Movie Review: Anatomy of a Psycho (1961) directed by Boris Petroff
Years ago, Duke Marco’s parents died suddenly, leaving him as sole support for his much younger siblings Chet (Darrell Howe) and Pat (Pamela Lincoln). He kept his remaining family together, but his only skill set was petty crime. Recently, Duke was condemned to the gas chamber for killing a man during a stickup. Shortly before sentence was carried out, Duke told Chet that despite the evidence against him, including a secret eyewitness, Duke had not committed the murder.
Mentally fragile and understandably distraught, Chet vows vengeance against those that condemned his brother to death. Not being a criminal mastermind, however, this winds up mostly as semi-random attacks on the sons of those involved. The gang of hoodlums Chet hangs with at the shack of ex-marine Moe (Don Devlin) help him out a bit, but this brings the suspicion of Lieutenant Mac (Michael Granger), a police detective who tries to balance doing his job and caring for these lost young men.
Meanwhile, Pat has her own problems. Her fiancé Mickey (Ronnie Burns) is the son of the secret witness against Duke. Pat doesn’t believe in Duke’s innocence, but because she’s related to him, Mickey’s father doesn’t trust her. And until Mickey revealed his connection, the father was confused by his son’s displeasure with taking the stand.
As Chet’s state of mind deteriorates, further tragedy becomes seemingly inevitable. But who will pay the price?
This is an okay crime thriller, but may disappoint anyone who thought the title promised them a bloodbath. There’s relatively little blood, and the violence is sporadic. On the other hand, this renders the one onscreen murder particularly shocking. Chet’s greatest (if short-lived) triumph is twisting the judicial system against one of his targets.
The print I watched was poor, making night time scenes difficult to puzzle out at first. The acting is mostly adequate.
Content note: Some violence, a little blood. Underage drinking, implied extramarital sex.
This movie is a glimpse into a different time, when a “wild” teen party still expects boys to wear neckties. Recommended to crime thriller fans.
