Wicked, Wicked (1973) User Reviews

Child of the early 70's - enjoying the "frills" of movie making!

[glennrivera · 5/10 · 16 September 2005]

"Wicked, Wicked" was a film that I waited with such anticipation to see at the age of 12 - after seeing the promo trailer on television and the poster in the theater my curiosity was aroused.

I loved films as a child - any film. As long as it seemed like an event. I was not big on classics at the time so my catalog was being developed. I don't think that at the time it was supposed to be a great film.

It was fun however. And later in 1976 - when my parents owned a theater I persuaded my father to get "Wicked, Wicked" as a second feature for "Demon Seed" - it is a fun film and only for the excitement as "Earthquake" has Sensurround as a gimmick - "DUO-VISION" was the gimmick.

See it for the excitement - not for the logging into your classic diary. It does make you laugh and wonder about the time period. Not much different from today - I have walked out on several of todays movie, while sitting through all of "Wicked, Wicked" as a child.

It is fun!!!

Hotel Del Love Letter with some innovative storytelling

[rokcomx · 6/10 · 1 January 2009]

TCM is showing the weirdest 1974 psycho killer film, Wicked Wicked. It takes place at the historic (and reportedly haunted) Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, set up to be a residential hotel.

Almost the whole movie is done in split-screen. Not like the TV show 24 where they show different things happening at the same time - instead, the second screen illustrates backstory and foreshadowing with flashbacks, internal thoughts, and just weird little bits of the story - like, on one screen the creepy kid is telling a pretty girl he studied chemistry, and the other screen shows him young and reading a book on embalming.

The music is all soap opera organ (we even see the guy playing it on occasion?!) and the script seems to spoof slasher movies, but it's very well played. It's just so offbeat, I really enjoyed it - I had to stop what I was doing so I could watch closely and absorb the two different POVs running side by side. Never heard of it before - just saw the Hotel Del in the opening shots, and stayed on this channel ------

Aside from some interesting storytelling, it's a love letter to the Hotel Del - a bunch of exterior shots, from different angles, plus the Crown Room, the west bell lobby, the beachfront and fountain pools, and a lot of hall and interior shots that sher look like the Hotel itself.

The "Wicked Wicked" theme song is still stuck in my head - it's performed on stage I think 2 1/2 times, plus it runs over the credits, a schmaltzy James Bond lounge affair...the girl singer kind of gargles the lyrics, but in a creepy cool way that I THINK may have been intentional parody (she may have been doing Sammy Davis Jr) --

Just an odd, interesting little film -

They don't make them like this one anymore! Unique and a different take made this a remembered cult classic.

[blanbrn · 6/10 · 25 April 2010]

In today's world of CGI, 3-D, and IMAX we as movie fans often forgot the old classic ways and techniques of film. I for one didn't know that films were once done in a method called Duo Vision. Until the other night while I was watching TCM late I saw this cult classic from 1973 titled "Wicked, Wicked". The method or technique is interesting and so informative as you the viewer see scenes on both the left and right of the screen. Almost it's like a good foreshadowing method as you see a preview of what's about to come on one screen side while drama and suspense occurs at the same time on the other side of the screen.

Neat and a lot of visual displays for a film which some may like or others may not still I for one liked the way it provided clues. Aside from the duo vision the setting and story of this low budget film which featured no name actors and actresses made this film enjoyable and fun entertainment. As you watch you may feel like it has themes and elements of Hitchcock's "Psycho" written all over it. It takes place at a California beach side hotel where oddly and strangely the beautiful women who check in disappear and are later found dead. A hunk of a P.I. type is on board to investigative as this along with the film's creepy music make it interesting and suspenseful to watch.

And most telling and entertaining in the split scenes are the revealing ones of the masked stalker who with all of his victims begins at first his pleasure as a pepping tom who like any strange quiet secret creep spies on these beautiful women from a hotel balcony window while they undress. Then later in a lame and comical way unlike a gruesome horror film, the beauties are stabbed to death with a knife. Really along the way you figure it out the young hotel boy is the creepy pepping tom stalker killer.

Overall "Wicked, Wicked" wasn't a big box office classic that earned a lot of money, yet it's an entertaining cult classic for the way it was done with a unique technique of duo vision! Who would have thought we would have the CGI, 3-D, and IMAX that we have today. So really the atmosphere and story is enough to keep you interested in this cult mystery suspense thriller and it's to be respected for it's classic method of duo vision. So clearly "Wicked, Wicked" is a must see for any film historian or student of film.

