Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

gridoon2018 Richard Boone singlehandedly lifts this modest but engaging whodunit to a higher plane: from a regular "genre piece" to a psychological study on obsession, delusion and loneliness. The cop he plays (also a suspect) is creepy, disturbing, and ultimately pitiable. In addition, Jean Peters (the murder victim, seen only in flashbacks) is one of the sexiest actresses of her era. *** out of 4.

MartinHafer The Victor Mature film, "I Wake Up Screaming", has one of the best film noir titles in film history. It also was a pretty dandy movie. Twelve years later, Twentieth-Century Fox remade the movie as "Vickie". This remake isn't bad at all...but why mess with an already classic film?!"Vickie" is about a top model (Jean Peters) who has been murdered. The cop investigating the case (Richard Boone) is clearly a very disturbed man--obsessed with pinning the killing on a publicity agent (Elliot Reid) responsible for Vickie's meteoric rise to fame. If that means manufacturing evidence or beating a confession out of the poor guy, then Boone is more than willing to do this. Vickie's sister (Jeanne Crain) is certain Reid is not responsible for the killing and is willing to do what she can to help him prove his innocence...as if Boone really cared! The film is very noir in the way it portrays the police. While Boone is clearly an evil nut-job in the countless ways he violates civil liberties, the 'good cops' aren't exactly angels--trying to force confessions out of people through very dubious means. Civil rights attorneys must have had apoplexies watching this film, that's for sure! Even my 1940s and 50s movie standards, these cops were playing fast and loose with the law.As for the acting, it's all very good--as is the story. The only really exceptional element, however, is the chance to see Aaron Spelling (yes, the very famous producer) doing some acting! He plays a nutty guy in a very entertaining fashion--kind of over the top but entertaining nonetheless.Overall, this is a very entertaining film with an interesting plot that is reminiscent of noir films such as "The Killers" and "Sunset Boulevard" because the film starts with a killing and then backtracks to show the events leading up to it. Not a great noir film, but very good.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** On his first vacation in years New York cop Let. Ed Cornell, Richard Boone, sees the local newspapers headline story of the brutal murder of top fashion model Vicki Lynn, Jean Peters. It's then without as much as a second thought Let. Cornell drops everything and shoots back to the Big Apple in trying to solve Vicki's murder.With Vicki's publicist Steve Christopher, Elliott Reid, found at Vicki's murder scene, her hotel room, it becomes very obvious to Let. Cornell that he's the murderer and doesn't bother looking for anyone else. Even though Christopher emphatically denies killing Vicki saying that he just happened to come upon the scene after Vicki's killer left the room. Despite being brutalized by a brutish Let. Cornell, who in some scenes looks and behaves like the famed movie Creeper Rando Hatton, Christopher sticks to his story; As him being the wrong man in the wrong place at the right time, for Let. Cornell, when Vicki was murdered!It's later when Christopher checks out Vicki's murder for himself that he runs into her big sister Jill, Jeanne Crain, whom she shared her hotel room with. It's Jill that informs Christopher about this creepy looking guy who was aways watching her little sister when she was a waitress at the Webster Cafeteria in midtown Manhattan. Even though the very outwardly and sociable Vicki took it all in stride Jill was very concerned about him and what he had in mind for her kid sister! It later turned out that this weirdo was non other then Let. Ed Cornell! The man who insisted to be placed in charge of the Vicki Lynn murder case!Re-make of the 1941 film noir classic "I Wake up Screaming" the movie Vicki is pretty good on its own merits. Jean Peters is absolutely gorgeous as the ill fated Vicki Lynn whom men just go completely bananas over at the very sight of her. In fact it was Vicki's haunting and smoldering, as well as all-American girl, good looks that in the end lead to her brutal murder! Let. Cornell had it in for Steve Christopher even before Vicki's murder in him being jealous of Christopher being Vicki's lover, which in fact he wasn't, while he, an admitted Peeping Tom, was left out in the cold, with his raincoat, or the outside looking in.****SPOILERS**** As we and Christopher later learn it was Let. Cornell who was at the Vicki Lynn murder scene doing his usual Peeping Tom act by staying hidden in her closet. And it was Let. Cornell, in not wanting to expose himself, who let her killer go free. Not wanting to be exposed as some kind of pervert, why was he hiding in Vicki's hotel room in the first place, Let.Cornell instead turned his sights on the innocent Steve Christopher who dropped in to see Vicki after her killer checked out! Not because Christopher murdered Vicki but because it was him, not Let. Ed Cornell, whom she was in love with!

dougdoepke Cheaply produced remake of TCF's I Wake Up Screaming (1941). That's surprising since Fox was a big-budget, glamor studio, at a time too when production was turning to elaborate color films because of TV. Nonetheless, the b&w sets are uniformly drab, even when supposedly upscale. The visuals could really use more noir to spice up the drab. So who did kill heartlessly successful model Vicki (Peters). Seems like a lot of people had reasons, including cop Boone and sister Crain.Film suffers from bland leading man Reid who unsurprisingly went from here to TV, and from Boone who's much better at being mean than being love sick—catch that last scene, one I expect the actor would just as soon forget. Future TV mogul Spelling also gets a big histrionic opportunity. At least he doesn't look like Hollywood. My guess is that director Horner is not at his best when coaching actors.It's a complex plot with a lot of cross-currents, erratically worked out. Maybe the most interesting is Boone's anger at Reid for promoting hash house waitress Peters into the fashionable world of high-class modeling. Now she's literally out of Boone's class and Reid is to blame. So now cop Boone doesn't care who killed Peters, just as long as he gets even with "pretty boy" Reid. I don't think they taught that at the Police Academy.Too bad the overlong screenplay wasn't pared down to eliminate the many dead spots, or that an A-list director wasn't put in charge. And too bad the production values don't measure up. But perhaps most unfortunate, it looks like a demotion for the under-rated Jeanne Crain after a number of A-films. But, it's 1953 and studios are cutting high-priced contract players, so I guess it's not surprising that the lovely Crain, who's the one bright spot in this film, left TCF after finishing here. Anyway, the movie itself amounts to an inferior re-make, unless you enjoy occasional camp.