In the new Quentin Tarantino movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Anthony Perkins makes an "indirect appearance":
The scene:
It is the end of a Saturday in February, 1969, the first of three days covered in the picture.
Stuntman/driver/assistant Brad Pitt has dropped off fading TV star Leo DiCaprio at his expensive Hollywood Hills home. Since Leo can't drive, Brad gets to drive home for the night in Leo's car..and he roars. Out of the hills and OVER the hill to the "rough" part of LA that is the San Fernando Valley. "Downscale" but still brightly lit. Eventually, after passing through downscale Panorama City, Brad reaches the high "front" of the drive-in screen at the Van Nuys Drive-In. This is one of those classic LA Drive-In screens upon which on the "front" side of the screen facing the city, a painting of the Old California Mission and/or a cowboy was painted (I'd say LA had about ten of these screens all over both valleys, when I was a kid.)
On the marquee: FRANK SINATRA RACQUEL WELCH LADY IN CEMENT.
and PRETTY POISON
Raquel Welch's name is misspelled. Lady In Cement was a sequel to Frank's Miami private eye movie "Tony Rome" -- this was the kind of late 60's stuff that is NOT Golden Age, I think OATIH makes that point. Sinatra as an actor was a "fading star," not much committed to his movies, they were practically throwaway.
"Pretty Poison" was something else. It starred Anthony Perkins(surprise!) in what was considered his "comeback in American films" after a near-decade in European films after Psycho "marked him". It was a young writer-director's arty psycho thriller in which Tony was NOT the psycho(his girlfriend Tuesday Weld is) and...kudos to QT for honoring it.
Its interesting about "Pretty Poison." Its 8 years after Psycho(the film was released in 1968, though it makes sense in this movie that it would be on a drive-in bill as a second feature in 1969), but Anthony Perkins does not look much different at all. The 1968 film is in color, so it is rather a chance to see "Norman Bates 1960" IN color.
The movie was well reviewed (some critics said "Anthony Perkins has his best role since Psycho") but is ultimately not a film with the kind of big shock set-pieces and atmosphere(the house) of Psycho; its an early example of a low budget independent film with a nicely Hitchcockian counterpoint prettiness to it; the story is set in the lush greenery of a New England state and a small town within.
Both Mother and Murder loom large in Pretty Poison, its worth a look as an adjunct to Psycho, and, I would suggest makes an interesting double feature with Lawrence Kasdan's "Body Heat"(1981) as a similar story about a bad girl luring a dupe guy into murder...
The movie was well reviewed (some critics said "Anthony Perkins has his best role since Psycho")
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I have Pretty Poison on DVD and watch it occasionally. I'm fond of lesser-known thrillers (I also have The Mad Room with great performances by Stella Stevens and Shelley Winters).
To me, Anthony Perkins may have given his best performance since Psycho because he basically just played Norman Bates again. And then just kept playing him (Murder on the Orient Express, anyone?)
It was Tuesday Weld who was really the stand out. One of HER best performances, despite the fact that I've read on several sites that she and the director didn't get along at all.
To me, Anthony Perkins may have given his best performance since Psycho because he basically just played Norman Bates again. And then just kept playing him (Murder on the Orient Express, anyone?)
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Ha. Anthony Perkins certainly rather developed a standard "Anthony Perkins" performance after Psycho, didn't he? In his final TV interview, he even attested to the fact that this was the fact.
I would say that he's probably better in Pretty Poison than in later Perkins performances after it(including the 1980/1990s Psycho sequels) because, the older he got, the more mannered and "tic" ridden his performances were.
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It was Tuesday Weld who was really the stand out. One of HER best performances, despite the fact that I've read on several sites that she and the director didn't get along at all.
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Yes, a great performance. And yes, I hear she and the director didn't mesh(but then Tuesday Weld was one of those intense ones.) Tuesday Weld may well have had more "depth" as a performer than Perkins ever had, really. They compliment each other well in "Pretty Poison," and they worked together again in 1972 in "Play It As It Lays" which I have not seen.
I'm getting way off topic here, but it occurs to me that there was an actress in both Pretty Poison AND The Mad Room who deserves major kudos. Beverly Garland.