Strangely enjoyable

[lazarillo · 12 June 2007]

This movie has several strikes against it from the outset. First off, is the split-screen ("duo-vision") gimmick, which is effective when used sparingly by filmmakers like Brian DePalma (or going WAY back silent French filmmaker Abel Gance), but is pretty annoying when used extensively (check out the ill-advised sequel "More American Graffitti"), and likely to give many viewers a splitting headache. Then there is the killer who is stalking a seaside hotel. The movie not only makes no attempt to hide his identity from the start, but the clues he leaves along the way are so incredibly obvious that you want to scream at the protagonist (a dimwitted, womanizing security guard)for not being able to figure out who he is. Finally there's the wretched theme song ("Wicked, wicked, that's the ticket. . .") that was apparently actually sung by actress Tiffany Bolling, who should have stuck to stripping off in bad movies like this (and speaking a stripping off, Bolling takes her usual gratuitous shower in this movie behind a particularly opaque shower curtain, just to add insult to injury).

Despite all this though, I kind of enjoyed this movie. It has an enjoyably nasty sense of humor, and only in the 1970's could anyone possibly get away with making a wrongheaded experiment in cinematic ineptitude like this and still have it backed by a major studio (MGM). As for those who find this misogynistic or offensive, check out a couple other Tiffany Bolling vehicles/feminist treatises "The Candy Snatchers" and "Centerfold Girls" sometime!

no breakfast at Tiffany's.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 2/10 · 15 January 2005]

I admire any movie that tries to change the language of film, even though such efforts nearly always fail. 3-D was a fad that was almost never used properly ('Inferno' being a rare exception). Smell-O-Vision and Odorama were never more than stunts. 'The Door in the Wall', with its fascinating use of Dynamic Frame, proved too unwieldy for exhibition on a large scale.

'Wicked, Wicked' was filmed in something cried Duo-Vision ... which means that, except for the opening credits, the entire film is shown in split-screen. Now, split-screen is a valid story-telling device when it's used intelligently and sparingly. A great example is in 'The Silence of the Lambs', during the exciting sequence in which Clarice Starling and a team of FBI agents are going to two separate houses simultaneously. But 'Wicked, Wicked' has two things happening at the same go for the *entire* movie. Sadly, one of them is (mostly) irrelevant, and the other one is painfully trite.

SPOILERS COMING THICK AND FAST. At the beginning of the movie, we see a woman seat herself at an organ and begin playing some Phantom of the Opera music, which she continues to play throughout the film. She's dressed in an elaborate formal outfit that would be appropriate for a concert-hall recital, yet she's all alone. Also, the actress cast in this role is so spectacularly ugly that I couldn't believe her looks were coincidental. I was positive she was going to turn out to be a supernatural witch, or something similar. No; her looks *are* irrelevant. In fact, this woman and her organ music are completely irrelevant. She sits there fingering her organ through the entire film, yet she never interacts with any of the other characters, nor do any of them seem to hear her organ music. The scriptwriter just wants to have *two* events occurring simultaneously (for the sake of the split-screen gimmick), so we get this irrelevant organ recital.

The main plot concerns a resort hotel in a remote location. The very pretty Tiffany Bolling arrives as a black-haired nightclub singer who's been booked by the hotel. Her black hair doesn't match her fair complexion. Um, but some nutter is killing brunettes, so the local cop decides she ought to turn blonde as a matter of self-preservation. Bolling spends most of the flick as a blonde, and looks much prettier with long golden locks than with long raven tresses ... but she looks a natural blonde who was pretending to be brunette, not the other way round.

The identity and whereabouts of the psycho are no mystery, as we watch him (on one-half of the split-screen) through most of the film. Randolph Roberts plays a disaffected youth whose mother was mean to him, so now he's just gotta go slicing pretty girls. Guess who he's picked out as his next victim.

Tiffany Bolling is no actress, but she's so damned pretty that I kept watching. Still, it's painful to hear her singing this movie's awful title song 'Wicked, Wicked ... that's the ticket...' on one side of the screen while Roberts flicks his knife on the other side of the screen. I kept expecting the old Warner Brothers cartoon gag where the character on one side of a split screen reaches across the partition to the other side.

Character actress Madeleine Sherwood, whom I've always liked, is stuck here in a pathetic role as a sub-Tennessee Williams dowager who has fallen on bad times, and is desperately trying to avoid eviction from the hotel after her money has run out. If you're waiting for this subplot to link up with the psycho killer or his blonde prey, keep waiting. Soon after this, Sherwood's acting career declined to the point where she ended up doing low-budget commercials for Hansel & Gretel cold cuts. I used to confuse Madeleine Sherwood with silent-film actress Madeline Hurlock, who married playwright Robert Sherwood.

'Wicked, Wicked' is written and directed by Richard L Bare. Despite this film, I've a lot of respect for Bare's career. He had extensive film and television credits -- including the entire run of 'Green Acres' after the pilot episode, plus some classic 'Twilight Zone' episodes -- and he also wrote an excellent textbook on film directing. He was probably hoping that 'Wicked, Wicked' would be his prestige hit ... but it's just boring and pretentious. I'll rate this movie 2 points out of 10: one point out of kindness to Bare, and one point because Tiffany Bolling is so sexy.

It's not that bad.....

