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As you probably know, Bette Davis walked off of "Wicked Stepmother" after just a week of filming, leaving writer/director Larry Cohen scrambling to rewrite his script and get the movie completed. While the end results make sense (sort of), what is really amazing is that Cohen not only managed to sell the completed movie to a major Hollywood studio, he made enough on the sale to make a profit. The movie simply isn't good, which is probably why the Hollywood studio barely released it to theaters. In her footage, Bette Davis not only looks and sounds extremely ill, she doesn't seem to give a darn about this project. The other actors come across somewhat better, but even they aren't able to generate laughs at any point in the movie. The screenplay they are stuck with simply isn't funny at all. The heavily rewritted screenplay also (perhaps inevitably) feels like Cohen is making things up as he goes along. It also doesn't help that the special effects are mostly pretty cheesy, even for an 1980s film. In short, the movie is a low point for Davis, Cohen, studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer, and everybody else involved with it.

One of the most troubled productions in cinema history, resulted in Bette Davis walking off the set after just one week! The film has a young couple shocked to learn that their ailing father has just gotten married to an evil witch (Davis). Lame humor, poor scripting, and cheap production design are just a few of its problems. Feels like more of a TV movie then an actual theatrical release, and a very bad one at that. Sadly Davis' final film.

Rated PG-13; Mild Violence, Sexual Situations and Profanity.

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 ****

I have a feeling there are two groups-- those who rate this a good example of Bette's acting late in her career (and her willingness to still act at all); and those who find the film so abysmal as to be an embarrassment that mars the Davis legacy.

From what I have read, she was quite ill during filming. It probably became too much of a toll for her, but she labored on because she still wanted to act and my guess is she needed the money for her mounting medical bills. Then, there were creative differences over the script and how the project was being filmed. So she walked off.

WICKED STEPMOTHER had a rather small budget of $2.5 million. But it only made $43,000 at the box office. So by all accounts, it was a huge bomb and not the type of movie swan song befitting a legend of Davis' magnitude.

For starters, I am not familiar with Bete Davis. But I would prefer her to stick with the shootings, because she suited the role she was intended for and acts really good.

"Wicked stepmother" is funnier than most of silly comedy/horror, is quite fast and has funny but effective special effects.

This bad-review-bombing isn't deserved by this little flick that doesn't even for one minute take itself seriously! But I suppose this is because of Bete Davis fame who finally didn't get on with the production people - which resulted in the silly plot change.

I would sure like it most with Bete Davis (Miranda) starring (I also love the cat!), having no Priscilla in it - but then again: it's good as is.

B-movie/stupid horror/thriller-comedy fans, sit down and GIVE IT A WATCH because it is worth it. And don't forget the beer!