BY TIM GREAVES
Michael
Winner's ribald 1983 reimagining of 1945’s venerated The Wicked Lady gets a long overdue UK DVD release from Second
Sight in July. Bristling with star names delivering some of the most cringe-worthy
performances of their careers, needless to say it's an essential acquisition.
The
beautiful Caroline (Glynis Barber) invites her dearest friend Barbara (Faye
Dunaway) to meet her husband-to-be, Sir Ralph Skelton (Denholm Elliott). The
manipulative Barbara seduces Skelton and the demure Caroline graciously steps
aside allowing them to wed. Quickly tiring of her affluent and influential
position as Lady Skelton, Barbara is soon looking for something to spice up her
life. One night, desperate to retrieve jewellery that she has carelessly forfeited
in a game of cards, she dons attire akin to that of infamous local highwayman
Captain Jackson. The adrenaline rush she gets from the experience gives her a
taste to continue her nocturnal thievery, but inevitably it isn’t long before
she crosses paths with the real Jackson (Alan Bates), an encounter that gives
rise to an unexpected turn of events.
Based
on the novel "The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton" by
Magdalen King-Hall, Winner’s The Wicked
Lady was produced by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, whose
production company The Cannon Group spat out literally dozens of films in its
heyday, many of them big star vehicles and most of them pretty bad – though, it
has to be said, few of them less than entertainingly so. Winner would work with
the gregarious producers several times throughout the 80s, taking the helm for Death Wish II and 3, Bullseye (with Golan
alone) and Hercule Poirot mystery Appointment
with Death.
The director took co-writing credit on The Wicked Lady with the original version's scripter Leslie Arliss. The resulting film has taken a lot of flack throughout the years for its vapidity – and, rest assured, high art it most certainly ain't. But as guilty pleasures go they don't come much more rewarding. I mean, what's not to like about a movie in which Faye Dunaway and Star Trek: The Next Generation's Marina Sirtis get into a gratuitously protracted, BBFC-baiting catfight which evolves into a skirmish with whips during which Dunaway lashes her opponents clothing to shreds? It's something of a star-studded affair too; along with Dunaway, Elliott, Bates and Barber there's substantial input from the likes of John Gielgud, Oliver Tobias, Prunella Scales and Joan Hickson. Performances are uniformly ripe and one or two are camper than a field full of tents…which, perversely, only serves to enhance the film’s entertainment value. Dunaway was actually nominated for a 1984 Razzie as worst actress for The Wicked Lady – and witnessing her overwrought performance in the final scene one could argue a strong case for her having romped it – though she was ultimately trounced by Pia Zadora for The Lonely Lady.
Michael Winner was never one to let credibility get in the way of telling a good yarn and he forfeits it here from the outset. It's impossible to conceive how the virtuous 20-something-year-old beauty played by Barber could ever seriously get doe-eyed over pensioner-aged Elliott, nor how Dunaway could for that matter (at least not until it becomes clear that her motives are those of a mercenary gold-digger). And the speech that Bates is given free reign to deliver to the crowds that assemble to watch his execution rambles on for so long that it becomes farcical. Nevertheless, with plenty of artistic flourish in the period costumes and settings, some beautiful cinematography from the legendary Jack Cardiff (whose prodigious c.v. included such diverse work as The African Queen, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Scott of the Antarcticand Death on the Nile) and a pleasing score from Genesis founder and keyboardist Tony Banks, The Wicked Lady is nothing if not eminently watchable. All said, anyone diving in hoping for a serious period drama (as well they might do having observed Brian Bysouth's striking artwork for the British quad poster) will come away crestfallen; approach it instead purely as the chunk of lowbrow exploitation fodder that the parodic US 1-sheet and titillating German poster art proficiently convey and you'll find a 24-carat crowd-pleaser.
There's frontal nudity even before the opening credits have finished, and whenever the pace threatens to slacken off Winner merrily sprinkles on more bare bosoms. Speaking of which, actress Caroline Munro turned down the role of Caroline due to the fact that nudity was required. However Glynis Barber demanded (and got) a body- double for her revealing sex scene with Oliver Tobias. Winner was sufficiently audacious as to allow said double's face to be glimpsed several times throughout, but the whole sequence was so skilfully staged and cut together that he almost pulled it off. Almost. Incidentally in his book "Tales I Never Told!" the director later related the problems he experienced on this picture with Barber, who he found pretty difficult to work with.
The Region 2 DVD from Second Sight delivers a good quality 1.85:1 presentation of the film. There are no bonus features.
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