IMDb RATING
4.0/10
2.4K
YOUR RATING
A mother-and-daughter pair of witches wreaks havoc on a suburban family.A mother-and-daughter pair of witches wreaks havoc on a suburban family.A mother-and-daughter pair of witches wreaks havoc on a suburban family.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
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- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the scene where Jenny talks to Steve about how much she misses her mother, we see two pictures of Jenny's deceased mother in her room. Both pictures are of Joan Crawford, Bette Davis ' on-and-off screen rival.
- GoofsMan pretending to be gardener mutilates hedge with electric chainsaw while soundtrack is of gasoline chainsaw.
- Quotes
Jenny Fisher: Priscilla, come quick!
Jenny Fisher: Hey!
[Priscilla enters. Jenny throws a bucket of water on her]
Priscilla: I'm melting, I'm melting!
[She laughs]
Priscilla: It didn't work, did it, Dorothy? This is reality, not MGM!
- Alternate versionsThe version of this film that airs on cable TV edits out much of the scene involving Priscilla and Steve fooling around, including all of the references to Priscilla going back into cat form. This version implies that the two did sleep together.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Bette Davis: Größer als das Leben (2017)
Featured review
Two Valedictories
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.
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.
Helpful•211
- bkoganbing
- Jul 20, 2012
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $2,500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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