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The Fool Killer (1965)

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12 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
huck finn meets norman bates...?, 31 July 1999

Author: bornilon from michigan, usa

The Fool Killer is not for all tastes, but the current high cachet for no-budget indy efforts does give it a certain charm that its original (small) audiences may have overlooked. The rather uneven tale of a wandering orphan (Edward Albert) who crosses paths with a disturbed Civil War vet (Anthony Perkins in undisguised "Psycho" mode), the movie has a hard time deciding whether to emphasize its suspenseful overtones, its elegiac coming-of-age elements, or its somewhat loopy character vignettes (by pros like Salome Jens and Henry Hull, who has a field day as a--very literally-- dirty old man).

Young Albert (son of actor Eddie) is fine and surprisingly natural as the clueless kid, and while Tony Perkins does seem very much on Norman Bates auto-pilot here (almost certainly by request), he is still eerily sympathetic as a mysterious drifter with severe post-traumatic issues.

Even though the whole is something less than the sum of its parts, this film is by no means a loser. It's full of rich vignettes (take a look at the tent-revival scene!) and colorful characters, and these for the most part outweigh its moments of pretentiousness and occasional murkiness of motivation. No, it's not "Night of the Hunter"--but on the other hand, it's not "Night of the Lepus" either!

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
beautiful and haunting images, 9 March 2007

Author: fab_max from Italy

As a child, this film had an enormous impact on me. It's a wonderful piece of Americana, a folks tale enriched by beautiful and haunting images thanks to the great B&W photography, and though it is not on the same level as Night of the Hunter, it still has an interesting way of dealing with psychological archetypes. I would go as far as saying that in the portrayal of the way reality is transfigured by a child's imagination, this film is just as good - if not better - than this year's Pan's Labyrinth.

And then there is the immense Anthony Perkins. How sad and annoying that people to this day still use his Norman Bates as a milestone against which they measure the rest of his haunting work. They seem to forget that he had played some seriously tormented characters long before that one and just as well: Josh Birdwell in "Friendly Persuasion", Jim Piersall in "Fear Strikes Out" etc... His unique talents have often been wasted, but here he shines. I never saw any resemblance in his way of playing Milo to that other more celebrated character. Rather, it's a variation on his work in Friendly Persuasion, as if his Josh had gone terribly wrong - a portrait of broken youth, broken dreams, broken beauty. The scene by the river still haunts me to this day. As a child I envied Edward Albert Jr and thought he was very lucky, I wished I had an older brother like him.

I have seen it again when I was finally able to get my hands on a VHS copy. I had to concede that the screenwriters should have worked a lot harder, but I still found it haunting and beautiful, just like its unique star.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
An arrestingly off-beat & original Southern Gothic mystery thriller oddity, 21 March 2006

Author: Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This singularly off-beat and original period mystery thriller drama curio set in the late 1800's plays like an arrestingly bizarre and inspired cross between "Tom Sawyer" and "Night of the Hunter." Lonely, miserable orphan buy George (a then 12-years-old Edward Albert in his excellent film debut) runs away from his stern, sadistic, abusive foster parents. George meets and befriends a cranky, grubby, but amicable elderly hermit (a sensationally spirited turn by Henry Hull of "The Werewolf of London" fame) who tells him a scary story about a strange 8 foot tall ax-wielding mythical bogeyman figure known as "the fool killer." Anthony Perkins has one of his best, most effectively creepy and compelling post-"Psycho" idiosyncratic wacko parts as Milo, a weird, quiet, disturbed, shell-shocked and enigmatic Civil War vet itinerant loner who suffers from amnesia and may or may not be the deranged murderous madman of local legend.

Sumptuously photographed in crisp black and white by Alex Phillips, Jr., with a fine harmonic folk music score, beautifully fluid editing (the graceful wipes, fades and dissolves are especially sweet), and strong, flavorsome direction by Servando Gonzalez, this spell-bindingly moody and atmospheric oddity wins the viewer over with its intriguingly spooky story, leisurely pacing, engaging array of colorfully quirky characters, and vivid, pungent, powerfully brooding Southern Gothic ambiance. An unjustly overlooked and underrated one-of-a-kind sleeper.

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