[halcyon2000 · 7/10 · 1 October 2000]

Wicked, Wicked is unique in that it is shot entirely in DUO-VISION (a gimmick of early 1970's cimena). Brian DePalma used this technique with great success in both Carrie and Phantom of the Paradise. The problem here is that Richard Bare is no Brian DePalma and the story is completely idiotic.

the one saving grace of this film is the moment at which the duo-vision becomes "uni-vision" during the climactic moment of the story. You have to see it to appreciate the greatness of that one shot. Perhaps the director came up with that idea and then made a whole story around it?

bad, bad.

[ptb-8 · 1/10 · 24 April 2004]

Gruesome serial killer schlock from the once mighty MGM before It remembered it had a treasure box of classics to cut up into docos, this is the sort of awful film major studios make today. Sort of SCREAM meets HOTEL (which indeed might be a good idea to a suit in Hollwood right about ...now).....using the dual image or cinemasope cut in half, it rendered the viewer dizzy by reel 2.. .......... ....when the girl in the bikini gets the bread knife in the guts over and over and over and over and over....just like they want you to enjoy today (WOLF CREEK). Maybe Tarantino could remake it on that possibility alone and we can laugh as illiterate critics label it 'cool' and dear Quentin can enjoy putting more imagery of mutilated females on the wide screen. Anyway.....it is all there in 1973 in gory banal grossness. Whoever said it should be DVD reissued with a co feature of NIGHT OF THE LEPUS is right. Stabbings and rabbits. Sounds very Multiplex 2006 to me.

a gimmick with a cheap backbone

[free2emailus · 7/10 · 18 October 2008]

Not a bad concept but the movie gives away the mystery of the killer way too soon. It has short tugs of predictable suspense, although it was watchable. The most engaging moments are when one side of the screen tells the true story behind the words of those on the other side, sometimes humorously. More of that might have made this a cult hit but it takes itself a bit too seriously. When the two shots do work for suspense, it is undercut by an organ score taken directly from the silent Phantom of the Opera. It reminded me of those 70s Vincent Price movies like Theater of Blood that assumed the audience was better knowing more.

It IS a testimony to 1973 fashions and hairstyles. Tiffany Bolling was actually very good, appearing in scores of good TV series and movies before and after. I suspect she was one of the talented, beautiful women who just never found the big break. She certainly was a bright spot (along with Madeline Sherwood in a juicy supporting role). Randolph Roberts did what he could for his role, a star turn in a bigger budget feature and you can see him working at it. He needed another few roles to solidify and make a name for himself but sadly found bigger fame as Ritchie's original brother Chuck Cunningham, banished to college, in the first few Happy Days TV series.

Also, the title song, performed by Miss Bolling (Wicked, Wicked), sounds like it was written years earlier and even then, it wouldn't have been a hit. The women's lib oriented song 'Be Myself' was also out of place, but Bolling was belting away, bless her. The Hotel Del Coronado looked fantastic all the way through. It was a great backdrop and was only used as well in Somewhere in Time. The film suggests that there are hidden rooms and floors to the Coronado and I'd love that to be true. Be forewarned - there is a scene of child molestation tucked away in there.

Silly squared

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 31 October 2017]

"Wicked, wicked" is a gimmick movie, so I had low expectations and was not disappointed. As a moderately graphic slasher movie from the early '70s, the film was OK, with a sufficiently creepy killer whose motive was surprisingly disturbing for the era (and rating). The split-screen gimmick ("Duo-vision") was distracting and didn't add anything to the movie other than making it a novelty item (and therefore earning it a place on some people's 'life-lists'), and for the most part, the acting was weak to amateur (and exception being Arthur O'Connell's not particularly challenging Maintenance Engineer character). Presumably intended to be a 'horror comedy', there are odd interludes throughout (such as the woman playing the organ) and the film really starts to go off the rails toward the end with the 'sex in the presidential suite montage'. To some extent, "Wicked, wicked" has achieved cult status, so will always find viewers but most people would likely consider it a time-waster at best. As a survivor of the '70's, I can attest to the accuracy of the most frightening aspect of the movie: the Godawful proto-disco fashion and hair styles.

Silly but not bad

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 16 June 2008]

Movie takes place at a huge seaside hotel in California. In it handyman Jason (Randolph Roberts) attacks and kills blonde women. He then hides the bodies so they just go missing. The hotel has a security man searching for the people and beautiful Lisa James (Tiffany Bolling) is hired to sing there. She has black hair...but decides to wear a blonde wig which has Jason after her.

This was the first (and last) film shot in "Duo Vision"--basically a split screen used in 99.9% of the film (there are a few shots in the film not using it). It actually works pretty good sometimes. You see a person on one side of the screen and see what he's thinking of on the other. Still, it's just basically a gimmick to sell the film (it didn't work). The story itself is familiar and the killings are pretty non-bloody (this has a PG rating), but the acting itself is actually not half bad and the film kept my interest. Not a camp classic by any means but an OK film with a well-used split screen process. I give this a 7.