An excellent character actress who was only in a few scenes in both films (actually, only two in The Mad Room). But when she was on screen, you couldn't take your eyes off of her.
I actually saw The Mad Room in the theater on first release, but it was second fiddle to another thriller/suspense film, 'Daddy's Gone A-Hunting'. Which for the time was a word-of-mouth hit and a different kind of suspense movie.
In Garland's second, longer scene, the audience was completely silent. But she played a drunk, and where her monologue called for audience laughter, she got it.
but it occurs to me that there was an actress in both Pretty Poison AND The Mad Room who deserves major kudos. Beverly Garland.
An excellent character actress who was only in a few scenes in both films (actually, only two in The Mad Room). But when she was on screen, you couldn't take your eyes off of her.
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All that, and she was Fred MacMurray's "normal" wife on My Three Sons!
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I actually saw The Mad Room in the theater on first release, but it was second fiddle to another thriller/suspense film, 'Daddy's Gone A-Hunting'. Which for the time was a word-of-mouth hit and a different kind of suspense movie.
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Daddy's Gone a Hunting was controversial then(1969) and its controversial now. An abortion-driven THRILLER! I understand that Hitchcock himself was offered the project but backed off pronto.
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In Garland's second, longer scene, the audience was completely silent. But she played a drunk, and where her monologue called for audience laughter, she got it.
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She "had it." I've seen her in Pretty Poison and .....well, her performance is key...
I found the beginning of Beverly Garland's drunken scene on YouTube. It's a shame it's only the first couple of minutes; the whole scene actually lasts for much longer. She's at a ladies lunch meeting.
But it's at least a sample of how she takes it over.
(She's referring to her husband, who is a masseuse who 'takes care of' his many female clients, and she knows it).
Tuesday Weld may well have had more "depth" as a performer than Perkins ever had, really.
Weld broke through on TV at 16 as a teen bad girl on Dobie Gillis (w. Beatty) in 1959, at which point she had a highly-publicized affair with movie & TV (Rawhide) cowboy John Ireland who was 30 years her senior. Evidently Weld had a very adult & seductive look & vibe about her from very young. This shot of her (later used as the cover of Matthew Sweet's album, Girlfriend, in the '90s) was taken when she was *14*: https://i.redd.it/pd5seafthsb11.jpg
Kubrick offered her the title role in Lolita (1962) which Weld famously turned down telling tabloids that she *was* Lolita and therefore had no need to play her! (Imagine the heart attacks Weld gave studios and her agents alike.) She'd later turn down leads in Rosemary's Baby, Bonnie & Clyde, and True Grit. Thus there's a whole alternate history of 20C film where Weld is *the* crucial & probably biggest female star of the '60s & '70s...
She was good for good directors in the late '70s & early '80s, e.g., in Goodbar (picking up an Oscar), Thief, & Once Upon A Time In America, often playing damaged & sexually acting-out women, probably building on her wild child into wild woman reputation.
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Tuesday Weld may well have had more "depth" as a performer than Perkins ever had, really.
Weld broke through on TV at 16 as a teen bad girl on Dobie Gillis (w. Beatty) in 1959, at which point she had a highly-publicized affair with movie & TV (Rawhide) cowboy John Ireland who was 30 years her senior. Evidently Weld had a very adult & seductive look & vibe about her from very young. This shot of her (later used as the cover of Matthew Sweet's album, Girlfriend, in the '90s) was taken when she was *14*:
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"Hey now!" Yes, Tuesday Weld seems to have developed several "personalities" over her career: teenage seductress of older men, mentally troubled...great actress who could have big a major star but balked...and then a more "mature" career that mixed sympathetic roles with at least one "super-slutty" one. (Once Upon a Time...in AMERICA. Once you see her in THAT one....her capacity for sexiness is hard-wired in the brain.)
As I vaguely recall, much of the "dark side" of Tuesday Weld could be traced to a pretty horrible childhood and family, and a lot of pressure on her as a young breadwinner.
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https://i.redd.it/pd5seafthsb11.jpg
Kubrick offered her the title role in Lolita (1962) which Weld famously turned down telling tabloids that she *was* Lolita and therefore had no need to play her!
