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Anatomy of a Psycho More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 13 reviews in total |
12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
So THIS is what became of George and Gracie's son!, 27 April 2002
Author:
Erzebet von Tepes de Neirhazi (luciemanet@netzero.net) from Philadelphia, PA
Ronnie Burns, the star of this movie, is the adopted son of George Burns and Gracie Allen. He guest starred on their TV show many times but I guess he wanted to branch out on his own. Unfortunately this movie, directed by the same guy who did THE UNEARTHLY, is as far as he got. Actually it is quite good as JD films go. Ronnie is a kid bordering on psycho already whose older brother is sent to the gas chamber for murder. Ronnie does not know, or does not want to know, that the brother he used as a role model was a thug, robber and general no-good. Instead he decides to avenge his death by getting rid of everyone responsible for the trial and sentencing. This would be okay if Ronnie's character were any good as a delinquent but in truth he is just an amateur. Early in the film he tries to beat up a guy who insults his brother but only ends up getting slashed with a broken bottle. For the rest of the movie you can watch the scar change size and location. He does manage to burn down the house where his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend lives and surprisingly no one catches on that he did it. We think the whole plot will be about him seeking revenge but the movie takes a turn when Ronnie kills his best friend and frames his sister's boyfriend for the crime. Will goodness win out? Hey. it's just a 73 minute picture, it won't be long before you find out. One thing you will notice right away is how very low the budget was. For key dramatic scenes the music is instantly recognizable as coming from PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE (1959). A fight scene is backed up by the music where Tor Johnson rises from his grave. That is sure to distract all B movie fans.
5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Have fun trying to stay awake through this, 26 December 2007
Author:
TimothyFarrell from Worcester, MA
Upon its original release, "Anatomy of a Psycho" was marketed as a
horror film. Despite the continuance of this by various public domain
labels, its really a 50s juvenile delinquency flick with a slightly
nuttier than usual protagonist. Hey, thats hardly a problem with me as
I love these old troubled teenager flicks. They often rise above their
limitations and have a genuinely cool atmosphere despite not being
great films per say. "High School Confidential", "High School Caesar",
and "High School Big Shot" are all examples of entertaining J.D.
flicks. "Anatomy of a Psycho" on the other hand is very lame.
The film is a waste of time for several reasons. The main one is the
direction by Boris Petroff. I don't except Fellini stylistics from
these films, but Petroff is such an inept director that he can't even
keep this film at a decent pace. Its only seventy minutes, but it feels
twice as long. Also, after a reasonably promising first half (one with
several bits of violence and a generally nihilistic atmosphere for its
time), the film becomes an insufferably dull courtroom drama for the
last forty minutes or so. I generally can't stand court room dramas,
and this is no exception. Its just a bunch of knee jerk moralizing
instead of the antisocial behavior I look for in these films. The fact
the lead actor Ronnie Burns (the son of George and Gracie) has the
charisma of a vacuum cleaner doesn't help. Oh yeah, the ending is a
major let down as well. Avoid this and check out one of the better 50s
juvenile flicks mentioned earlier. (2/10)
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Good flick!, 29 June 2004
Author:
Movie Nuttball from U.S.A.
This here movie is one of those old drive in type movies which actually its a fair film. The cast is different though and the movie maybe slow at times but this movie does have its moments. Some of the scenes in My opinion was ahead of its time and similar ones wasn't seen until films made later on down the road. The film has solid acting and interactions between the characters. Anatomy of a Psycho is written by the late Don Devlin who is the father of epic movie writer Dean Devlin. The late writer also has a part in this film. I wouldn't consider this film a horror film but more like a crime or a thriller. Sometimes movies like this one are some of the most realistic ones. This is part of a double feature which the other on the tape is called Hatchet for the Honeymoon which is also a good oldie! The movie is not perfect but like I said it has its moments. Give this movie a chance if you old crime flicks!
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
A good bad movie, 7 August 2007
Author:
adam_658 from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
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.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
I Didn't Expect Much and I Got It, 5 November 2009
Author:
Hitchcoc from United States
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.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A Real Bomb, 7 January 2009
Author:
whpratt1 from United States
Decided just for fun to view this film in black and white and it sure
was one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. Apparently in
the 1960's there was a great deal of interest in the film Psycho and
this film was introduced as another Psycho thriller.
This is the story about two brothers and one gets sentenced to prison
for killing a man and the younger brother feels that his brother is
innocent and should not go to the gas chamber and seeks revenge.
There is a great deal of poor acting and this is definitely a very low
budget film with unknown actors doing very poor acting. If you want to
fall asleep real fast, then don't miss this so called film.
4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Slow, no budget junk, 26 December 2001
Author:
DrSatan from The Land of Mortis
This film, marketed as a horror flick, is in fact nothing but a very slow moving JD film. The film is deficient in every aspect-direction, budget, acting, plot, dialogue. Some may enjoy it's campiness, but that wore thin for me very fast as there really wasn't much to this slow crapfest. I only wish I had held out for a DVD of "Hatchet for the Honeymoon" that did not contain this fetid film.