Gimmick gets annoying pretty fast

[jellopuke · 5/10 · 21 March 2019]

The movie serves the gimmick of two screen viewing, but it's more annoying and pointless than anything. Lots of the time one side is just someone doing something mundane like examining wallpaper or sleeping while the other side has the important stuff. There was no real need to do an entire movie like this, it was just an interesting idea to try... unfortunately in practice, it kind of sucks. It's a standard slasher movie with bad acting so you're not missing much if you never see this. Needed a better plot and more thought out use of the duo-vision to be of any worth.

Quite a gimmick, but a forgettable film

[Casey-52 · 8/10 · 30 March 2000]

OK, if you've heard anything about this movie, it's that the entire thing is in split-screen. 1970 was in the period when movie gimmicks were dying; William Castle had turned to producing with "Rosemary's Baby" and given up directing, 3-D was dead, and the audience participation concept was eradicated. "Wicked Wicked" must have been a nice return to the selling gimmick. Only this time, you didn't get items as a gimmick (bloody axes, 3-D glasses, plastic coins, barf bags), the whole movie viewing experience was a gimmick. Unfortunately, the makers of the movie thought that the split-screen effects would make "Wicked Wicked" a great film. In fact, it's just the opposite.

I have always loved the idea of split-screen techniques used in movies (employed heartily by Brian dePalma for "Carrie", "Dressed to Kill", and others) and jumped at the chance of seeing this when I heard of the gimmick. Here's the final verdict: fun to watch, just don't take it seriously. The plot is flimsy (a murderer is stalking a hotel) and most of the acting horrible. But how can a movie go wrong with Tiffany Bolling in the cast? Beautiful blonde Tiffany Bolling spends half the movie in a black wig, the other with her gorgeous blond locks playing a lounge singer stalked by the killer. This woman steals the show, just like she does in "Kingdom of the Spiders" and "The Candy Snatchers". The music is atmospheric and makes for great background music, but is finally pushed to the point of head-splitting annoyance!

If you enjoy split-screen and Tiffany Bolling, watch the movie. If not, you will probably find the whole thing tedious (which most of it is) and a cheap attempt to win an audience. Doesn't work a horror film, but will definitely win a larger cult if MGM just releases this on video (likewise with "Night of the Lepus" and "Private Parts"!).

Hello? Where's the fan-base?

[Coventry · 7/10 · 11 August 2009]

What I find so great about the horror genre is that, even though I've seen over 2500 films of different sub genres and numerous countries already, I keep stumbling upon crazy stuff nobody ever heard about. Even more incomprehensible – especially in the case of "Wicked Wicked" - is how come these movies are still so obscure and unloved? Now this certainly isn't a masterpiece of film-making, but nevertheless I would have expected a movie with such a peculiar gimmick to have some sort of loyal fan-base or at least enjoy some recognition at horror internet forums. Well, apparently not. "Wicked Wicked" remains underrated to this date, but hopefully a proper DVD-release will change that one day sooner or later. Make no mistake, however, the plot of this film is extremely rudimentary and straightforward all in favor of putting the emphasis entirely on the "Duo-Vision" gimmick. This is just a fancy term to say that the split-screen effect lasts throughout whole film. Unlike I feared, this gimmick isn't as irritating as I thought it would be, but nevertheless it's only truly creative in a handful of situations.

There are a couple of highly disturbing murders taking place in a fancy Californian seaside hotel. Beautiful blond women are brutally stabbed by a maniacal culprit and their bodies dumped around the hotel. Former policeman turned security agent is asked to investigate discretely, but the bodies keep piling up at a fast pace. The case gets more personal when his beautiful blond ex-wife arrives at the hotel to put up a singing show.

I don't really know why I bother to keep the killer's identity secret and even somewhat mysterious, because the film itself certainly doesn't. The culprit takes off his mask and exposes his face after the second murder already; probably to illustrate once more that the whodunit aspect of the film really wasn't the producers' main priority. And yet, despite this premature and regrettable revelation, there are multiple tiny plot components that are interesting and worth analyzing. For example, the sub plot about the hotel owner's reluctance to inform the police and his attempts to avoid negative publicity predate the similar "Jaws" plot with nearly two whole years. There's also a bizarre but engaging and original resemblance between this film's main characters and the ones from Gaston Leroux' immortal horror tale "The Phantom of the Opera". There's a pretty imaginative, yet typically rancid 70's and massively perverted twist regarding the culprit's motives to kill blond women near the end (which I really loved) and there's a neat supportive role for Spaghetti western regular Edd Byrnes as a moonlighting lifeguard. If you ever have the opportunity to watch "Wicked, Wicked" – and apparently it's occasionally programmed on TCM – please do so! It's far from being a great film, but it's definitely unique.

A perfectly ordinary crime-thriller...doggedly filmed in Duo-Vision!

