Trailer—Anatomy of a Psycho

source: Anatomy of a Psycho

Anatomy of a Psycho (1961) ** (out of 4) Chet (Darrell Howe) is outraged after his brother is put to death for killing a man and swears to seek vengeance against anyone who helped put him away. His sister Pat (Pamela Lincoln) is dating Mickey (Ronnie Burns) whose own father testified against the brother but Chet doesn't know this... at first. ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO has a lot of interesting ideas but this is simply "C" movie material and what good ideas are here are never fully explored and the end result is a decent juvenile delinquent picture. If you're expecting something like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE then you're certainly in the wrong picture. This was rumored to have been ghost written by the one and only Edward D. Wood, Jr. so one should know what to expect. As many reviews have pointed out, there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here and for the most part the film it quite dull. Where the film does work is the fact that it's pretty much just cheap entertainment and as long as you don;'t take it too serious you can get some mildly entertainment from it. The entire story is something we've seen countless times before. The revenge aspect really isn't anything new but the twist here is that the guy put to death really was guilty. The impact this has on the surviving brother's mental state is where the film brings up some interesting ideas but they just aren't fully explored. The performances are pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this. They're pretty much all over the place but the over-the-top performance by Howe does at least add a little spark to the material. The dead-pan performance from Michael Granger adds some entertainment as well. The rather bland and straight-forward direction by Boris Petroff doesn't add much but then again he at least made a film that didn't have countless errors (like Wood would have).

Chet has a strange attachment to his older brother that was executed. He has a sister, Pat, that will reveal more about the older brother - reminding Chet of who his older brother was but Chet feels differently about him. In the film, we watch Chet spiral into madness and built up anger over the death/execution of his older brother. It is true this film is slow at times but the film is better than it's given credit for. I do believe this film will bore some crowds - in particular the younger crowds that want a lot of action. This film is little action and all crime-drama with a few thrills. Worth a watch for fans of the older crime-dramas. 5.5/10

"Anatomy of a Psycho" has a premise that I'm pretty surprised that hasn't been copied to death by other movies - someone swearing revenge against those who were responsible for sending his brother to the gas chamber. There could have been a lot of perverse pleasure seeing judges, district attorneys, and jury members get snuffed. Unfortunately, the filmmakers don't seem to understand the potential they had. Despite a 73 minute running length, the movie is really slow- moving, and the central character only enacts revenge on three people - and two of those people are just RELATED to the people who were actually responsible for the central character's brother's death. With that in mind, the only way the movie could have been saved would be with unintentional humor. While there are some laughs here - miscast actors, bad acting, dopey dialogue - for the most part the movie is just drab and dull. If you want to see a more successful telling of the movie's theme, watch "Law Abiding Citizen" instead.

Chet Marco (Darrell Howe) is despondent after the execution of his big brother Duke, whom he idolized. Chet is the only one who doesn't believe that Duke, a career hoodlum, committed the murder for which he was sent to Death Row. Following a back-alley brawl in which his face is cut up with a broken bottle, Chet becomes increasingly angry and paranoid. He swears vengeance on those he deems responsible for his brother's death. Chet beats the crap out of the attorney general's son, sets the judge's house on fire, pulls a knife on the son of the prosecution's star witness, stabs an innocent bystander to death, and pins the murder on his best friend (Ronnie Burns, the adopted son of George Burns and Gracie Allen). All that happens in the first 45 minutes, leaving us with a plodding courtroom drama in the movie's final half-hour. Director Boris Petroff either paced his film at the speed of molasses, or was too inept to realize he was doing so. Adding to the dullness is an uninspired script and a cast of unknowns with the charisma of Steven Wright (but none of the humor). Despite its classification as a horror film, this is really a juvenile-delinquent movie with a loonier-than-usual protagonist. The title was an obvious attempt to cash in on two far better movies of the time. If you're in the mood for a 1950s J.D. film, you're better off with "High School Confidential."

Outside the decent performances by Ronnie Burns (George and Gracie's son) and Pamela Lincoln ("The Tingler", daytime's "Love of Life" and "The Doctors"), this juvenile delinquent drama is simply just another Z grade drive-in flick that suffers from the impossible mission of being sincere. It lack humor and real conflict, with forced situations and a cliched script. Burns and Lincoln play the siblings of a death row inmate on the verge of being executed as the film starts. Rebellious Burns believes in his brother's innocence, but the more pragmatic Lincoln knows that their brother was guilty. Burns sets out on a path of revenge and this ends up with him on trial for murder. Poor Pamela finds herself guilty simply by being related to two delinquents, but sets out to help her brother when she gets some proof of her brother's framing. The fault lies within the script that's far too chatty and slow on action until the end. The title is misleading completely. Darrell Howe is poignant as another truly troubled young man, and the supporting cast works with what they've got, but it's far too familiar and predictable (and often dull) to really work.

The son of Burns and Allen plays a cold, messed up 25 year old teenager with a group of 25 year old high school friends. His brother is sent to the electric chair and he gets tunnel vision concerning him. There is nothing wrong with the premise. It's just that the acting is atrocious and the plot so stupid. There are two kinds of kids: the punks and the Leave It to Beaver crowd. The scene where the psychotic guy is invited to a party by his sister's boyfriend is absolutely ludicrous. You almost expect him to say, "They're going to have a clown and everything." Anyway, the good guy gets framed and the movie is about how that is handled. One thing I've noticed in watching all these films of the forties and fifties. If you kill someone, no matter the circumstances, they send you to the chair. They try really hard to make this one social commentary, but it's beyond help.

When condemned killer Duke Marco is sent to the gas chamber, his younger brother, juvenile delinquent Chet (Darrell Howe), vows to take revenge on those responsible, his hatred and bitterness gradually twisting his mind. This early '60s crime drama was going great guns for a while, Chet's revenge leading him to arson, the troubled youth burning down a judge's house, and murder, pinning the blame on Mickey (Ronnie Burns), the son of the chief witness in his brother's case. I was intrigued as to what even darker places Chet's spiral into insanity would take him; unfortunately, it takes him to court, where the film turns into a really dull legal drama, as Mickey tries to prove his innocence, and Chet watches on, hoping that witness Bobbie (Frank Killmond) doesn't crack under pressure. Yawn! At the end of the film, Bobbie spills his guts, naming Chet as the guilty party. Chet makes a bid for freedom, pursued by cop Lt. Mac (Michael Granger), but the film wimps out on a fitting demise for the young hoodlum, instead opting for a happy(ish) ending, the misunderstood lad being taken safely away, rather than being pumped full of lead. 4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

It takes a certain type of person to enjoy Anatomy of a Psycho. If you like watching good movies, this will not be your thing. I mean imagine a horror movie in which no one dies. (Unless you count that opening scene with the gas chamber. And I suppose technically one guy did semi-accidentally get stabbed.) This has to be the most mild mannered psycho of film history. He comes up with a pretty good plan to get back at the witness, which seems to contradict the end of the movie where the main character has no idea what he's doing. But, I enjoyed Plan 9 From Outer Space, so to everyone out there who has a love for bad movies, this one is kind of fun. If you don't get enjoyment out of bad movies save yourself some time and watch your wife knit for a while.