Robert J. Maxwell Imagine if Dana Andrews, the detective in "Laura", had been homely. Suppose he'd had a pock-marked face, a long pulpy nose, a raspy voice, and was utterly lacking in charm. And he fell in love with the supernally gorgeous-beyond-redemption Gene Tierney. Would she have paid him the least attention? Right.I understand this is a remake of "I Wake Up Screaming" but it tries very hard to resemble "Laura." Behind the opening credits, for instance, we see a large portrait of Jean Peters in the same pose that Tierney adopted for her portrait in "Laura." Like Tierney, Peters has a menial job. Then she runs into a man of some influences who takes a shine to her and squires her about town so she can meet patricians. She becomes a famous model and receives an invitation to go to Hollywood and, with any luck, some day leave in a cement square the imprint of her spaghetti shoes. Before she can do it, she's murdered.Richard Boone, in his menacing mode, insists on handling the case. Several men are immediately suspected. There is Elliott Reid as the promoter who discovers her behind the counter, in the Clifton Webb part, except that he's heterosexual. There is the drama critic, Max Showalter, who is obviously attracted to her. There is the flighty famous actor, Alexander D'Arcy in the Vincent Price part, who secretes a pen knife she once gave him. And there is Aaron Spelling as the loopy switchboard operator and factotum at Peters' hotel. He has a great face, with pronounced exopthalmia, but he can act only about as well as his daughter, Tori. You and I have as much in the way of acting skills, but we don't have their portfolio.That's about as much as "Vicki" owes to "Laura." The rest sets out on its own without going very far. Elliott Reid is a fine comic actor but really doesn't belong in dramatic roles. Even when crushed, he looks about to smile. Showalter and D'Arcy have small roles, and the former's is confusing. He's supposed to be a good friend of Reid's, yet when Reid is on the run from the police, Showalter pulls a gun on him with the remark that he just wanted to be the first to take Reid in.Jeanne Craine is the star. She's Peters' nice sister. Her job seems to consist of being browbeaten by the men around her, especially the nasty and brutish Richard Boone. She was positively magnetic as Gene Tierney's younger sister in "Leave Her to Heaven" but by the 1950s she seems to have lost interest in her career. She doesn't make a false move throughout the movie, nor an original one. The same, alas, can be said of Jean Peters' performance. She's supposed to be a striking beauty -- and she IS beautiful -- but she's unpleasant in some ways too, ambitious and self indulgent. Maybe that's okay though. People adore media images, whereas they must tangle mano a mano with real individuals.I saw it years ago and enjoyed it far more than I did this time around. It would have been an improvement if it had been shot on location in New York instead of on sound stages but this wasn't yet a common practice. It's a competent murder mystery with one genuinely pathetic figure -- Boone's -- but it's also pretty routine stuff.

st-shot Before it collapses under the weight of cliché and wooden performances Vicki is a suspenseful whodunit that keeps you second guessing most of the way. In a triumph of form over content this Laura lookalike is textbook economical story telling in its first half hour as tight editing and revealing composition give the film a well ordered pace and a handful of plausible suspects.Overnight, cafeteria waitress Vicki (Jean Peters) becomes an instant celebrity when she catches the eye of an actor and a theatre critic who promote her. Confident and ambitious she sets her sights on Hollywood but is brutally murdered. An obsessive detective (Richard Boone) demands to be put on the case and his judgment and intent is soon called into question.Vicki is filled with Freudian and fetish inferences. Suspect intent is ambiguous and the police are brutal in their methodology. All of the characters are petty and unremarkable which levels the playing field most of the way and allows the mystery to flourish. The imagery runs from striking to banal and some of the turns at the end defy logic but for the most part it does what a good mystery does-keep you in the dark for as long as possible.

dbdumonteil "Vicki" is the remake of "I wake up screaming" .It's an excellent thriller,part whodunit and part film noir ;not only it features two fifties beauties,Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters ,but it also contains one of the most disturbing portrayal of a cop masterfully played by Richard Boone."Vicki" is wrapped in a deadly atmosphere where the keynote seems to be "mourning": the flowers in the cemetery or the altar complete with candles and photographs.The cop's hatred knows no bounds .He cannot forgive Steve ("Pretty boy" ) for being a handsome man whereas himself can only dream of dating the stars (a two-bit star in this case for she was first a waitress in a cheap restaurant).Sometimes the viewer stops and wonders whether this detective is really on the "right" side or whether he gets on with a merciless revenge .Who killed Vicki in the end?

David (Handlinghandel) "I Wake Up Screaming" is a weird, gaudy, creepy movie. One might call it one of a kind. But it is, in fact, not: "Vicki" is a remake. There are some differences in the storyline but it's different primarily because of casting: It's creative and bizarre in the original and pretty generic in the remake.Carole Landis and Betty Grable have an authentically pulp look in "Wake." Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters look like sisters. They're both pretty but bland looking. Richard Boone is in the Laird Creger role. He's odd looking, to be sure. He refers to the man who brought the murdered girl from waitress to glamorous star as "pretty boy." He's prettier than Boone (who was a fine actor) but he's nothing special. His lack of color is at the heart of "Vicki's" failure.Alexander D'Arcy looks great as the actor who also had a thing for Vicki. It's amazing that well over ten years earlier he'd played Irene vocal coach in the sublime "The Awful Truth."Aaron Spelling (yes, THE Aaron Spelling) is effective and noirish as the whacked-out desk clerk at Vicki's apartment building. But when it comes to whacked-out, no one can top Elisha Cook, Jr., who played this role in the original.The main problem is that anyone who's seen "I Wake Up Screaming" will know exactly what is going to happen in "Vicki." If anyone reading this happens to want to watch "Vicki" but hasn't yet seen "wake" -- please, watch the first one first.Both have marvelously tawdry opening credits. "I Wake Up Screaming" has the better ones but "Vicki" is right in there. It's beautifully photographed by Milton Krasner.I can't even say it's disappointing. What it does it does well enough. Surpassing the original would have taken a miracle.