[moonspinner55 · 3/10 · 7 June 2008]

An entire movie filmed in split-screen? Well, almost...and it's almost difficult criticizing a low-budget effort which nevertheless clearly demonstrates a filmmaker's ambition and courage. Richard L. Bare, who directed the film from his own screenplay (and also served as co-producer!), is unfortunately too derivative in his approach--and too unskilled a film technician--to pull this gimmick off successfully, and "Wicked, Wicked" leaves itself open for ridicule (it seems like a put-on anyway). At a beach-front hotel in California, an ex-cop-turned-security guard suspects one of the staff to be a killer who preys on single blonde women; meanwhile, his former wife is appearing nightly as the singer in the lounge, and she's decided to start wearing a blonde wig! Tatty-looking farrago financed by M-G-M (!) has a few bits of over-the-top violence but absolutely no suspense. The split-screen is used most often to show what's going on in the foreground, but once in awhile Bare gets imaginative and employs it for subtext (while guest Madeleine Sherwood is telling the electrician about her years in the ballet, the other screen shows us she was really a hoochie-koochie dancer). Though not profound, this is an interesting alternative to the clichéd "flashback" cut, but Bare nearly ruins it with stop-motion effects and other trickery (he may have had a good eye, but he doesn't show enough confidence--either that or he was short on material). Tiffany Bolling's bewigged chanteuse sings the title tune (which must be heard to be believed) while Edd "Kookie" Byrnes plays a lifeguard wanted by the F.B.I. If anything needed punching up it was Bare's screenplay, which could kindly be described as "Wretched, Wretched." *1/2 from ****

A disgrace, an insult - how dare they?

[Stephen-12 · 6 August 1999]

I can hardly begin to express what a disgusting, worthless piece of excrement this film is. When you consider how much talent there is in film-making, to know that a major studio (admittedly, on its last legs) funded this garbage makes you want to grab a sharp implement.

Why is it so awful? All right (deep breath):

1. The split screen. It's distracting. It adds nothing to the narrative. It isn't used to make a point (as Tarantino does in Jackie Brown). It's just there as a selling feature.

2. The performances. God help us.

3. The script. God continue to help us.

4. The story itself. Who the hell thought this would be an original idea?

5. The child abuse sequences. So appallingly exploitative, so unworthily sickening, so POINTLESS...I wanted to throw something at the TV.

6. The tacky tone. The sexual puns are puerile beyond belief. The Farrelly brothers would never have stooped this low.

7. The theme song. Still stuck in my head after about 10 years. GO AWAY!!!!

There are plenty of other reasons why this obscenity should be thrown into the Pit of Hell, but I really can't bear to go any further. Every copy of this should be consigned to fire, and everybody involved in it should be taken outside and shot, their bodies burnt, their ashes buried and the whole site concreted over.

If this diatribe persuades people to go and see it, it has failed in its mission. Don't ever employ its maker to do anything again, I implore you.

The least enjoyable bad film ever made. Can I give it a minus score, please?

Not great

[adriangr · 5/10 · 16 January 2016]

Wicked Wicked is an amusing film about a stalker killing pretty blonde women in a hotel. There's nothing unusual about that except for the movie's gimmick of presenting the entire story in split screen, which is a novelty but it does kind of dilute the suspense rather. Split screen can work in horror - Brian De Palma has used it on more than one occasion and made effective use of it, but here it's rather irritating. What doesn't help is you never really get a good view o anything as the two images are small and not very hi definition (well it was 1973!). For just a couple of very short moments of screen time, the double screen reverts to a single view and seeing this left me yearning for the whole movie to be like this, so that watching it would be less hard work! . Apart from the gimmick, most other aspects of Wicked, Wicked are fun but mediocre. The only DVD release is on the Warner Archive label which is very badly cut! Those archive DVDs are sold at a premium price so pushing an incomplete version of the film is quite an insult to the fans who wish to buy it. For novelty value only

What an experiment!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 8 August 2018]

I'm constantly on the hunt for certain movies. Ever since I saw the trailer for this - the only film to ever be shot in Duo-Vision - I've been on the hunt. Finally, in an Exchange store on a Sunday afternoon, my patience was rewarded.

The Grandview is one of those gorgeous California hotels that you dream of living the rest of your life in, Telly Savalas style. But there's one big problem - any blonde female who checks in never leaves. I'd make a Hotel California joke here, but that just seems too easy.

Trivia note: This is really the Hotel del Coronado, where Some Like It Hot was shot.

David Bailey, from TV's Another World, plays hotel detective Rick Stewart, who is busy with old women who don't pay their rent and overly amorous beachfront lotharios. Soon, he's on the trail of the killer, which gets more personal when his ex-wife Lisa James (Tiffany Bolling, The Candy Snatchers) shows up to sing at the Grandview and promptly dyes her brunette hair blonde. Whoops.

This song is the best part of the film. Becca and I have been singing it to one another ever since we watched this.

Writer/director Richard L. Bare - who holds the record for directing the most successive number of television shows (168 episodes of Green Acres) - planned to follow up this film with another Duo-Vision movie called October Incident, which was about trying to kill Castro. The gimmick wasn't well received so the movie was canceled.

