Anatomy of A Psycho — Anatomy of A Psycho (DVD)

Anatomy of a Psycho is a 1961 crime thriller from director/producer Boris Petroff (Red Snow, The Unearthly and Shotgun Wedding). Adapted from a story by Jane Mann, Boris Petroff’s wife, whose writing credits include just three movies, Anatomy of a Psycho, The Unearthly and Shotgun Wedding, all for her husband, and cult movie legend Ed Wood Jr who’s writing credit is under the alias of Larry Lee. The screenplay is courtesy of Don Devlin, who would go on to share a creative partnership with Jack Nicholson that included production credits on The Witches of Elswick (1987) and The Fortune (1975) as well as co-writing Thunder Island (1963) with Nicholson himself. The film is also notable for starring Ronnie Burns, the adopted son of George Burns and Gracie Allen and co-star of his Dad’s TV vehicle, The George Burns Show, as the clean-cut Mickey.

Duke Marko (William Salzwedel) has raised his younger brother, Chet (Daryl Howe, The Felony Squad, Men of Annapolis and Cain’s Hundreds) and his sister, Pat (Pamela Lincoln, The Tingler, Tootsie and One Step Beyond). After hellraising bad boy Duke is tried for murder and sentenced to the gas chamber, Chet collects his belongings from the prison and is attacked on his way home and stabbed with a bottle. After this, he becomes progressively more unhinged and swears to bring suffering upon everyone he considers as responsible for his brother’s execution. Wherever Chet looks for solace he sees reminders of his brother’s fate, telling his friends in a fit of rage that he will make those involved pay. After assaulting the son of the District Attorney, and burning down his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend’s house, he ends up committing murder, framing his sister’s boyfriend, Mickey, for the crimes. Mickey ends up in court and Chet watches on, praying that his friend, Bobbie (Frank Killmond) can keep his mouth shut. All the while, Lt. Mac (Michael Granger, The Creature with the Atom Brain, The Big Heat and Murder by Contract) is trying to dig up enough dirt on Chet to ensure he goes to jail.

The cast is okay, their performances, for the most part, are solid enough, Howe is believable as bad boy Chet, however the fight choreography leaves a lot to be desired, particularly the scenes with Arthur (Pat McMahon) whose attempts to throw punches at Chet are comical. The final 30 minutes or so of this rather short (73 minutes) film are taken up with some pretty shonky courtroom drama, while Chet and Mickey’s futures play out in front of the court. This DVD from Cheezy Movies contains only the feature presentation and a handful of trailers. The print is watchable, nothing more, nothing less, although it is good that the film has received a release at all. As an interesting aside it is worth noting that some of the music featured in the film was previously used in Ed Wood’s cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Anantomy of a Psycho is a typical z grade picture, Ed Wood Jr’s involvement pretty much ensures that, however, like Wood’s own films it has a certain cheap and cheerful charm.