CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

philipt1978 I grew up loving this film and its still amazing fun with drama, sex (1940s style)double crossing and corsets. Lockwood is at her best and looks stunning throughout the film. A great British cast with James Mason, Patricia Roc and Michael Rennie who looked incredibly sexy and when you consider his other work it hard to believe its the same man. Barbara Worth is in my opinion the most wicked lady ever put on film .What I'll comment on is that I got a friend to watch it recently and said this is the most wicked woman on film, which left her unimpressed until she watched and then agreed whole heartedly that Lockwood is the most wicked lady ever put on the silver screen. Its campy, overly dramatic and glamorous, what more could you want from a 1940s classic!

moonspinner55 Wonderfully entertaining rogue adventures set in the British countryside in the 17th Century. Scheming, cunning woman steals away the sweetheart of her insipid cousin, only to find marriage and her life of leisure a bore. Longing for excitement--and determined to get back a brooch she lost in a bet--this very wicked lady impersonates the legendary Highwayman, horse-riding robber of coaches at nightfall. Margaret Lockwood initially appears to go over the top in her breathless histrionics...until it becomes clear she's been deliberately directed towards broad villainy (a smart decision since the whole enterprise has an infectious sense of naughty fun). Adaptation of Magdalen King-Hall's novel "The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton" nearly borders on camp, yet is held in check by a great narrative, fabulous locations, and a first-rate cast. Lively, funny, engaging, with an ironic ending and lots of eye-popping décolletage! Remade in 1983 by Michael Winner, but this version would be hard to top. ***1/2 from ****

JohnHowardReid Not popular with the critics,and I agree the critical chorus had a certain amount of truth behind it. True, the plot is full-blown melodrama and the characters are pasteboard figures. But what does it matter? Is not extravagant plotting with all its coincidences, unlikely twists and larger than life surprises the stuff that escapist entertainment is made of? Are not players of the calibre of Mason, Lockwood, Rennie, Jones, Aylmer, Roc and Stamp Taylor sufficiently personable and charismatic to breathe life into one-dimensionally written figures? Certainly, I think so (even if Mason himself did not, although undoubtedly one of the causes of his dissatisfaction was the role's brevity).Leslie Arliss has written and directed with verve, pace and style, his script helped by a great deal of witty additional dialogue and catty repartee, his direction aided by Jack Cox's typically moody, gray-toned photography, John Bryan's magnificent sets, Elizabeth Haffenden's eye-catching Restoration costumes. (Perhaps some of the film's enormous success at the box office can be traced to its low-cut, period gowns. It would be hard to deny that Misses Lockwood and Roc fill their costumes most attractively).The Wicked Lady has an undeniable sweep and a vigorous dash that carries the audience right along. It may be too excitingly plotted for some, but it always looks so terribly authentic, it is hard not to be drawn into the machinations of villainess Lockwood or sympathize with the careless, carefree vigor of James Mason's full-blooded Captain Jackson. A welcome cast of deservedly popular support artists help round out the movie's terrific production values. Aside from some obvious process screen effects, no expense has been spared. In fact, this Wicked Lady is lavish to a fault.

screenman Anyone game for a bit of bodice-ripping need look no further than this.Here is a 'lady' who has everything, but is bored stiff. Here is a fem-fatale who is truly fatal. Why; she's rotten to the core. What fun! When not attending to polite social gatherings, she is out on the road committing highway robbery. It's dangerous, daring, dark - and a bigger buzz than sex. Or so it seems to her. On one of these escapades she encounters a true highwayman - played to crooked, courtly perfection by James Mason - and a new dimension of excitement and pleasure is opened to her wastrel life. They are lovers and competitors, and wicked both. There can only be one outcome. Who is the more devious and deadly of the two? Margaret Lockwood was the ideal choice for this wonderful period romp. She oozes with a ruthless sexuality that is guaranteed to get bosoms heaving on either side of the gender divide. And - my - what bosoms there were indeed! Apparently, the whole production had to be re-worked in order to pacify the more tender American sensibilities. Which is rather funny when you think how stuffy we British are always purported to be.When I saw this movie for the first time, though many years after its original release, I was pretty shocked. I am of the last generation that was raised to regard the female as some kind of virtuous paragon, the keeper of society's moral keys. This movie showed her as quite the opposite, and indeed - from a Darwinian standpoint - the more honest representation.Both of the lead characters are as anti-heroic imaginable, with the female being the more ruthless and less susceptible of the two. That's a complete inversion of cultural and cinematic ideals. Released so long ago, it must have been a tremendous head-turner in its day, and no little inspiration to closet feminists.As a character, it's interesting to compare her with the heroine of 'Gone With The Wind'. In Scarlet O'Hara we have an equally ruthless, self-centred female, no less cold-blooded and brutal. She steals, swindles, and lies. See her petulantly beating an exhausted pony to death. And yet she survives and is lauded as a feminist icon, whereas Britain's wicked lady gets what both deserved.Take a look if you get the chance. To see James Mason strike sparks off Margaret Lockwood is worth the price alone. If you can think of a better movie from 1945, I'd like to know what it is.The conflicts of sexual power don't get more artful than this portrayal.