I'd best compare Duo-Vision to the way that Ang Lee shot his version of The Hulk. The other screen often shows what's in someone's mind or reveals the truth of what they're talking about. The story probably wouldn't be anything I'd seek out if it wasn't for Duo-Vision, but I'm glad we have this in our collection. It's one of the rare movies we've seen that reveals the killer almost instantly yet remains interesting.

More trivia: Aside from the songs that Bolling sings, the film's soundtrack is mostly made up of the piano score from 1925's silent Phantom of the Opera. And thanks to DVD Drive-In's George Reis, I now know that Charles B. Pierce of The Town That Dreaded Sundown fame was the set decorator!

Thanks to the Warner Archive for restoring this oddball film. I wish I had seen it on the big screen and hope to get the chance one day!

split screen

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 25 October 2020]

A woman checks into a seaside hotel but she is being watched from a hidden vantage point. The killer dons a mask and kills the woman in her room. It's the third guest this month who has gone missing. The clerk thinks that the guests are running out on their bills. The house detective is called in to investigate.

The movie is completely shown in split screen format except for a few short cut scenes and the coup de grâce. It's a fascinating style for a little while but it doesn't stay compelling all the time. It's a great way to show a killer stalking his victim. Both the killer and the victim can be the center of their screens. The split screen tries to keep some sort of structure like showing flashbacks of a character who is on the other screen. A more strict sense of the connection between the two screens is needed. There is supposedly a humor element to this movie. Except for the post-ending bit, the only humor is the general poor quality of the film. At its core, this is nothing more than a weak B-movie. The split screen premise is a great experiment. It faces difficulties and it needs a reason for its existence.

Wicked Wicked

[longtallgibbs · 8/10 · 11 October 2005]

This movie was funny as hell if you have the right sense of humor. Ahead of its time along with Private Parts which was playing with it in a double feature back in the early seventies. Worked at the theater it was playing in. Saw it at least 10 times in one week.Would love to see it again. Love the ending as the cop urges the killer to jump. Also the part where Jason whacks the Mother Superior from the Flying Nun. The organist was great also. I cannot exactly remember if she cracks her knuckles or burps when she pauses. Also love the flashback scenes of Jason being molested. A Classic for cult movie lovers. I think it should be remade with myself in the title role.

Wickedly Culty

[VinnieRattolle · 10/10 · 22 January 2010]

Spoilers are minor... I'd read about this film a few times over the years, so when I caught it on TCM a couple years ago, my expectations were low -- most everything I've ever read about the movie's been negative. What I didn't expect is that the movie would skyrocket to near the top of my list of all-time favorite films. It's not especially original, the identity of the killer is revealed about 10 minutes in, and some of the dialogue is completely inane, but this little-known flick still oozes charm. It's like a '60s sitcom in the guise of a '70s horror movie.

What makes "Wicked, Wicked" so special isn't the story or the gimmicky split-screen that's employed throughout the entire film, it's the characters. Every character, large and small (and many annoyingly uncredited) is wonderfully quirky and likable. There's hotel resident Mrs. Karadyne, who's sweet and eccentric and has a penchant for stretching the truth. There's Genevieve, the sex-starved gift shop employee. There's health-obsessed Hank, the resident lifeguard/waiter who has a secret life as a gigolo (amongst other things). There's Rick, the horny house detective with the troubled past, who was once married to defensive lounge singer Lisa. There's socially awkward and misunderstood electrician Jason, who has a whole mess of skeletons in his closet. There's senile organist Adelle Moffett, who never says a word or interacts with any other characters but still manages to be a scene-stealer. There's Mr. Simmons, the hotel manager, who's more concerned with covering up than investigating recent murders and disappearances. There's inept Police Sgt. Ramsey, who belligerently believes he's always right. There's bellboy Jerry, who's a bit lazy and self-centered and is only out to make a buck (can someone please identify the actor who plays him?!). And then there's the Hotel del Coronado, which really is a character unto itself more than merely a location. There's something lovably askew and almost Rocky Horror-ishly unique and comical about every character.

The split-screen is used to good effect, frequently furthering the characters as their pasts are delved into in flashbacks. When it's not being used for flashbacks, it reveals two simultaneous occurrences or two different points of view of the same scene. Many have called the "duo vision" distracting and unnecessary, but I think it was easy to follow and added a lot to the movie. Matter of fact, the editor should've won an award -- there's a couple times when a person moves just slightly out of sync on one side of the screen, but overall the editing's flawless.

If anyone with half a brain at MGM had thought to run this on the midnight circuit in the '70s, perhaps it wouldn't still be languishing in near-total obscurity. While I am, indeed, grateful to TCM for unearthing and infrequently airing this delightfully demented variation of "Phantom of the Opera," I'm still praying for the day it gets a remastered, anamorphic DVD release (TCM's print is hardly flawless and it's been slightly cropped to an improper 2.35:1 aspect ratio). I never tire of watching "Wicked, Wicked" and I think there's a big cult audience that's still waiting to discover this quirky gem.

