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Vicki (film)

Vicki
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHarry Horner
Screenplay byDwight Taylor
Based onI Wake Up Screaming
1941 novel
by Steve Fisher
Produced byLeonard Goldstein
StarringJeanne Crain
Jean Peters
CinematographyMilton R. Krasner
Edited byDorothy Spencer
Music byLeigh Harline
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
20th Century Fox
Distributed by20th Century-Fox
Release date
  • October 5, 1953 (1953-10-05)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$560,000[1]

Vicki is a 1953 American film noir directed by Harry Horner and starring Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters. It was based on the novel I Wake Up Screaming, written by Steve Fisher.[2]

Plot

Vicki Lynn (Jean Peters) is a waitress who is transformed into a fashion model by press agent Steve Christopher (Elliott Reid). When Vicki is murdered, detective Ed Cornell (Richard Boone) tries to blame the crime on Christopher. In fact, the cop knows who the real killer is, but he is so hopelessly in love with the dead girl Vicki, who despised him, that he intends to railroad an innocent man to the electric chair. With the help of Vicki's sister Jill (Jeanne Crain), Christopher tracks down the real killer, Harry Williams (Aaron Spelling), and exposes the crooked cop Cornell, who had manipulated Williams into murdering Vicki.

Cast

Background

Vicki is a remake of the 1941 film I Wake Up Screaming starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, and Carole Landis.[3]

Reception

Peters in a promotional photo for the film

New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther did not like the screenplay, but appreciated the acting. He wrote:

Meanwhile, the rest of the performers—Jean Peters, as the girl who gets killed; Jeanne Crain, as her misgiving sister; Mr. Reid and several more—make the best of Harry Horner's brisk direction to make it look as though they're playing a tingling film. It might be, indeed, if the story were not so studiously contrived and farfetched, and if Mr. Boone did not wear a label that virtually says, 'I'm IT.'[4]

References

  1. ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p248.
  2. ^ Vicki at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  3. ^ I Wake Up Screaming at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  4. ^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, September 8, 1953. Accessed: August 14, 2013.
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