Okay revenge thriller, 23 March 2012
Author:
Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Hypersensitive Chet (endearingly overplayed with considerable scenery-gnashing panache by Darrell Howe) is left despondent over the conviction and execution of his hoodlum older brother. Despite the fact that his brother was guilty, Chet nonetheless decides to exact revenge by setting up the son of a witness for murder. The tepid direction by Boris Petroff and the blah script by Jane Mann and Don Devlin alas allow the meandering narrative to never pick up the steam it needs in order to really cook and be effective; as a direct result of this, the movie fails to build much in the way of both tension and momentum (for example, a major trial set piece doesn't pack any real dramatic punch to speak of). Moreover, the sudden moments of violence tend to be clumsily staged and hence unconvincing. That said, the decent acting from the game cast prevents the picture from being a total wash-out, with especially commendable work by Ronnie Burns as the likable Mickey, Pamela Lincoln as Chet's sweet sister Pat, Michael Granger as the diligent Lt. Mac, co-writer Devlin as the short-tempered Moe, and Frank Killmond as the wimpy Bobbie. Howe's occasional hilariously histrionic outbursts provide a few unintentional belly laughs. Joel Colman's snazzy black and white cinematography makes nifty use of fades, dissolves, and super-impositions. Michael Terr's overwrought score hits the rousing melodramatic spot. A merely acceptable time-waster.
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Confused and Confounded, 26 February 2007
Author:
sol1218 from brooklyn NY
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
(Some spoilers) Can be said to be one of bad movie director Edward D.
Wood's forgotten masterpieces in that the movie was ghost written by
the Great One using the name Larry Lee and even had in its soundtrack
the music from Wood's greatest work "Plan Nine from Outer space". One
of the many "toubled youth" movies that came out of Hollywood in the
1950's and 1960's "Anatomy of a Psycho" has to do with young and
confused Chet Marco, Darnell Howe. Chet's really a good boy who got
caught up in the emotional whirlwind that he finds himself in with his
older brother Luke a convicted murderer and sentenced to death now
facing a one way trip to the gas chamber when the clock strikes
midnight.
Chet who looked up to his brother as a father figure since Luke brought
up both him and his sister Pat, Pamela Lincoln, when his parents either
died or deserted him and his two siblings. Chet honestly believes what
his brother told him when he visited him on death row the night before
his scheduled execution. Luke swore to his baby brother Chet that he
was totally innocent of murder despite the evidence, including an
eye-witness, against him. There's no doubt in Luke's guilt but the
stubborn and delusional Chet has convinced himself that Luke was
railroaded and nothing, not even his and Luke's sister Pat, can change
his mind. After Luke was executed Chet went slowly insane getting
together a number of his friends to get those individuals, the D.A
Judge witnesses & jury, responsible for Luke's death. This results in
the brutal beating of the D.A's, who prosecuted Luke, son and the
burning down of the judges, who sentenced Luke to death, home.
Slow moving at first with Darrell Howe playing the fast losing it Chet
and becoming more and more unpredictable due to his deteriorating
mental condition as he begins to look and act as if he were lobotomized
or suffering from an OD of downers. The movie picks up when Mickey,
Ronnie Burns, Pat's boyfriend gets into the act by first asking Pat's
hand in marriage, and she accepting, and then going to talk things over
with Chet at his and his friends clubhouse known as the shack. Telling
a shocked and totally nuts Chet that it was his own father Frank, Russ
Bender, who's secret testimony sent his beloved brother Luke to the gas
chamber Mickey's foolishly thinks that it would make things better if
that fact came out!
We get to see Chet go out of his head ranting and talking to himself as
well as talking to his now departed brother Luke, as if his ghost were
somehow trying to contact him, as all hell breaks loose in the shack.
It's there that Chet gets belted silly by, as he tried to attack,
Mickey and then his friend Moe, Don Devlin, getting into the act and
ending up with a knife, that the mindless and out of control Moe landed
on, through his chest. Chet now seeing his chance to get even with
Mickey and his father for Luke's death instead of calling for help to
save the badly wounded Moe's life rams the knife into his heart killing
him.It's then that Chet concocts, with the other person in the shack at
the time, his best friend Bobbie (Frank Fillman) that it was Mickey who
actually killed Moe.
It's when Mickey, who was convicted of the murder of Moe, is about to
be sentenced that Chet starts to feel that he's not all there up
stairs. With the help, or friendly persuasion, of friend and police
let. Mac, Michael Granger, and a guilt-ridden Bobbie that Chet after
almost killing himself, by jumping off a telephone pole, decides to go
straight and set the record right so that he could be able to sleep at
night and get back to sanity.
1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Darrell Howe's Anatomy, 8 March 2009
Author:
wes-connors from Earth
"A young man is despondent over the conviction and subsequent execution
of his older brother. Having idolized his brother to the point of it
being an obsession, the young man cannot believe he was guilty, even
though he was, and swears to avenge him. The crazed young man decides
to carry out his revenge by tracking down and killing all the officials
and jurors responsible for his brother's trial and execution,"
according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.
Boris Petroff's "Anatomy of a Psycho" is a pale period piece, which
seemingly sought to (given the title) bask in the glow of two
significantly more timeless films. It might have been interesting had
it tweaked the covertly homosexual relationship between Darrell Howe
(as Chet Marco) and Frank Kiliman (as Bobby Brown), for starters.
By the way, it's easy to mistake Mr. Howe for Ronnie Burns (as Mickey
Craig), due to the latter's star billing. Mr. Burns, who plays a
slightly more secondary role to Mr. Howe's "bad boy" lead, was the more
well-known actor, due to his appearing from 1955-'59 on his parents' TV
series. Relax, Ronnie does not stray too far from his familiar role as
the nice young son of George Burns & Gracie Allen.
*** Anatomy of a Psycho (1961) Boris Petroff ~ Darrell Howe, Ronnie
Burns, Pamela Lincoln
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