MovieChat Forums > Catch-22 (1970) Discussion > Perkins and Balsam, Reunited

Perkins and Balsam, Reunited

posted 20 years ago by ecarle
5 replies | jump to latest

(This is about "Catch-22" with SPOILERS for Alfred Hitchcock's famous thriller, "Psycho,")

In "Psycho,"

Anthony Perkins plays a mad motel manager who kills a woman in her motel shower, and then kills, on the stairs of his old house behind the motel, the detective (Martin Balsam) who follows the missing woman's trail.

"Psycho" came out in 1960. Ten years later in 1970, the mad killer Perkins and his victim Balsam were reunited in "Catch-22," for a very funny scene: Balsam's bombastic Col. Cathcart talks to Perkins' nervous Chaplain Taplan -- while sitting on the toilet.

I call this "the detective's revenge."

P.S. Perkins and Balsam would appear together one more time, in "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974.)

[–] capataz_de_cargadores 20 years ago

LOL

"Mediocrities all, I absolve you. I am your champion. I am your patron saint"

-Antonio Salieri

[–] mcintyro 20 years ago

Good catch about that Balsam/Perkins thing.

Also, for what it's worth, Perkins and Benjamin were in the original Broadway production of Neil Simon's Star Spangled Girl. They were paired as comedic owners of a radical newspaper, and in CATCH, they have that long scene together with Yossarian, telling him about Orr. As a kid, I thought Benjamin and Perkins were so great in that scene, acting wise. So, natural. It's a nothing scene but they were great. Maybe, it had something to do with the fact that they had worked together before.

I have noticed that Bruce Dern and Scott Wilson have appeared in 3 films together.

1) Castle Keep (1969)
2) The Great Gatsby (1974)
3) Monster (2003)

[–] dcrochetti 20 years ago

Also, if you notice three cast members from the original "Bob Newhart Show"- BOB NEWHART, PETER BONERZ and "MR. CARLIN" - are all in this movie together as well.

[–] Skragg 17 years ago

It's funny you should call it the "detective's revenge," because I keep thinking the opposite thing - if you reverse the order of the two movies, it's as though the chaplain finally blew up at the colonel! (Of course, you can keep going in circles with something like that.)

[–] pontifikator 17 years ago

This movie has all sorts of connections. As you may read from another post, Newhart and Bonerz were in a TV series together. Mike Nichols directed this and The Graduate, and Charles Grodin was supposed to play Benjamin, but couldn't agree on a salary with Nichols so it went to Hoffman, who had been signed for The Producers by Mel Brooks but took The Graduate instead. Nichols hired Grodin for Catch 22 with no animosity concerning The Graduate.

Bob Balaban and Jon Voight were in Midnight Cowboy together. Buck Henry wrote a series for TV starring Richard Benjamin. Nichols directed Anne Bancroft in The Graduate; she's the wife of Mel Brooks. Orson Welles did the voice over for History of the World for Mel. Buck Henry and Mel Brooks developed Get Smart together. Paula Prentiss is married to Richard Benjamin. Norman Fell played Benjamin's landlord in The Graduate.

Hollywood's a small world.