La tête à l'envers

There was life before 'Psycho' for Anthony Perkins. I'm not so sure how much there was afterward. Prior to that movie's 1960 release (the same year as 'Tall Story') he could get roles in light comedies like this one, and other kinds of work, too. The Hitchcock picture identified him forever with one character, and though he achieved fame, his options as an actor were severely limited.

That's a shame, because he's very good in this pleasant story of a college basketball star being pursued by a single-mined husband-hunter. There are some funny lines and moments, especially in the latter third of the film.

This was Jane Fonda's first starring role and she is already fully formed as an actress. With all due respect to Henry and Peter, even early on in her career it's evident who was the standout talent in the Fonda family. She must shake her head sometimes about the role she played here. Near the film's start her character tells two professors she came to this college because she was tall. They look puzzled, so she explains she will have a better chance of snaring a husband at this school, with its outstanding basketball program. This role might embarrass her more than Barbarella.

There's a fine supporting cast of old pros on hand including Ray Walston, Marc Connelly, Anne Jackson and Murray Hamilton. Look closely and you'll see Gary Lockwood ('2001...') as one of the basketball players. But even if you are a fan of the 'Billy Jack' movies, you might not recognize Tom Laughlin as a married friend of the young couple.

Basketball players flock to "Custer College" and its team. Located somewhere in sunny California, the university is known for scholastics and athletics. After drooling over a portrait of popular All-American player Anthony Perkins (as Ray Blent), pretty young Jane Fonda (as June Ryder) enrolls as a home economics major. Looking to make Mr. Perkins her husband, Ms. Fonda decides to join activities which show off her comely legs. Of course, this puts her on the court in a short skirt. Fonda also takes the same classes as Perkins – modern ethics with Ray Walston (as Leo Sullivan) and chemistry with Marc Connelly (as Charles Osman). Cupid's arrow lands safely and Perkins proposes. Their future happiness is threatened due to lack of money – then Perkins is offered $4,000 to throw a game...

This was an odd assignment for director Joshua Logan at the time, but he makes it an enjoyable collegiate comedy about ethics – with sexual overtures. Chiefly responsible for the passing grade are costars Perkins and Fonda. This was his last role as a "teen idol" as the next released "Psycho" (1960) changed Perkins' image forever. Here, he is innocent and genuine. In her very first performance, Fonda is obviously beginning her "sex kitten" phase. She is lovely and arousing. The supporting cast is full of interesting names and faces. "Tall Story" is best when making itself fun – Fonda on her bicycle, seeing Van Williams naked, colliding with Perkins on the basketball court – Highlights are the love scenes, Fonda' sexy babysitting seduction and the couple trying out Tom Laughlin's shower for size.

****** Tall Story (4/6/60) Joshua Logan ~ Anthony Perkins, Jane Fonda, Ray Walston, Marc Connelly

Tony Perkins wasn't type-cast after "Psycho." Not at first. For the next six years, he went on to act in seven or eight other movies, most of which were shot in Europe by some of the world's best directors including Orson Welles, Claude Chabrol, Jules Dassin and Anatol Litvak and none of the roles were similar to Norman Bates. In fact, Perkins went on to be a bigger star in Europe than he ever had been in America after starring in "Goodbye Again" in 1961, for which he won he Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. "Pretty Poison," released in 1968, was the first movie in which he played a similar character to Norman Bates, and only after that film did the "type-casting" begin. But it was really all of the "Pyscho" sequels that did him in, so to speak. Perkins had a wider range as an actor than producers, directors (and casting directors) had given him credit. Too bad he did not have a more "creative" agent for the second half of his career. (Ironically, he was represented by CMA also known as "Creative Management Associates.")

I was surprised to see that the play on which this is based is from 1959 and not 1939; it has so much of the flavor of 30s college flicks. Just imagine it with a cast from a quarter-century earlier and it makes for a more comfortable fit. Who would you cast in the principal roles? The contemporary young 30s actors to play Tall Naive Guys could be say, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, even musical comedy hoofers such as Ray Bolger or Buddy Ebsen for a different flavor. For the go-getter girl June (who needn't be tall) the possibilities are broader. Ginger Rogers? Early Betty Grable or Lucille Ball? Toby Wing? One could amass quite a list of potential Junes...

Let me confess that I didn't get to see this all the way through, but from what I saw I found it rather weird to find all these young people existing in a 1960 world devoid of young peoples' music, i.e. rock 'n' roll, doo-wop etc. When the couples are out spooning under the moon they're even singing "Cuddle Up A Little Closer, Lovey Mine", published in 1908 (the same year the director, Joshua Logan, was born). Granted this song had been revived to considerable success in the 40s during wartime and was still popular in the 50s, but it just didn't seem credible to me.

However, once one accepts that "Tall Story" is set in a time and place all its own it's a perfectly enjoyable trifle. Perkins is likably boyish, callow and gawky, and a trifle awkward to be convincing as an athlete, but one can swallow that with the rest of it-- remember, Willing Suspension of Disbelief. So we can buy Fonda's character being so besotted with the guy and pulling every string to land him. She of course is a thorough charmer, which is fun to watch from the perspective of the present day, looking back on her life and career.

This is a quite watchable piece of filmmaking, and a definite curiosity. Just put your brain in neutral and let it roll by.

Perhaps most notable as Jane Fonda's screen debut, "Tall Story" is also remarkable for what it didn't do for Anthony Perkins: define his acting career. Released the same year as Hitchcock's classic thriller "Psycho," "Tall Story" shows the charming, naive and humorous side of Perkins. He stars as Ray Blent, Custer's star basketball player and star student who finds himself caught in an ethical nightmare just before the biggest game of his life against the Russian Sputniks. Fonda is adorable as a cunning co-ed whose one aim in college is to snare the unwitting Ray. Unfortunately, we didn't see more Perkins characters like this one because the actor was typecast as a psychotic madman following his admittedly excellent portrayal of Norman Bates in "Psycho." This movie shows the virtuosity of a great actor who regretfully didn't get the chance to demonstrate his full range of acting skills more often.