Review of Fear Strikes Out (1957) by Benjamin W — 01 Nov 2007

Maybe the film that got Perkins cast in Psycho and The Trial...seeing this film, and Perkins without previous film associations in mind, is the key to understanding why he is so effective as characters with nervous or psychotic problems--when a guy looks like the wholesome American icon, it is really shocking to see him crack up.

You'd expect Kirk Douglas or Robert Mitchum to break out at any moment with chilling violence, but Perkins is the most excellent example of counter-casting, like Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West.

You'd just as soon expect to see Kim Jung Il at a geriatric southern gentlewomen's bingo convention as Perkins flipping his lid or Fonda shooting little kids....that's one reason why Perkins is infinitely better than Vince Vaghn in the 2 Psycho films.

..Vaughn may play comedies, but that doesn't make him essentially counter-cast as Norman Bates, as the remakers may have thought.