It is the waining weeks of the old school DVD Netflix. Back in the 00's Fox put out a nice series of film noir DVD's, they often contained good special features and interesting audio commentaries, I've enjoyed watching them over the years. So I wanted to squeeze in one more before the DVD by mail service wrappes up operations at the end of the month. What I was able to get is 'Vicki'.
'Vicki' is a lesser remake of 1941's 'I Wake Up Screaming', based on a novel of the same name by pulpist Steve Fisher. Jean Peters (Mrs. Howard Hughes 1957 - 1971) broke alot of hearts on her rise from night shift waitress to model, singer and aspiring actress. The mystery is, which 'wronged man' killed her?
Directed by Harry Horner, father of film composer James Horner, the film is pretty middling. There are some mistakes in the casting, Elliot Reid shouldn't be here, Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters should have switched roles. I did like some of the ways it played with lighting and set design, earlier, lighter portions of the film look like a romantic comedy, with Noir elements dominating the latter part of the flick. Richard Boone is pretty good as the obsessive detective, but no Laird Cregar. Future super producer Aaron Spelling has a small part. **
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