By David in TN
Friday, April 24, 2020 at 6:42:00 P.M. EDT
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET is Wicked Woman (1954), with Beverly Michaels, Richard Egan, Percy Helton, Evelyn Scott, Robert Osterloh, directed by Russell Rouse.
Film Noir Guide: “Michaels, the new femme fatale in town, is down on her luck and looking for a job. She finds one as a barmaid in a local establishment owned by alcoholic Scott and her bartender husband (Egan).
“With her blonde hair, tight skirts and long, sexy legs, Michaels is soon hit on by almost every man in the joint. She handles THEM with ease but has a difficult time keeping her eyes and hands off the muscular Egan. It isn’t long before they’re involved in a steamy affair under Scott’s inebriated nose.
“Michaels wants her new lover to sell the bar to Osterloh and carry her off to Mexico, the place of her dreams, but Egan knows that Scott won’t part with the place. They concoct what seems like a foolproof plan to overcome that little obstacle. but Helton, Michaels’ toady next-door neighbor, gets wise to their plans and blackmails her into a romantic relationship.
“This is a fun outing with B movie icon Michaels a joy to watch, as she provocatively slinks and wiggles her impressive body for the camera (even when she’s alone in her room!).
“Veteran character actor Helton steals the film as the lecherous little troll who finally gets what he wants and doesn’t seem to care about (or even notice) Michaels’ obvious disgust.”
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TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight ET and 10 am ET is Otto Preminger's Fallen Angel (1945) with Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford, Bruce Cabot, Anne Revere, John Carradine, Percy Kilbride.
Film Noir Guide: "Director Preminger was hoping for another Laura with this nicely acted, but mostly dull, film noir. Andrews plays a has-been publicity agent, a self-described 'washout at 30,' forced to get off the bus in a small town on his way to San Francisco because he doesn't have enough money to continue the trip. He takes a job publicizing a seance for a phony medium (Carradine) and falls for a sultry waitress (Darnell), who has a collection of suckers drooling over her, including a slot machine operator (Cabot), her fawning boss (Kilbride) and a tough former New York City cop (Bickford). Carradine, who has collected information on almost everyone in town, including two wealthy sisters (Faye and Revere), leaves for San Francisco after a successful show. Andrews stays behind hoping to use that information to bilk the two spinsters out of their dough so he can marry Darnell, who desperately wants to be made an honest woman. Of course, his plan backfires and he finds himself a murder suspect. Noir veteran Andrews is convincing as the good guy-bad guy, and Dranell is red hot as the femme fatale. This was Faye's first starring role in a non-musical, but Darnell got the rave reviews. Faye retired soon after the film's release, and didn't apeear on a screen again until 1962 when she played Pat Boone's mother in State Fair."
Dana Andrews is supposed to be playing something of a sleazy con man, but late in the film he turns into the characterization he gave as the police detective in Laura.
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