Wicked Woman

This was a fun movie to watch. I saw it last week while attending the SF Film Noir Festival.

Beverly was a knockout of a woman. One of the rare tall actresses. The makers of the film probably had a hard time finding other tall people to act along with her. The popular character actor Percy Helton shows up again as a nagging wanna be friend to the stunning Beverly who uses him for her gain.

The festival tried to get her to attend from her place in Arizona but she said no. Her son the editor Christopher Rouse also tried unsuccessfully to get her to San Francisco. Oh well it was still a lot of fun.

I recently watched one of my favorite "B" films of the 1950's Wicked Woman on Turner Classic Movies and it was fun to see again. Platinum blonde Beverly Michaels decked out all in white and prancing around in "slow motion" is a knockout in the title role. She is on the move for trouble and she gets plenty.After checking into a rooming house she gets a job as a hostess in a local bar and she connives a scheme to entice handsome owner Richard Egan and thats when the fun begins. Together they lock lips and sneak around his well meaning alcoholic wife Evelyn Scott which presents some tense moments. However character actor Percy Helton is also a border at the rooming house and has other ideas which could dampen the scheme. It all boils down to a knock down drag out finale which is hilarious thanks to the three key players. A treat for the "B" movie film buff this film is rarely shown and it is not on video.

Wicked Woman doesn't waste any time getting started. Billie Nash (Beverly Michaels) blows into town, finds a room to rent, meets her creepy neighbor, takes a job serving drinks in a bar, and sets her sights on Matt Bannister (Richard Egan), the bar's owner and her key to money and Mexico. That's the basic set-up - the rest is a trashy, good time.

Wicked Woman is a perfect example of making an entertaining film with no money. Everything looks cheap, but it hardly matters. In fact, the cheap look only adds to the overall tone and tawdry feeling. Director Russell Rouse and screenwriter Clarence Greene really get a lot of the $1.95 budget they had to work with. Beverly Michaels is a revelation. Her Billie, with that super slo-mo sashay, is perfect as the titular Wicked Woman. She oozes cheap sensuality. And, you'd have little difficulty believing she'd easily do away with Bannister's wife if it meant she gets what she wants. The rest of the cast is just as good with Egan, Percy Helton, and Evelyn Scott all giving nice performances.

My biggest complaint with Wicked Woman is the film's ending. I really wanted to see everything blow-up spectacularly in Billie's face. Billie never really gets what she deserves. And the way Bannister's wife so easily forgives him doesn't ring true. Bannister should also have suffered more. Still, these are minor quibbles. In the end, Wicked Woman is a rock solid little trashy B-noir that I easily recommend.

WICKED WOMAN is an essential "bad girl" B movie of the 1950's. Beverly Michaels was the first blonde to crack this market that decade and while she never reached the public fame and popularity of the slightly later Cleo Moore and Mamie Van Doren, she's one of the genre's major divas even with her tiny filmography. Michaels is at her bad girl best in WICKED WOMAN as Billie Nash, who blows into town with a mysterious past and no references, ending up in a cheap furnished room boarding house. Billie quickly vamps one of her neighbors Percy Helton into sharing his steaks, "loans", and a reference when she applies for a job at a local bar. Owner Evelyn Scott is dubious but agrees to give the girl a break. That first night Michaels meets Scott's hunky, slightly younger husband Richard Egan and all her gratitude toward Scott is forgotten as she quickly sets her trap to seduce Egan - and persuade him to sell the bar (which was Scott's to begin with) out from under Scott without her knowledge and for them to make a getaway to Mexico with the loot.

The cast is sensational for a B movie. Michaels is superb as the tough blonde who can get even tougher when in a foul mood or cornered. Richard Egan, just before his brief stint as a leading man/star in major motion pictures, is excellent as the good husband who can be had; it's a pleasure to see a sexy B movie bad girl have a hunky, sexy leading man which wasn't often the case. (Egan also appears to be the only person in the cast taller than the 5'9" Michaels, who towers over nearly every other costar.)

Evelyn Scott is terrific as well as a bloozy-floozy Myrna Loy-lookalike and there is a sensational featured turn from Percy Hilton, a highly distinct and recognizable character actor of the era who generally played bits on television as a sheepish but lovable nerd; here Percy is still the sheepish imp but able to be just as sleazy and predatory as those who cross his path. This is a truly fascinating look at the clawing and desperation of very-low income 1950's with dumpy, sparsely furnished rooms and one bathroom per floor in the boarding house.

The ending, as another reviewer noted, is a misfire alas and as someone else mentioned, a plot twist one is expecting never develops. Still, WICKED WOMAN is well worth tracking down (it can currently be seen on youtube) for a rare chance to see Beverly Michaels at her "baddest" best.

Saw this 7/28/17 on a watchable version via YouTube. Not bad at all, does not try to push the budgetary limits. Rouse has a good script, and he keeps it moving. The leads, Beverly Michaels (a stick-limbed Mamie Van Doren), Richard Egan, Evelyn Scott, and Percy Helton all perform well. Scott, appearing as a boozy version of Rosemary DeCamp, gives a layered, believable performance as the wife of the Egan character. A larger than usual role for the reliably arachnoid Helton. The film hints, mercifully without showing, that Michaels yields to his sexual advances, a unique, unsettling milestone in a long career deserving of a Motion Picture Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement as a Homunculus. OK – maybe "Wicked Woman" does not strictly follow some "noir" rule book." But who cares about categories, other than just "movie"? And this is a pretty good one for the money! Seventy-seven minutes, and hard to find a second wasted.