The Wicked Lady | |
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Directed by | Michael Winner |
Written by | Leslie Arliss Michael Winner additional dialogue Gordon Glennon Aimée Stuart |
Based on | novel The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall |
Produced by | Yoram Globus Menahem Golan |
Starring | Faye Dunaway Alan Bates John Gielgud Denholm Elliott Hugh Millais |
Cinematography | Jack Cardiff |
Edited by | Michael Winner |
Music by | Tony Banks |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Columbia-EMI-Warner Distributors (United Kingdom) [1] MGM/UA (United States) |
Release date |
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Running time | 98 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $8 million (est.) [2] or $15 million [3] |
Box office | $724,912 [2] [4] |
The Wicked Lady is a 1983 British-American drama film directed by Michael Winner and starring Faye Dunaway, Alan Bates, John Gielgud, Denholm Elliott, and Hugh Millais. It was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. [5] It is a remake of the 1945 film of the same name, which was one of the popular series of Gainsborough melodramas.
Caroline is to be wed to Sir Ralph and invites her sister Barbara to be her bridesmaid. Barbara seduces Ralph, and marries him herself, but, despite her new wealthy situation, she gets bored and turns to highway robbery for thrills.
While on the road she meets a famous highwayman, Jerry Jackson, and they continue as a team, but some people begin suspecting her identity and she risks death if she continues her nefarious activities.
Michael Winner bought the rights from the Rank Organisation and took the film to Faye Dunaway, who agreed to star in the leading role. Winner then raised finance from the Cannon Group in February 1982. [8] [9]
In March John Gielgud and Alan Bates agreed to star and the budget was set at $15 million. Winner called the film " Bonnie and Clyde in the 17th century." [3]
In May Dunaway also announced she would make a second film for Cannon, Duet for One which would be directed by her then-boyfriend Terry O'Neill along with Dede Allen. [10]
Menahem Golan of Cannon said that "stars who would never have worked with us before are now happy to sign. We pay them peanuts - but we give them big percentages. Faye, Alan and John were happy to sign for The Wicked Lady because they have 50% of the film. And we have small overheads, so they'll get their money." Dunaway said, "I really feel it will be a fun picture. A period romp, it's a mixture between Bonnie and Clyde and Tom Jones." [10]
"This is the only film I've ever enjoyed making," said Dunaway on set. "Everything I've done in the past has been so full of anguish, though that's partly my fault, I'm sure." She said the film "came at the right time for me. I needed something light after making Mommie Dearest, which was decidedly harrowing." [8]
The actor Mark Burns appeared in The Wicked Lady as King Charles II, but during the filming director Michael Winner could not afford to pay him even the Equity union minimum fee. Burns told him to make a donation to the Police Memorial Trust, which was run by Winner. Years later, when Burns appeared at a magistrate's court on a charge of speeding, Winner, appearing as a character witness, told the bench that the actor had given "his entire fee" for a major film to the fund and Burns was subsequently discharged. [11]
The film included a scene where Faye Dunaway's character has a whip fight with Jackson's Girl (Marina Sirtis). The British censor insisted this scene be cut before the film was given an X certificate. Winner got various colleagues to watch the film and write letters of protest to the censor in support of the film and the scene. These included Derek Malcolm, Kingsley Amis, Lindsay Anderson, and Fay Weldon. Winner's appeal was successful and the film was released uncut. [12]
The film received a Razzie Award nomination for Faye Dunaway as Worst Actress. [13]
The soundtrack for the film was composed by Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks.
Dorothy Faye Dunaway is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France made her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Women in Love is a 1969 British romantic drama film directed by Ken Russell and starring Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, and Jennie Linden. The film was adapted by Larry Kramer from D. H. Lawrence's 1920 novel Women in Love. It was the first film to be released by Brandywine Productions.
Robert Michael Winner was a British filmmaker, writer, and media personality. He is known for directing numerous action, thriller, and black comedy films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including several collaborations with actors Oliver Reed and Charles Bronson.
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 British costume drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who becomes a highwayman for the excitement. The film had one of the top audiences for a film of its period, 18.4 million.
Glynis Barber is a South African actress. She is known for her portrayals of Sgt. Harriet Makepeace in the British police drama Dempsey and Makepeace, Glenda Mitchell in EastEnders, DCI Grace Barraclough in Emmerdale, Fiona Brake in Night and Day, and Soolin in Blake's 7. In 2022, she joined the cast of Hollyoaks as Norma Crow.
Mommie Dearest is a 1981 American biographical psychological drama film directed by Frank Perry. The film depicts Christina Crawford's adoptive mother, actress Joan Crawford, as an abusive and manipulative mother.
The Captive Heart is a 1946 British war drama, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Michael Redgrave. It is about a Czechoslovak Army officer who is captured in the Fall of France and spends five years as a prisoner of war, during which time he forms a long-distance relationship with the widow of a British Army officer. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.
Festival in Cannes is a 2001 film directed by Henry Jaglom.
Marina Sirtis is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four Star Trek feature films, as well as other appearances in the Star Trek franchise.
The 47th New York Film Critics Circle Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1981. The winners were announced on 21 December 1981 and the awards were given on 31 January 1982.
Katherine Ferrers was an English gentlewoman and heiress. According to popular legend, she was also the "Wicked Lady", a highwaywoman who terrorised the English county of Hertfordshire before dying from gunshot wounds sustained during a robbery.
Yoram Globus is an Israeli–American film producer, cinema owner, and distributor. He has been involved in over 300 full-length motion pictures and he is most known for his association with The Cannon Group, Inc., an American film production company, which he co-owned with his cousin Menahem Golan.
Irene Worth, CBE was an American stage and screen actress who became one of the leading stars of the British and American theatre. She pronounced her given name with three syllables: "I-REE-nee".
The Return of the Soldier is a 1982 British drama film starring Alan Bates as Baldry and co-starring Julie Christie, Ian Holm, Glenda Jackson, and Ann-Margret about a shell-shocked officer's return from the First World War.
The Heart of the Matter is a 1953 British drama film based on the 1948 book of the same name by Graham Greene. It was directed by George More O'Ferrall for London Films. It was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.
Mary Barbara Jefford, OBE was a British actress, best known for her theatrical performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic and the National Theatre and her role as Molly Bloom in the 1967 film of James Joyce's Ulysses.
Louise English is an English actress. She was a regular performer on The Benny Hill Show from 1978 to 1986, as an actress and in dance group Hill's Angels, and has performed in West End plays and nationally touring musical-theatre productions.
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 which conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films which had similar themes that were usually developed by the same film crew and frequently recurring actors who played similar characters in each. They were mostly based on popular books by female novelists and they encompassed costume dramas, such as The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945), and modern-dress dramas, such as Love Story (1944) and They Were Sisters (1945). The popularity of the films with audiences peaked mid-1940s when cinema audiences consisted primarily of women. The influence of the films led to other British producers releasing similarly themed works, such as The Seventh Veil (1945), Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945), Hungry Hill (1947), The White Unicorn (1947), Idol of Paris (1948), and The Reluctant Widow (1950) and often with the talent that made Gainsborough melodramas successful.
Hugh Geoffroy Millais was a British author and actor known for his film collaborations with director Robert Altman.
Magdalen King-Hall was an English novelist, journalist and children's fiction writer. Her novel Life And Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton was made into a film twice, The Wicked Lady (1945), starring Margaret Lockwood and James Mason, and the 1983 remake, also called The Wicked Lady, starring Faye Dunaway and Alan Bates.