Beverly Michaels comes off like Gloria Grahame with a splash of Ann Savage's character in Detour. She exudes an airy, blue-collar charm that can quickly foment into a feisty, white-trashy pugnaciousness if provoked. As The Wicked Woman, she's a wonder to watch as she glides slinkily along the street, her long, lean, busty body sheathed in stark white. As she breezes off the bus and over to a low-rent rooming house, the viewer is wont to wonder just what swept such a stunner to these whereabouts. As the storyline unfolds at a slow, steadily deliberate pace, the audience observes her sleek-handed, worldly-wise reactions and can swiftly surmise a probable long-term pattern. She easily wins over many in her sway, like the lascivious gnome next door, the boozing boss and her handsome bartender husband, the habitual barflies. Those with whom she clashes, such as her fishwifey landlady and fault-finding fellow roomers, discover an opponent worth her salt. The plot is low-key and credible, and old hands like the irreplaceable Percy Helton make it reminiscent of fifties television anthologies. The film succeeds in what it was intended to be: a low-budget but well directed and acted character study of a beautiful, manipulative woman.
Review of Wicked Woman
