With a title like "Anatomy of a Psycho", and a release year of 1961, you might guess, going in, that it's a low-budget exploitation flick capitalizing on the title of Hitchcock's "Psycho", released the year before, but in fact, it turns out to be more of a juvenile delinquent film, and they didn't do too bad considering the script was co-written by Ed Wood. They even used some of his "Plan 9" music for the soundtrack. Young "Chet Marco" (Darrell Howe) broods as the execution of his older brother nears. "Duke Marco" (not shown) is a murderer who will soon be sitting in the gas chamber. Newspapers trumpet the headlines; it's all over the radio, too. Chet visits Duke at San Quentin in the final hours, then heads back home, but on his way, a gang of punks accosts him in an alley.
"So", says their leader, "what was it like in there, in the slammer, visiting your murderer brother who's about to die and go to hell?" This line of deliberately provocative questioning gets the desired response out of Chet, who not only starts a fight but beats the tar out of the gang leader. Back at his trailer park home, he argues with his sister "Pat" (Pamela Lincoln), saying "Duke didn't do it, he never killed anyone!" But the truth is the opposite. Pat knows this and accepts Duke's death sentence, which will be carried out at Midnight. Chet leaves to hang out with his buddies at his friend Moe's crash pad, where they play cards and drink. The next day, after Duke is gassed, Chet has "Moe" (Don Devlin) and his buddies join him is beating up the DA's son, whom they've staked out near their high school. Wearing burlap "Town That Dreaded Sundown" masks, Chet and the boys beat him to a pulp.
Local detective "Mac" (Michael Granger) is onto the gang, and Chet in particular, and visits them at their clubhouse to let them know it.
Meanwhile, the school nice guy, "Mickey" (Ronnie Burns, son of George and Gracie) is dating Chet's sister Pam, but coincidentally, Mickey's Dad was the key prosecution witness at Duke's murder trial, and was most responsible for his conviction. Chet doesn't yet know this, but he's gonna find out.
Trying to bring him out of his angry shell, Mickey invites Chet, at his sister Pam's behest, to a party at the swanky pad of the local judge, who just so happens to be the guy who presided over Duke's trial and sentenced him to death. The party is hosted by the judge's son, who's recently stolen Chet's girlfriend. As if he didn't have enough aggravation, now he's got a double-angry revenge motive to attend the party, which he does, and after punching the judge's son out, he burns the mansion down by dropping a lit cigabutt in a waste basket. Then he casually walks away, down the town's main drag, and no one gives him an afterthought. The burndown is never again mentioned, and - per Ed Wood's script - it was probably included just to show Chet's progression as a budding psycho. In any other movie, an arson of this magnitude would get some plot time, but not here, and that's fair enough, because it's not where the story is heading.
Chet wants to get back at all the people who caused his brother Duke to be executed, so when Mickey (who has no idea Chet burned down the judge's house) comes over to tell Chet he's gonna marry his sister, Chet first tries beating him up, but Mickey's a good fighter and holds his own. Moe, the owner of the crash pad, who was formerly a Marine, then steps in to stop Mickey from pounding Chet. Mickey grabs a knife and Moe gets stabbed and severely wounded.
He later dies, and Mickey is charged with first degree murder. Chet revels in this because it was Mickey's Dad who's testimony convicted his brother Duke. Now Mickey will be up for the gas chamber if found guilty. The movie turns into a courtroom drama at the 40 minute mark, but we the viewers know something the jury does not (and I can't tell you what it is). Detective Mac suspects the same thing. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Anatomy of a Psycho." Darrell Howe gives a rather untrained but somehow accurate and empathetic portrayal as "Chet". The other actors are more professional than he, but it's his performance that stands out in an interesting flick that covers a lot of bases. It's the kind of early '60s "troubled teen" movie that might've influenced someone like David Lynch, and comes highly recommended to you, as well. The picture is very good. ////
Now, anytime a plot involves the theft of Defense Department secrets, you know you're in for some convolution. Espionage tales are always complex, but in "Flame of Stamboul"(1951), the plot's so wound-up I'll have a hard time 'splaining it to ya. It was directed by Ray Nazarro, a veteran of B-Westerns who knows what he's doing, so it was easy to follow, but not easy to review. Anyway, here goes. Happy-Go-Lucky ladies' man "Larry Wilson" (Richard Denning) meets the fashionable Frenchwoman "Lynnette Garay" (Lisa Ferraday) on a cruise ship to Istanbul. She thinks he's a funny, if tipsy, American tourist. It's Richard Denning getting a chance to do his "charming undercover act" once again (like we saw him do the other night in "Insurance Investigator"). At any rate, she's bored with him now: "It was fun while it lasted Mr. Wilson. I'm going on to Cairo, it was nice knowing you.
We now follow her, and when she gets to Cairo, we find out she's the frontwoman for a gang of Egyptian jewel thieves, who plan to rip off the wealthy son of a Sheik. He's infatuated with a belly dancer billed as The Flame of Stamboul, who actually, like Miss Garay, is a French gal. Her act is huge in Cairo, and so, to get close to the Sheik's son, the thieves plan to do away with Miss Flame and substitute Garay in her place. They look enough alike that no one can tell, especially with her veil on, and she's an equally talented dancer.
Getting back to Larry Wilson, he's really a CIA agent trying to get close to someone known only as The Voice, an international spy who may be trying to steal the plans for the defense of the Suez Canal. Following Garay to Cairo, he meets his American contact "Joe Octavian" (Nestor Paiva) in a cafe run by "Hassan", an agreeable nabob who'd be "shocked, shocked! I tell you," to find gambling or thievery going on in his establishment. Because he's undercover as a tippler, Joe at first slips Larry a mickey as per Hassan's order, thinking him a Boorish American ("get that drunk out of here"). But after they establish each other's identities through a rapid exchange of passwords, Larry and Joe team up to topple the dominoes leading to The Voice, using a streetwise go-between criminal named "Louie Baracca" (Norman Lloyd), who, hoping for a passport to get back to America where he has family, agrees to help Joe and Larry uncover the elusive Voice.
All of these plot elements converge toward the end, when George Zucco appears as a lowly street vendor. But wait! What's that in his Trinket Box? A gun? A camera? A pea shooter? If ever an actor was stereotyped to play bad guys, it was Zucco. You can't trust him, especially when he's smiling. Overall, as noted, this is one movie that's better seen than described. Norman Lloyd, who lived to be 106, steals the show as the middleman Barraca and is reason enough to give "Flame of Stamboul" Two Bigs and a high recommendation. We also like Richard Denning, who of course starred in "Creature from the Black Lagoon," not to mention the Hatton Street cult-classic "Target Earth". The picture here is soft but watchable. ////
And that's all for tonight. My blogging music was the self-titled debut CD from The Electromagnets, released in 1975 and featuring a 21-year-old Eric Johnson on guitar. My late night is Handel's Serse Opera. I'm excited about the Cincinnati Reds, who've been on a tear of late. Of course, I love the Dodgers, too, and also the Angels, but the Reds were my team all through the '70s (The Big Red Machine years) and into the late 80s/early 90s when they won a World Series with Eric Davis and the Nasty Boys relief squad. Then Marge Schott sold the team and they went into the tank for about 30 years or so. But now they're back, with the just-called-up Elly de la Cruz hitting balls out of the freakin' park one after the other. And he's only 21! The Reds just won 11 games in a row. I hope they can keep up the pace; it'd be great to see them at least make the playoffs. After that, who knows? And put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame already!
I wish you a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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