Wicked, Wicked (1973)

This odd little movie starts off with a young woman checking into a hotel late at night, all while a mysterious figure watches her from a hidey-hole above the lobby.  She gets into her room and starts to settle in for the night, when a man enters the room and kills her.  He then orders room service and after eating sneaks her dismembered body onto the elevator underneath the cart the food was delivered on.  Later after the manager complains to the house detective about the rash of guests skipping out on their bills he puts together that they are all young, blonde women that checked in to the hotel late in the evening never to be seen again.  Unfortunately this also fits the description of his ex-wife, with whom he is still having a “thing”.  With the help of the hotel’s maintenance man and the local police he tracks down the culprit, and thru a series of flashbacks we the audience are let in on why he killed the women. 

This movie was confusing as hell for a couple of reasons.  The first is the story, which never seems to really define what it is trying to be.  At times the movie is played as a straight thriller with a couple of decent kills shown on screen.  Then the movie tries to be some sort of clever black comedy with the storyline being played for laughs, including a couple of times where the characters look right into the camera to deliver a joke.  This constant shifting of gears is annoying and makes it hard to watch the movie.  But the worst part is that when it wants to be funny it really is, and when it tries to be a thriller it does a decent job of that as well.  Another problem that I had with the movie is that not only is the killer obvious, but it is revealed way too early.  Early on when the killer’s identity is in doubt the movie works much better for me.  Performance wise the cast does a fine job with the material.  But no one stands out, possibly due to the inability of the story to figure out what it wants to be. 

Remember when I said the movie was confusing for a couple of reasons?  Well in addition to the movie’s inability to decide what it wants to be the filmmakers also unleash one of the most annoying gimmicks I’ve ever seen, Duo Vision.  Basically for most of the movie the screen is split in two.  Either you get to see the same scene from more than one angle or you get to see two completely different scenes that are supposed to be related to each other somehow.  This makes the film almost impossible to follow at times because you don’t know what you are supposed to be paying attention to half the time.  I honestly had to go back and check scenes to see what I was missing (thank goodness for TiVo, without which this movie would be impossible to follow).  Other than this stupid gimmick the movie does boast a good location with all sorts of places for the killer to hide.  Also there are a couple of attacks that involve the killer stabbing women with a collapsing knife.  Sure this is an easy effect to pull off, but I was surprised that they actually showed this on screen.  Sometimes the simple stuff when executed well is just as fun as the overly complicated effects.  One other thing I wanted to mention is the annoying organ music that the movie uses several times for no reason, other than to show the woman playing it on the other half of the Duo Vision!  Did I mention this was annoying?

So the more that I think about it the more the movie seems to be trying to be a dark comedy or parody of a stalk and kill movie.  But then if that is the case some of the nastier killings just don’t fit.  I guess what annoys me is that there is a good movie here that is trying to get out.  But a script that wants to be everything and a dumb gimmick like Duo Vision kill any chance that the film had at being really good.  As it is if you can catch this one on TV (TCM plays it quite often), or cheaply on DVD you might want to check it out. 

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2008 John Shatzer