Pretty Poison (1968)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1968
Running Time	85:36 (Case: 87)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:37)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Noel Black
Studio Distributor	Ovation	Starring	Anthony Perkins Tuesday Weld Beverly Garland John Randolph Dick O'Neill Clarice Blackburn Joseph Bova Ken Kercheval Don Fellows George Ryan
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$14.95	Music	Johnny Mandel

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Pretty Poison is one of a new range called Hollywood Classics from one of the smaller local distributors, DV1. The range includes a number of lesser known films of the 1950s and 1960s including Bigger Than Life, The Black Windmill, Boom! and Secret Ceremony. I can't say that any of these films had specifically entered my consciousness before this range was issued however they all boast well known casts and seem to be well regarded.

    This particular film was released in 1968 and stars Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. It is an interesting and thought provoking psychological drama/thriller which centres on the relationship between Dennis Pitt (Perkins); a delusional, paranoid and possibly psychotic young man and Sue Ann Stepanak (Weld) a small town girl who he becomes infatuated with. At the beginning of the film, Pitt is released from a facility for 'disturbed juveniles'. We do not find out why he was there until later in the film. He is initially sent to work in a lumber yard however he soon gives his probation officer, Morton Azenauer (John Randolph), the slip. Morton does not catch up with him for a year. He finds him working at a chemical factory in a small town where he has become attracted to a Sue Ann. He attracts her attention by pretending to be a mysterious secret agent and asking for her help. As they quickly becomes lovers, her controlling mother tries to come between them. Also, he gets Sue Ann involved in a plan he has to sabotage the chemical factory due to what he perceives to be them polluting the local area. When the sabotage mission does not go quite as he planned, their relationship starts to change.

   I can't really describe any more of the plot without spoiling the film but suffice it to say that this film does not fit with the normal conventions of such films. The cover likens it to Natural Born Killers, however, I personally think this is a more intelligent and restrained film than that. The film is based on a novel by Stephen Geller and was remade for television in 1996. The thing which really makes this film is the acting by the two leads. They both do excellent jobs with their characters and although you might expect Perkins to just be rehashing Psycho from 8 years earlier, this character is quite different. Weld is also excellent although she has been quoted as saying she thinks this is her worst performance. I beg to differ.

    I would recommend this film to fans of offbeat psychological thrillers and films of the late 1960s. Well worth seeing.

Video

    The video quality is average.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

    The picture was fairly soft and quite grainy although there was no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was quite good.

    The colour was surprisingly good with quite vivid reds and other bright colours although some scenes seemed a little washed out. Blacks showed some colour variation between dark blues and slight greeniness.

    Artefacts were plentiful. The worst was some quite bad pixelization in a number of scenes especially a dark scene at 45:30 to 46:35. It also reoccurred at 69:44 and 70:10. When it appears it affects the whole screen but only for a second or so at a time. In addition to this there was also some telecine wobble, blobs and lines, jumps (such as at 66:26 and 77:18), bits of edge enhancement and some minor aliasing such as on a car grille at 54:30.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change occurs at 71:37 and causes a slight pause despite being well placed.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was very clear and easy to understand. There was some obvious ADR but no transfer related problems with audio sync.

    The score of this film by Johnny Mandel is quite dated and often incongruous, sounding more like a soft focus romance at some points such as when Perkins is hiding in the forest.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Nothing.

Menu

    The menu design is very simple, including some music and minor motion. It allows for playing the film or accessing scenes.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Commentary by Director Noel Black and Film Historian Robert Fischer
• Scripted Deleted Scene (with optional commentary by Black and Fischer)
• Press Book
• Picture Gallery

    The Region 2 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    The video quality is average

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall