Tanz der Hexen

Probably had Bette Davis been in better health and actually finished the film as planned Wicked Stepmother might have been a reasonably good black comedy about the occult. As it was with her walking out of the film for reasons of health I suspect we get both an incoherent story and only about 15 minutes of Bette Davis.

As it was she could have and should have took her final cinema curtain call with the wonderful Whales Of August. It's not as bad a valedictory as Cuban Rebel Girl with her old fellow Warner Brothers player Errol Flynn, but it's still a mess. And Bette looked positively terrible in her scenes.

Detective Tom Bosley is on the trail of a witch who ingratiates herself in a family, loots it and then does something to them for her amusement. In the case Bosley is on they're turned into puppetoons and are found in a shoe box.

His quarry has moved on to another family and vacationing Colleen Camp and David Rasche come home and find that her father Lionel Stander is now married again to Bette Davis. Things start happening to all of them even their son Shawn Donohue as the witch switches back and forth from Davis to Barbara Carrera with Stander not noticing or figuring how lucky can an old guy get. Camp sees her family being torn away from her and she's not taking it lying down.

Not only is this Bette Davis's farewell to the big screen, but also Evelyn Keyes who plays the owner of a shop on the occult who gives lessons in magic. Both Camp and Bosley get a crash course.

Wicked Stepmother is funny in spots and the climax is nicely done, but maybe if some insurmountable problems hadn't occurred we might have seen a better film.

This film wasn't THAT bad. I actually enjoyed it! Sure replacing Bette Davis with Barbara Carrera and THEN having them share the same body was not the smartest decision ever made in Hollywood, but it sure beats Ed Wood's solution to replacing Bela Lugosi in "Plan 9 From Outer Space". Also, it does get rather silly in the scenes toward the end. But there are some very clever scenes too, like the one involving the photograph of Lionel Stander's horrible first wife. The photograph is of Bette's rival, Joan Crawford. Colleen Camp, Tom Bosley, David Rasche, Seymour Cassel, Evelyn Keyes (!), Lionel Stander and even Barbara Carrera did wonderful in their roles. And Richard Moll was very funny in his small, but memorable, role as the inspector. But the true star of this movie is Bette Davis. She is wonderfully evil in the role of Miranda. She is so good at being bad. And even though it was not her best movie, she still is wonderful to watch. I think Larry Cohen did a fine job with this, considering all the trouble it ran into. Overall, Wicked Stepmother is an okay movie.

** 1/2 out of ****

Of course this film will never be a classic film, but it does have some catchy and campy scenes and lines and it will keep you wondering "what's next?" Bette Davis looks like she has just risen from the dead both figuratively and literally speaking. In 1981, Kim Carnes sang the hit song Bette Davis Eyes but in this film the then 81 year old Bette Davis could be better associated with the 1980 song Welcome to THE MONSTER CLUB - theme by The Pretty Things.

The film is very fractured with scenes jumping all over the place as the witch Priscilla, (Barbara Carrera) places magical spells on anyone she seems to come in contact with, but eh, that's camp comedy for you.

I wouldn't call it a memorable camp film, but I wouldn't call it one of the worse in the camp/horror genre that I have seen in the past either.

I give it a bare passable 5 out of 10 IMDB rating. It will not be on my purchase list either.

Wicked Stepmother (1989)

* (out of 4)

Bette Davis, like so many other great actors and actresses, ended her career with a really embarrassing film. Depend on who you believe, Davis walked off the film after a week due to her not liking the screenplay, or, according to director Cohen, she was in such bad health that she had to walk off. Either way the film centers on a witch (Davis) who moves in with a family (Colleen Camp, David Rasche) and soon starts to take over the house. Her daughter (Barbara Carrera) then comes to stay and more trouble follows. The truth behind why Davis left this production will never be known but I seriously doubt the film would have turned out very good either way. Cohen, best known for various horror movies, doesn't have too much to work with his as his screenplay undoubtedly had to be rewritten with the daughter aspect added in. Some would say Davis walking off the film would ruin it all around but even the stuff she's in doesn't appear to be written overly well. We get a few campy moments because it's rather strange seeing someone like Davis doing a movie like this. She is over acting quite a lot but if she was really unhappy with the screenplay, I kept wondering if she was giving a bad performance on purpose. The comedy falls flat on its face but I must admit that there's some weird charm with the way Davis is delivering her lines. The supporting cast are all pretty bland and doesn't bring any energy to the film. Tom Bosley is pretty bad as a detective. Even with Davis walking off the film there's no excuse for all the other issues with the movie. This includes it not really knowing what it's trying to do because on one hand it tries to come off as a kids movie but then we'll have another scene, like the sex scene between the witch and the married father, which seems out of place. I find it shocking that the movie got a theatrical release because it looks like a TV movie at best and that might be an insult to TV movies. Fans of Davis might want to check this out just to see her final film but others should stay far, far away unless you're a fan of bad movies.

When an annoyingly controlling and stupid woman comes home with her husband from vacation, they discover her father (Lionel Stander) married to a somewhat disagreeable woman (Bette Davis). However, the daughter is so disagreeable and annoying, the viewer will likely tend to enjoy how miserable she is with the new step-mother. However, soon after this the old lady disappears--in the guise of sexy Barbara Carrera. What's next? Who cares?!

"Wicked Stepmother" is a truly god-awful film. Sadly, it was also Bette Davis' last film and I sure would have liked to have seen this great actress go out on a high note...not this turkey!

Whether or not the story is true that Davis walked off the set and refused to return because the script was THAT bad, I am very inclined to believe it because the film is horribly written. Part of this could be because the 'clever filmmakers' decided to use what little footage they had of Davis and then re-write the film around that in order to hide her disappearance from the script. But considering how clumsy and stupid it all is, I think they did a lousy job in hiding it!! Clearly the writers they employed were about 6 to 7 years-old!

The film itself is in many ways reminiscent of a film made for the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. After all, the script is clearly something little kids might like and adults with at least a 70 IQ would hate. Oddly, however, it's really NOT a great film for kid because there are many, many sexual references and sexual situations you wouldn't want your kids to see. Overall, a terrible film...one of the worst of Davis' otherwise wonderful career.

I should note that late in life, Davis appeared in quite a few questionable roles--roles other famous actresses probably would have refused. She claimed she needed the money...but badly enough to appear in crap like this film, "Murder With Mirrors" and "Bunny O'Hare"?! Ironically, her arch-rival, Joan Crawford, did exactly the same--appearing in tons of terrible movies late in life ("Trog" is the most egregious example).