By Tristan Bishop
Dear old Michael Winner. Loathed by serious film critics and restaurant owners worldwide, and engendering responses in the public ranging from revulsion to fascination, Winner was undoubtedly an original – an opinionated playboy whose films often seemed more like excuses for him to hang out with his Hollywood heroes than personal works of art. In later years, when the films dried up, Winner came into his element as a media personality, becoming known as much for his insurance adverts and his frankly batshit Twitter account as any of his artistic endeavours.
Despite this, many of Winner’s films do actually stand up reasonably well, especially his 60’s British films (mostly starring his long-time friend Oliver Reed), which swung between madcap comedy and kitchen sink drama, and the series of American films he made with Charles Bronson: Chato’s Land (1972), The Mechanic (also 1972, and remade in recent years with Jason Statham failing to approximate Bronson’s stony-faced magnetism), The Stone Killer (1973); and what must surely be his crowning achievement, 1974’s Death Wish, a grim and gritty tale which launched an entire subgenre of vigilante films. Sadly, the next 20 years saw Winner’s fortunes suffer from diminishing returns (culminating in 1999’s Parting Shots, starring an obviously ‘unwell’ Chris Rea). 1983’s The Wicked Lady comes from around halfway through this period, and, aside from camp value, has little to recommend it for rediscovery.
The Wicked Lady is actually a remake of one of the largely forgotten ‘Gainsborough melodramas’, a series of British costume dramas from the 1940s (which included in their number Fanny By Gaslight, a 1944 effort which, frankly, I am only mentioning for the giggles). Faye Dunaway (who seems a little too old to be playing the part) stars as the titular Lady Barbara Skelton, who arrives at the home of her sister Caroline (Glynnis Barber – aka Makepeace from Dempsey & Makepeace) after being invited to be bridesmaid for her wedding to Sir Ralph (Denholm Elliott). Being a wicked lady, however, Barbara is soon seducing Sir Ralph herself and steals his hand in marriage. However, despite her new-found wealth, Barbara is soon bored, and when she gambles away a piece of her mother’s jewellery, she takes inspiration from the famous highwayman Jerry Jackson (Alan Bates), and, disguising herself as him, takes to robbery to get it back. Finding the criminal act to be an exhilarating experience, Barbara eventually teams up with Jackson whilst seeking to protect her identity.
Well, make no bones about it; this is far more a dog’s dinner than a Winner’s dinner. Far from the grimy feel of the Bronson films, here Winner attempted something approaching a ‘proper’ film, along the lines of a golden age swashbuckler. But, of course, the old adage of the leopard being unable to change its spots rings true here: this is the sort of frothy adventure where cupboard doors being opened reveal scantily clad couples ‘at it’. One wonders whether Winner had Ken Russell’s The Devils in mind here – an opening shot with a decomposing corpse certainly seems to reference that film – but sadly where Russell was a master of deploying opulent debauchery to make wider points, Winner appears to be shoehorning his excesses in with the hope of keeping the audience awake. This strategy does work on occasion – most notably the standout scene, in which Dunaway engages in a whip battle with a topless woman, which is pretty impressive in its levels of audacity; but mostly you will find yourself drifting off unless you have a very high tolerance for trashy costume drama.
The cast mostly acquit themselves with little embarrassment – unsurprising when you have such talents as Prunella Scales and John flipping Gielgud in relatively minor roles, but Dunaway’s lead performance is a thing of wonder. Not in a good way, you understand, as here the Hollywood legend breaks ranks, ignores the fact that the rest of the cast are wisely playing it straight, and goes for full-on pantomime dame, with wide eyes flashing. It’s frankly hilarious, and fans of grand dames chewing on the scenery will definitely get their money’s worth with this. It’s just a shame that there’s so little else to enjoy here, and as such the film can only be recommended for those looking for a camp giggle.
The Wicked Lady is available now on DVD from Second Sight.