Hugely entertaining 70's psycho split screen extravaganza

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 22 April 2010]

Geeky misogynistic psycho electrician Jason Gant (nicely played with convincing awkwardness by Randolph Roberts) has a nasty habit of picking off lovely blonde lady guests who check in, but never check out of the swanky California seaside resort hotel he works at. Jason plans on killing spunky lounge singer Lisa James (ravishing drive-in movie goddess Tiffany Bolling in peak sultry and spirited form) next. It's up to shrewd and dashing house detective Rick Stewart (a smooth and suave performance by David Bailey) to stop the wacko before it's too late. Writer/director Richard L. Bare and cinematographer Frederick Gately make extremely inspired, inventive, and even downright ingenious use of split screen throughout almost the entire picture; they also further tart things up with a few freeze frames, a couple of superimpositions, and several sepia-tinted flashbacks which explain how Jason become a dangerously demented homicidal lunatic (yep, he was molested by some evil hag woman). Bare manages to milk a good deal of tension from the tongue-in-cheek premise, maintains a constant brisk pace, adds a generous sprinkling of cool touches (a weird old lady organist plays gloomy music cues from "The Phantom of the Opera" and Jason uses a dumbwaiter and the hotel's elaborate ventilation system to sneak around), and tosses in occasional witty moments of amusing sardonic humor (for example, a longtime hotel resident claims she was once a successful ballet dancer, but we're shown that she worked as a tawdry go-go gal at some sleazy dive instead!). The sound supporting cast helps a lot: Scott Brady as gruff, brutish Sergeant Ramsey, Edward Byrnes as swinging playboy lifeguard Hank Lassiter, Arthur O'Connell as grumpy handyman Mr. Fenley, Diane McBain as Jason's first victim Dolores Hamilton, Roger Bowen as stern, uptight manager Simmons, and ubiquitous exploitation feature regular Patrick Wright in a quick uncredited bit as an abusive jerk. Moreover, it's a total treat to see the gorgeous Bolling heartily belt out the insanely groovy theme song while slinking about on stage in a sparkly sequin dress. Philip Springer's spooky-moody score hits the atmospheric spot. The supremely macabre, gripping, and thrilling conclusion is executed with considerable style and gusto. An incredibly fun flick with a gnarly visual gimmick.

Wicked, Wicked

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 3 July 2008]

A mentally disturbed electrician for a beach front resort, Jason(Randolph Roberts), a victim of a terrible childhood, murders selected blonde females(..modeled after a woman who adopted him, attempting to molest the child leading to her husband's beating him)checking in for a room, peering from a hole in the attic with his binoculars. He's a skilled locksmith(..just one of many talents)and has the ability to get into his victims' rooms using a spare key, hiding in their closets, before attacking them with a knife he sharpens. Jason wears a red jacket(..the kind porters wear)and grotesque Halloween mask before startling his victims who have no clue that a killer awaits them. Securtity guard for the resort, Rick Stewart(David Baily), an ex-cop who lost his job after the unfortunate shooting of an innocent man, is called on to find missing women who supposedly left the hotel without paying their bill. As Rick begins investigating the case, however, he believes there's a murderer loose, but getting others(..like his boss who doesn't want any bad publicity ruining business and tourism, or a sergeant who wants this big city cop "from the north" to let the police handle the situation)to listen is another story. Meanwhile, Stewart's ex-wife, Lisa(..the curvy Tiffany Bolling), on tour trying to find a record label, decides to dye her hair blonde, with Jason(..operating the spot-light for her singing performances at the resort)making her his next target. Jason confides in Lenore(Madeleine Sherwood of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), a relic whose incoming checks from the inheritance of her late husband having run dry leaving her with the possibility of being thrown out after nearly 22 years of living in the resort, perhaps representing the mother he never had. When an attempt to murder Lisa is unsuccessful, Jason's life slowly unravels with Rick nipping at his heels. Jason's hide-out, a specific room hidden within the resort whose blue-prints have been revised over the years as the hotel has been re-modified and renovated, gives him access to roam the halls quietly. But, it's only a matter of time before Jason makes that fatal mistake which leads to his ruin.

