Ep #66 - Anthony Perkins in the 60s
The Fool Killer (1965)
With a single-minded purpose to give 60-year-old movies their just desserts, nobody ever accused Cinema60 of being especially timely. But for each of our first three years of existence, we’ve had a plan to release an episode about horror movies in SpoOktober and never quite managed to make it happen. Now in our fourth year, we’ve finally come close to achieving our goal with this Anthony Perkins-centric episode - a subject we decided on in no small part as an excuse to finally talk about what is inarguably the most terrifying movie ever made up to that point. And while Bart and Jenna do spend a good chunk of the episode examining whether the visceral shocks Hitchcock produces in Psycho still work today or are merely a benchmark for every horror film since to try to top, the majority of the episode is devoted to how much more there is to Perkins in the ‘60s than just Norman Bates.
Partially due to his desire to not get typecast after his most famous role, as well as an urge to escape the pressure put on him by the studios to not be so ‘out’ about his homosexuality, Perkins ran away from Hollywood and ended up having one of the strangest careers of any major star in the ‘60s. Fortunately, his self-imposed exile in France resulted in a bunch of movies that are exactly the kind of thing that the hosts of this podcast are always looking for: lost treasures that every cinephile should know about but not enough do. Pretty much all of these film are worth seeking out, but tune in and find out about at least a couple that rank as all-timers for the Cinema60 crew.
The following films are discussed:
• Tall Story (1960)
Directed by Joshua Logan
Starring Anthony Perkins, Jane Fonda, Ray Walston
• Psycho (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles
• Goodbye Again (1961)
Aimez-vous Brahms?
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Starring Ingrid Bergman, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins
• Phaedra (1962)
Directed by Jules Dassin
Starring Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone
• Five Miles To Midnight (1962)
Le Couteau dans la plaie
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Starring Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, Gig Young
• Two Are Guilty (1963)
Le glaive et la balance
Directed by André Cayatte
Starring Anthony Perkins, Jean-Claude Brialy, Renato Salvatori
• Agent 38-24-36 (1964)
Une ravissante idiote
Directed by Édouard Molinaro
Starring Brigitte Bardot, Anthony Perkins, Grégoire Aslan
• The Fool Killer (1965)
Violent Journey
Directed by Servando González
Starring Anthony Perkins, Edward Albert, Henry Hull
• The Champagne Murders (1967)
Le scandale
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Starring Anthony Perkins, Maurice Ronet, Yvonne Furneaux
• Pretty Poison (1968)
Directed by Noel Black
Starring Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld, Beverly Garland
Also mentioned:
• The Trial (1962)
Le procès
Directed by Orson Welles
Starring Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider
• Is Paris Burning? (1966)
Paris brûle-t-il?
Directed by René Clément
Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron