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Well, she said what she meant. It gives one a pleasureable shudder to imagine that she and Warren Beatty were both on the same TV show at the same time around 1960(Dobie Gillis..a very funny show.) I expect that this is why Beatty later thought of her for Bonnie and Clyde.
She'd later turn down leads in Rosemary's Baby, Bonnie & Clyde, and True Grit. Thus there's a whole alternate history of 20C film where Weld is *the* crucial & probably biggest female star of the '60s & '70s...
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Absolutely. Its amazing, really. Those three ALONE would have secured her stardom likely across the entire seventies. Faye Dunaway level, probably(Bonnie and Clyde.) Not Kim Darby level(True Grit). By the way, Mia Farrow accepted the True Grit role until Robert Mitchum told her "you'll hate the director, he's mean"(Henry Hathaway.) So Farrow quit, Weld said no..Darby got the role.
The evidence shows that Tuesday Weld certainly kept on working, "difficult" or not, directors wanted to work with her. The issue seems to be that she never became a full star, and hence never earned big star pay. But I'm sure she earned SOMETHING.
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She was good for good directors in the late '70s & early '80s, e.g., in Goodbar (picking up an Oscar), Thief, & Once Upon A Time In America, often playing damaged & sexually acting-out women, probably building on her wild child into wild woman reputation.
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Well, I'll never forget her in Once Upon a Time in America(in a good way, she's really sexy in the part), but Thief is one of my favorite movies of the 80's and she has a good, centered , sympathetic role as the woman who wants to marry James Caan's titular thief and make a family man out of him.
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There's a "rumor" that can proved/unproved by watching Hitchcock's The Wrong Man, which is that a young Tuesday Weld and a young Bonnie Franklin play two pre-teen girls who answer the door when Henry Fonda comes calling for a witness to help him. I recall watching the scene and thinking: "Franklin yes...Weld no." But I can't remember if I was right or wrong, or would ever know. The two girls seemed too YOUNG.
There's a "rumor" that can proved/unproved by watching Hitchcock's The Wrong Man, which is that a young Tuesday Weld and a young Bonnie Franklin play two pre-teen girls who answer the door when Henry Fonda comes calling for a witness to help him. I recall watching the scene and thinking: "Franklin yes...Weld no." But I can't remember if I was right or wrong, or would ever know. The two girls seemed too YOUNG.
I'm still thinking "Franklin yes...Weld no," looking at it, but with a little more squinting, I guess I can see Weld there. Do you feel that this is, conclusively, Tuesday Weld here?
BTW, a coupla days ago on August 1, TCM launched it annual August "Summer Under the Star's promotion -- one star a day gets the day to themselves, 24 hours of their movies. (Though there can be gimmicks -- Ruth Hussey Day ends up giving us showings of The Philadelphia Story and The Facts of Life(the Hope/Ball picture of the Psycho year of 1960 that kind of LOOKS like Psycho, and has a major sequence at a motel.)
But I digress.
On August 1, the first day of the festival, it was Henry Fonda day and we ended up with The Wrong Man(my favorite movie of 1956) and 12 Angry Men(my favorite movie of 1957) back to back. A GREAT combination in terms of studying the American legal system, good and bad, effective and wrong, reassuring and harrowing.
I was intrigued by how much debuting director Sidney Lumet seemed to be "following Hitchcock" in his many close-ups of the jurors in 12 Angry Men, but I've got a sneaky hunch that Hitchcock copied LUMET by using similar close-ups in the Arbogast--Norman interrogation in Psycho. And of course, Hitchcock screened 12 Angry Men to vet Martin Balsam FOR Arbogast -- even though there were some more potential Arbogasts among the jurors(Ed Binns -- who would end up in NXNW; Jack Warden-- too brawny and big; Jack Klugman -- less refined than Balsam; Lee J. Cobb -- too big and blustery.)
Speaking of Tuesday Weld, in cruising "Rip Torn RIP" articles, I found one by Kim Morgan at Sunset Gun in which she details an early episode of the TV show "Naked City" in which Rip Torn and Tuesday Weld play a psycho hillbilly robber couple on the loose in NYC. Sounds pretty violent for a TV program episode, but they got away with more back then.
Morgan's contention is that Rip Torn and Tuesday Weld together(and as psycho, lustful lovers, based on the same real-life couple, including Charlie Starkweather, who inspired "Badlands" ) is some sort of "match-up of the acting Gods."
I'm looking to step out of the fray here. I respect all the participants. I will say that Bonnie Franklin seems "right on" for her part.
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I agree with ecarle, whatever "it" is, Tuesday Weld had IT. What an incredibly natural actress. I've seen a good deal of her filmography (Thief, Once Upon a Time in America, Author! Author!, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Who'll Stop the Rain) and she disappears into whatever character she's playing. Even the TV movies are worth watching just for her beguiling screen presence.
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A star she may not have been, but she was always in demand, and if she was "difficult," no director or co-star seemed to care.
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Weld seems to have aged overnight in the early 90s. I legit thought she was wearing a fatsuit and prosthetics in Falling Down. And maybe she was, because she looks a hell of a lot better 10 years later in 2003:
I remember wondering that about here in Falling Down; a few other actors and actresses put a few pounds on; its a hard business to do that in. I hope it was a fat suit, but if not, OK ..and if she took it back off, better.
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For someone who was never A-list (by choice, as mentioned here) she has a strong fanbase. Assuming she still looks "presentable", wouldn't it be great if Tarantino wrote a part for her? We know from many past examples that he loves to give faded stars a comeback break.
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How old is she now?(2019.) Never mind, I can check. Still, I would guess the role would have to be "an old lady who doesn't look like an old lady."
I gather she was New York based for most of her career, moved to Colorado after her last divorce and retired there, now she's back in L.A.
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As Leo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton says in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood : "Eddie O'Brien told me to buy a house in Hollywood. Let's em know you're here to stay."
I love the ability for us to "narrow this down" from our various memories and sources.
"Giggly girl"...Tuesday Weld...where is she in this movie?
We shall find her!
I wasn't looking for Weld beyond this scene when The Wrong Man was on TCM the other night, and I didn't watch The Wrong Man all the way through on that viewing.
I guess I may have to watch The Wrong Man again, very soon. That's OK...its a downer getting there, but it does have a happy ending. I think it is one of the Hitchcock/Herrmann greats, its a great Fonda film(his only one for Hitchcock, and I like how Hitchcock finished the fifties with final Hitchcock films for Fonda, Stewart, and Grant in that order..)
Yeah, I can watch The Wrong Man again in search of the giggly girl.
The girls in the scene depicted in the frame grabs are, indeed, both giggly. And both young. I watched the film last night, and as far as I can tell, those two girls are the only ones - giggly or otherwise - to appear in the entire film. The IMDB cast lists Franklin (who we all agree is the girl on the left) and Morrow each as "Young Girl."
Yet it also lists Tuesday Weld, along with one Barbara Karen, each as "Giggly Girl."
I'm remain sure the girl on the right is Morrow. But be that as it may, we seem to have two extra girls listed who simply don't show up. Deleted scene, perhaps?
Here's the only photo, incidentally, of Weld at that approximate age I've been able to locate.
Indeed. A very interesting..."little"...one . But there it is to tantalize us.
What it cannot be allowed to do is to create any conflict among us. We're too small a group already.
But indeed...interesting.
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The girls in the scene depicted in the frame grabs are, indeed, both giggly. And both young.
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I will stipulate to that!
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I watched the film last night,
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I gave it a "fast forward skim" -- though I stopped to linger on my favorite parts(I do feel it is a masterpiece of a kind with the three, maybe four, Hitchcocks after it -- and no, I couldn't find anymore girls. Fonda's children in the film are, moreover, two boys.
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and as far as I can tell, those two girls are the only ones - giggly or otherwise - to appear in the entire film. The IMDB cast lists Franklin (who we all agree is the girl on the left)
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One "message" from all this: Bonnie Franklin is one of those adult actresses whose distinctive features "locked in" from an early age.
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and Morrow each as "Young Girl."
Yet it also lists Tuesday Weld, along with one Barbara Karen, each as "Giggly Girl."
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So now we have a "four girl count":
Bonnie Franklin
Tuesday Weld
Barbara Karen (who dat?)
Patricia Morrow
I'm remain sure the girl on the right is Morrow. But be that as it may, we seem to have two extra girls listed who simply don't show up. Deleted scene, perhaps?
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Deleted scene may be the answer.
An example of such: I believe that imdb has "Larry Thor" listed as "Reporter" in the cast list of Psycho.
From what I have read, Thor actually filmed a brief scene(which you can read in the Stefano script) as a reporter(TV? print?) on the steps of the county building right before the psychiatrist scene begins. But this bit was cut from Psycho. Can you imagine watching Psycho turn into an international blockbuster and your scene was cut out?
And Larry Thor IS in North by Northwest -- he's one of the government men and women who get the briefing on George Kaplan from the Professor. So Larry Thor missed out on being "the shared cast member in NXNW and Psycho."
Oh, well. In any event, perhaps Tuesday Weld went the way of Larry Thor, in The Wrong Man. We clearly have Bonnie Franklin in that scene(which is a powerful scene, btw --- Fonda and Miles are stretched to the breaking point and here are these giggly girls making it worse), it sounds like we have Patricia Morrow in the scene.
A bit more on Tuesday Weld, from my imdb skimmings in her quote sections:
She is still alive(born 1943), but hasn't acted in a movie since 2001 (it looks like the Michael Douglas film Falling Down was her last major movie.)
She was married to Dudley Moore for a time -- THAT's an interesting couple.
She says she didn't want to be a big star and that's why she turned down Bonnie and Clyde and "Bob and Fred and Gladys and Alice or whatever that was called." (Ha. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.)
"What it cannot be allowed to do is to create any conflict among us. We're too small a group already."
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That would be wrong, man. I hope I can say there's no danger of it.
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"I believe that imdb has "Larry Thor" listed as "Reporter" in the cast list of Psycho."
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Cutting room floors are littered with abortive appearances, aren't they: Eddie Fisher in All About Eve; Marilyn Monroe in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!; I came across an article a couple months ago stating Tim Roth was cut from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
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"Have they checked the swamp?"
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We may already be in it up to our hips, but it's never a swamp of boredom.
"I believe that imdb has "Larry Thor" listed as "Reporter" in the cast list of Psycho."
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Cutting room floors are littered with abortive appearances, aren't they: Eddie Fisher in All About Eve; Marilyn Monroe in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!; I came across an article a couple months ago stating Tim Roth was cut from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
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The end credits for OAITH "group" the characters by sequence (Musso and Frank's; The Spahn Ranch, etc.) I can't recall which group Tim Roth is in , but he does get this credit: Tim Roth(Cut).
I've read elsewhere who he played. I'll have to look it up.
James Marsden was cut -- playing Young Burt Reynolds.
Its rumored that QT may restore their scenes on Netflix(where, I will remind folks, an extended version of The Hateful Eight is now playing with NO new material less one scene I saw "road show" but that got cut from the DVD.)
Here's a fairly famous "cut actor," and how it made him a star anyway.
In "The Big Chill" (1983), a group of grown college friends gather for the funeral of one of them...a young handsome man who is only talked about for the entire film, in memory.
Well, near unknown Kevin Costner was cast as the deceased. He shot one flashback scene with the others (Kevin Kline, William Hurt, Glenn Close).
But writer-director Lawrence Kasdan decided that the dead friend would play better "unseen." Costner was cut -- except for tiny extreme close-ups of his hair being combed in the funeral parlor. (Now that he is a star -- you can tell its him.)
Kasdan told Costner, "I owe you one," and put him in "Silverado"(1985) with Big Chillers Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum.
Then Kasdan recommended Costner to Spielberg for a Spielberg-directed episode of "Spielberg's Amazing Stories."
Then Kasdan and Spielberg recommended Costner to DePalma for Elliott Ness in The Untouchables.
Done. After Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, William Hurt and Don Johnson all said no. Costner got the job(with bigger stars Connery and DeNiro "in support" because the studio could now afford them) -- and a career.
You making me think about the great Anthony Perkins and Kathleen Turner together????
Might as well go with the one they did together (messed up and bizzare, and hot a flick as it was.
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Crimes of Passion. With Turner playing quite the dual role: hooker by night/tough businesswoman by day.
And Perkins playing: nuts(but older.) A sexually repressed self-ordained preacher man.
This is the movie of which Roger Ebert wrote: "This movie proves that there is no role Anthony Perkins will turn down because it might be bad for his career."