Besides the gimmick of "duo-vision", while the film is, in essence, the hunt(..by an amateur sleuth, with a detective's instincts)for a serial killer, I think "Wicked, Wicked" is mostly a 70's "Grand Hotel" without the big name cast often associated with such a film. Utilizing the split screen, the director is able to build exposition on the characters. Like Jason. We're able to see what motivates his desire to kill, and why he chooses blonds..this happens while he's speaking with Lenore on the other side of the screen. Lenore's real past is displayed on one side of the screen while she's telling a fabricated one to Jason on the other. The director can show Jason getting prepared for the kill while on the other side the screen we see a victim getting undressed for her shower. As a killer peers from the attic with his binoculars on one side of the screen, who he is eyeballing is getting her key to the room(..and while the killer is sharpening his knife, the female victim is closing in on her hotel room). The split screen allows the director a chance to tell simultaneous stories at the same time, without taking away from the viewer, even if such a process makes the audience work harder in gathering the information presented. I can understand why the use of "duo-vision" didn't catch on, though, because most audiences will probably find having to follow events taking place on two sides of the screen exhausting. I found the challenge stimulating, even if there were times where the director had nothing to do but show an organist playing "Phantom of the Opera" as a murder sequence was being carried out. The macabre premise of a killer working within the confines of a resort, achieving access due to his knowledge of old rooms abandoned by those who developed the hotel, really won me over big time. Especially, when we find out where Jason keeps the murdered corpses of the women who wound up missing. There's a clever use of a dumbwaiter which Jason is able to use to get into the Presidential suite of Lisa's newly applied quarters, and the cat-and-mouse between the killer and sleuth is fun to watch. Many found this boring, because a great deal of the film shows characters talking using split-screen to tell their stories, often in two ways..the past and present. Slasher fans might enter expecting constant blood-shed, but I think this is about what drives this psycho to commit these deeds, his methods and travel, and the mistakes he makes along the way. There's a beheading by a guillotine, though, and the first knife-murder certainly is memorably nasty. I really think the film has so many clever ways of using the duo-vision process, that "Wicked, Wicked" shouldn't be totally dismissed. I think some folks, seeking something different, might like this flick. It's an interesting curio, and I thank Turner Classics for bringing it to me. Despite a PG rating, this film has a disturbing scene where Jason, as a child, is almost sexually molested by an adopted mother. And, the film has a warped sense of humor, not to mention a rather startling conclusion regarding Jason's fate.

Better than you may think

[wurliguy · 8/10 · 27 September 2011]

I find this movie very interesting. I love the split screen. There is plenty to look at and plenty of story to pay attention to.

The entire cast is excellent in their roles.

The Coronado Hotel is a fabulous setting for this film.

The music is reminiscent of a silent film with true theaters organ accompaniment. The music being the original theaters organ score for The Phantom of the Opera, and it works completely. The action scenes and the organ music match up perfectly. The modern music works well too.

This is an very unusual and unique movie that deserves a look, but unlike most of todays films where I see a lot of people texting through the whole thing, Wicked-Wicked works best if you pay attention to both screens. This film has a lot of story to tell.

Although this movie contains violent murders, it is still quite a lot of fun. Think Satire, not comedy.

This had to be difficult to film,, direct, edit, and keep everything flowing as well as it does. It is Technically brilliant.

This film is from the past, when variety in entertainment was the norm, people took chances, directors experimented, and CGI had yet to be thought of.

Two Movies In One?...

[azathothpwiggins · 1 January 2024]

Filmed, using the modern miracle that is "Duo-Vision" (aka: split screen), WICKED, WICKED is about an enormous hotel, and the psychopathic killer that lurks there. Though it's obvious who the murderer is from the beginning, this movie is quite entertaining and even boasts a nice "shock" finale.

Rick Stewart is serviceable as the womanizing sleuth on the case, while Randolph Roberts is perfectly cast as the bug-eyed maniac. There's also a cavalcade of oddball characters and the hyper-intense Scott Brady in another hard-nosed, barking cop role. Watch for Roger Bowen as the sniveling, reputation-obsessed hotel manager.

Is this a classic film? Well, no, but it is a lot of fun to watch. However, you might have to watch it twice in order to avoid eyeball whiplash...

Campy Horror That Never Takes Itself Too Seriously

[hauntfreak13 · 8/10 · 5 February 2024]

"See the Hunter! See the Hunted! Both at the same time!"

This is the tagline for this schlocky slasher set in a luxurious beachside hotel. The plot is simple: a crazed killer is stalking and killing all the blonde female guests. When singer Lisa James (Tiffany Boling) is booked to perform in the hotel's lounge, she becomes the killer's newest obsession. Head of hotel security and Lisa's former lover Rick Stewart (David Bailey) is on the case to catch the killer before he strikes again.

The big gimmick for "Wicked, Wicked" is that the movie is presented almost entirely in "Duo-Vision" (MGM's fancy term for split-screen). There are times when this is used quite cleverly. A guest discusses her past as a dancer in a prestigious ballet company on the right side of the screen while we simultaneously see her dancing topless in a bar with men drunkenly cheering at her on the left. There is an elderly organist character that appears solely to provide music for the movie's more climactic scenes. She has no dialogue and doesn't interact with any of the other characters. She's simply there. Playing the organ. It gave me the vibe of an accompanist playing live music in a theater for a silent film.

And it's little quirks and light touches of comedy like that that give "Wicked, Wicked" its charm. The movie's title song is one of the most catchy, kitschy tunes ever featured in a horror flick and I love it. Where the movie fails is that it plays its hand way too early. You'll not only have the killer's identity guessed prematurely but fully revealed to you by the halfway point. A bit of a bummer but it doesn't completely spoil the rest of the film. If you can track down a copy of the uncut version, give it a watch!