ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO

Russ Bender, Ronnie Burns, Pamela Lincoln

ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO (1961). Director: Boris Petroff.

Chet Marco (Darrell Howe) is freaking out because his brother, Duke, is being executed for murder. Chet tells their sister, Pat (Pamela Lincoln), that Duke told him he was innocent, but Pat assures him that their brother was not only guilty, but was pretty much a murderous hoodlum. But Chet can't forget that he and Pat were raised by Duke, and is still grateful to him. Pat gets engaged to Mickey (Ronnie Burns), at first unaware that his father, Frank (Russ Bender of Motorcycle Gang), was the chief witness against Duke. Then Mickey makes the mistake of telling not only Pat, but Chet about his father's testimony. Already a borderline psycho, Chet really goes off the deep end now. 

Darrell Howe

Despite its title, Anatomy of a Psycho is not a psycho-shocker or slasher film although it's clearly meant to summon up images of the Hitchcock classic. Anatomy is low-budget but absorbing, and has some decent performances. Darrell Howe is effective as Chet, although one can't relate to him, the main character, because he's simply so utterly odious, doing one horrible thing after another, although the film tries to make some excuses for him. Ronnie Burns, the adopted son of George Burns and Gracie Allen, acquits himself nicely as Mickey, who winds up on trial for first-degree murder (an unlikely scenario) due to Chet's actions, but Burns retired from show biz after this film; Howe had only a few credits. Pamela Lincoln was the daughter of Verna Hillie of Mystery Mountain and also appeared in The Tingler with Vincent Price and a few others.   

Verdict: Mildly interesting if not terribly memorable melodrama. **1/4.