The plot centers on Chet (Darrell Howe), an unstable young man who is pushed over the edge when his incarcerated brother Duke is executed for a murder he says he didn't commit. With a huge chip on his shoulder, Chet sets out to get revenge upon all those who had a hand in sending his brother to the gas chamber. Further complications arise when Chet learns that his sister Pat (Pamela Lincoln) is romantically involved with Mickey (Ronnie Burns), the son of the prosecution's star witness who helped seal Duke's fate.
The name of the film's producer/director, Brooke S. Peters, is actually a pseudonym for Boris Petroff. Petroff was a Russian film director, producer and screenwriter who sometimes used the pseudonym to helm low budget B-movies such as The Unearthly (1957). On other films such as Red Snow (1952) and Shotgun Wedding (1963), he used his real name.
Petroff wasn't the only member of the production to use a pseudonym on the film. Michael Terr used the name Manuel Francisco for his screen credit as the film's composer. Some of the film's score, made up mostly of stock/library music, is recognizable to many as the same used in famed B-movie director Ed Wood's seminal cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), including "Grip of the Law" by Trevor Duncan, which was used as the opening title music for Plan 9.
Rumors have swirled over the years that Ed Wood himself had a hand in writing the screenplay for Anatomy of a Psycho. However, while it is an intriguing theory, there is no solid evidence to support it. The screenplay was officially credited to Jane Mann and Don Devlin. Devlin, who went on to produce such films as My Bodyguard (1980) and The Witches of Eastwick (1987), also has an acting role in Anatomy of a Psycho, playing the part of Chet's brutish ex-Marine pal Moe.
Starring alongside Devlin in a leading role is Ronnie Burns as Mickey, the straight-laced boyfriend of Chet's sister Pat. Burns was the adopted son of the legendary married comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen. He was primarily a television actor for several years, having appeared as a regular on his parents' popular TV show The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, which ran from 1950-1958 on CBS. Never comfortable in the spotlight, Ronnie Burns left show business not long after making Anatomy of a Psycho and switched careers to real estate and raising horses.
The beautiful outdoor scenery featured in Anatomy of a Psycho was shot on location in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Colorado Springs was home to The Alexander Film Company, a production company that primarily made advertisements or "art trailers" that played before feature films at movie theaters all over the country. Anatomy of a Psycho was the first and only feature film the company ever produced.
By Andrea Passafiume
