is a relative innocent who fervently believes that his love for Sue Ann is mutual. Comparisons have been made between Sue Ann and Lady Macbeth, since Dennis discovers that he had no real control over Sue Ann, while she has played him like a violin.
Pretty Poison was adapted from the novel "She Let Him Continue" by Stephen Geller, and is inspired by the spree killings of Charles Starkweather, who was accompanied by his then-girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. Pretty Poison reverses the roles and makes the underage girl the psychotic killer instead, while the man becomes the fearful accomplice in the rampage. Sue Ann's desire to kill appears superficial or even arbitrary; a deeper analysis suggests that it is gives her sexual pleasure, although Pretty Poison declines to expand upon how or when this deviancy took root. Consider what follows after she rolls the body of a nightwatchman she struck with a wrench into the river--he drowns while she straddles him with an enthusiasm that borders on arousal. Sue Ann makes it clear to Dennis that she wants him right after every killing, although he is understandably appalled at the timing of her advances. Sue Ann transforms from a peppy high school girl into a thrill-killer overnight, leaving Dennis (and the audience) to consider just how much he was responsible for triggering this corruption. Sue Ann is a jarring wake-up call for Dennis and his delusional view on reality. He realizes that no matter what fantastic, idealized image of a perfect girl that he had in his mind about Sue Ann, that sociopaths--as she opines in the end--look like everyone else; it isn't until you are already in their clutches that the ugly truth comes out.
Recommended for: Fans of a psychological thriller about a young man who tragically underestimates the calculating guile and ruthless evil of a superficially perfect teenage girl. Pretty Poison embraces tropes found in film noir classics about the femme fatale, while simultaneously challenging gender roles regarding power dynamics and the capacity for deception in relationships.
Pretty Poison begins as a fairly lighthearted film; Dennis is lying to Sue Ann about being a CIA operative, but he does it to impress her--like young men will do for girls, albeit not usually to such an elaborate extent. He overhears about a place dubbed "Make Out Lane" by the locals from the cook at the lunch counter, and subsequently has Sue Ann take him there as a cover to plan out their mission. Dennis has manufactured elaborate props for his alias, like a special modification to his work ID so that it changes when viewed through a colored filter. After he invites her later to a secluded spot by the river, he gives her "government issued" and "non-addictive" drugs. Dennis believes that all of these gimmicks impress Sue Ann enough to make her fall in love with him, leading to the inescapable question: how stupid is Sue Ann to fall for such a contrived scheme? Since Pretty Poison is from Dennis's point of view, he believes that his schemes are working, because she plays along with them. Sue Ann is actually a cunning girl who sees an opportunity in Dennis, and exploits his self-deception. Pretty Poison foreshadows the trouble Dennis is getting himself into with Sue Ann through phrases Dennis says or hears or other moments of irony that should shake him out of his obliviousness. When Dennis shows Sue Ann a bottle of chemicals he has used as the McGuffin in his secret agent scheme, he comments that it "looks so innocent...what a damned deceptive world"--a phrase that could just as easily describe Sue Ann. By the time that Dennis wakes up from his fantasy, and understands that Sue Ann is a deranged and manipulative schemer, it is too late. The tragedy of Dennis is that despite being naive, delusional, and conceited, he is a relative innocent who fervently believes that his love for Sue Ann is mutual. Comparisons have been made between Sue Ann and Lady Macbeth, since Dennis discovers that he had no real control over Sue Ann, while she has played him like a violin.
Pretty Poison was adapted from the novel "She Let Him Continue" by Stephen Geller, and is inspired by the spree killings of Charles Starkweather, who was accompanied by his then-girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. Pretty Poison reverses the roles and makes the underage girl the psychotic killer instead, while the man becomes the fearful accomplice in the rampage. Sue Ann's desire to kill appears superficial or even arbitrary; a deeper analysis suggests that it is gives her sexual pleasure, although Pretty Poison declines to expand upon how or when this deviancy took root. Consider what follows after she rolls the body of a nightwatchman she struck with a wrench into the river--he drowns while she straddles him with an enthusiasm that borders on arousal. Sue Ann makes it clear to Dennis that she wants him right after every killing, although he is understandably appalled at the timing of her advances. Sue Ann transforms from a peppy high school girl into a thrill-killer overnight, leaving Dennis (and the audience) to consider just how much he was responsible for triggering this corruption. Sue Ann is a jarring wake-up call for Dennis and his delusional view on reality. He realizes that no matter what fantastic, idealized image of a perfect girl that he had in his mind about Sue Ann, that sociopaths--as she opines in the end--look like everyone else; it isn't until you are already in their clutches that the ugly truth comes out.
Recommended for: Fans of a psychological thriller about a young man who tragically underestimates the calculating guile and ruthless evil of a superficially perfect teenage girl. Pretty Poison embraces tropes found in film noir classics about the femme fatale, while simultaneously challenging gender roles regarding power dynamics and the capacity for deception in relationships.