{"id":3887,"date":"2024-09-07T03:04:38","date_gmt":"2024-09-07T03:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3887"},"modified":"2024-10-12T22:18:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T22:18:52","slug":"wicked-wicked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/07\/wicked-wicked\/","title":{"rendered":"Wicked, Wicked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Wicked, Wicked <\/strong>(1973)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Richard L. Bare\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard L. Bare\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Philip Springer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frederick Gately\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 13, 1973 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Bailey, Tiffany Bolling, Randolph Roberts, Scott Brady, Edd Byrnes, Diane McBain, Roger Bowen, Madeleine Sherwood, Indira Danks, Arthur O\u2019Connell, Jack Knight, Patsy Garrett, Robert Nichols, Kirk Bates and The Leaves of Grass, Maryesther Denver.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve always wanted to see Wicked, Wicked<\/strong> ever since I read about in The Golden Turkey Awards. It was nominated for the \u201cMost Inane and Unwelcome \u2018Technical Advance\u2019 in Hollywood History\u201d award. It didn\u2019t win; it was beaten out by \u201cPercepto\u201d, a gimmick that involved placing buzzers under theater seats which would give audience members a jolt at a specific moment in William Castle\u2019s The Tingler.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Writer-director Richard L. Bare didn\u2019t go to as much trouble as Castle with \u201cDuo-Vision\u201d, a process more commonly known as split-screen. Brian De Palma used it to great effect in specific scenes in Sisters, Phantom of the Paradise and Carrie. The entirety of Wicked, Wicked<\/strong> is in split-screen. It\u2019s an interesting idea that ultimately fell flat with critics and the moviegoing public. Critical and audience reaction was so poor that it sunk into obscurity shortly after its theatrical run. It never came out on video or showed on TV (as far as I know) until 2008 when it premiered on TCM Underground. I just saw it for the first time this week. It\u2019s not all that bad a movie if you like campy horror-thrillers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot of Wicked, Wicked<\/strong>, about a psychotic killer stalking a singer at seaside hotel, is fairly standard. The Grandview is one of those old buildings with hidden rooms and spaces, a result of remodeling over the years. It\u2019s an ideal hunting ground for a psycho with a thing for blondes. Over the past few months, three young, female, blonde-haired guests have gone missing. We know up front that a masked killer is responsible for the disappearances. The hotel manager (Bowen, Zapped!) asks his head of security, ex-cop Rick Stewart (Bailey, Another World), to look into it. He wants him to treat it as a matter of guests skipping out on their bills. He also wants him to keep it on the QT as any kind of scandal would ruin the hotel\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Things become personal when the killer sets his sights on Lisa James (Bolling, Bonnie\u2019s Kids), the lounge singer just hired as entertainment for the guests. Lisa just happens to be Rick\u2019s ex-wife. Of course, they haven\u2019t really gotten over each other. There\u2019s still something there. Lisa\u2019s troubles begin when she dyes her hair blonde. Rick, reluctantly working with the local police, becomes her personal bodyguard in hope of catching and stopping the killer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0With or without Duo-Vision, Wicked, Wicked<\/strong> is a collection of clich\u00e9s and stock characters. Take the killer who shall not be named here even though it\u2019s revealed early on in the movie. He has mother issues. The traumatic events of his past are shown on one side of the screen while on the other, we see him either stalking his prey or hiding somewhere in the hotel. We simultaneously see the abuse he endured and the resulting psychotic behavior. The hero Rick left the force after shooting and killing a fleeing suspect who turned out to be innocent. It ended his marriage to Lisa. It also made him persona non gratta to the country\u2019s entire police force. Sgt. Ramsey (Brady, Castle of Evil), who isn\u2019t exactly thrilled to be working with Rick, is your typical gruff, irritable cop who inevitably hones in on the wrong suspect and believes he\u2019s closed the case. Lisa, whose manager (Knight, The Long Goodbye) keeps promising her Vegas and fame, is a decent person who tries to make nice with the killer (before she knows he\u2019s a killer). There\u2019s even a lady, Mrs. Karadyne (Sherwood, The Changeling), who\u2019s lived at the hotel for the past 22 years. She makes likes she\u2019s rich and important, but it\u2019s obvious she\u2019s neither.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There aren\u2019t any real surprises in Wicked, Wicked<\/strong>. It\u2019s predictable from the word go to the freaky discovery at the end, one we\u2019ve seen in several horror movies. That being said, there are a few nice touches like the crazy old lady who plays the score from the 1925 silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera on the organ through the whole movie. It adds a nice extra level of strangeness to the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I suppose the big question here is what do I think of Duo-Vision? It was a bold move on Bare\u2019s part to do the whole movie in split-screen. I wasn\u2019t sure if I\u2019d like it. Mike Figgis tried something similar in his 2000 film Timecode in which the screen is divided into four shots shown simultaneously; it\u2019s similar to security camera footage. I didn\u2019t like that movie; I found it too self-indulgent. Wicked, Wicked<\/strong> is a different story; it doesn\u2019t take itself seriously. It\u2019s the fun kind of experimental filmmaking. As to whether it\u2019s effective or not, I\u2019m going to say it is more than it isn\u2019t. Take the scene where Mrs. Karadyne tells her life story. On the left, we see her telling her version; on the right, we see the truth. I\u2019ll tell you this much, her version is the happier one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0My love of trashy B-movies knows no limits. I like Wicked, Wicked<\/strong>. It\u2019s an enjoyably campy thriller with nice-sized doses of dark humor. It features a good performance from Tiffany Bolling, one of the better B-movie actresses of the 70s. It doesn\u2019t hurt that she\u2019s easy on the eyes as well. She sings a couple of songs, \u201cI\u2019ll Be Myself\u201d and \u201cWicked, Wicked\u201d. They\u2019re not hit song material but she has a good voice so they\u2019ll do. The acting is Wicked, Wicked<\/strong> pretty much suits the material. The actor (???) playing the killer camps it up nicely. It looks like the cast is having a good time here so why knock it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0In this movie junkie\u2019s not-at-all humble opinion, Wicked, Wicked<\/strong> is a lot of good trashy fun. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as bad as its reputation suggests. I\u2019m glad it saw the light of day again after 35 years. Now I can scratch this title off my movie wish list.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wicked, Wicked (1973)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Richard L. Bare\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard L. Bare\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Philip Springer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frederick Gately\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 13, 1973 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Bailey, Tiffany Bolling, Randolph Roberts, Scott Brady, Edd Byrnes, Diane McBain, Roger Bowen, Madeleine Sherwood, Indira Danks, Arthur O\u2019Connell, Jack Knight, Patsy Garrett, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weird-ones"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Wicked-Wicked-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5679,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions\/5679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}