A poor but beautiful woman sets her sights on rising to the top, and lets nothing stand in her way - including murder.A poor but beautiful woman sets her sights on rising to the top, and lets nothing stand in her way - including murder.A poor but beautiful woman sets her sights on rising to the top, and lets nothing stand in her way - including murder.
Philip Carey
- Tim O'Bannion
- (as Phil Carey)
Gil Winfield
- Chuck
- (as Gilbert Winfield)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn March 1957, Arlene Dahl sued Columbia in New York Supreme Court, charging that some images used to promote "Wicked as They Come" were composites of her face and another woman's body and that the resulting pictures were "obscene, degrading and offensive." In August 1957, the case was dismissed by New York Supreme Court Justice Henry Clay Greenberg.
- GoofsIn the flight from USA to UK, the aircraft starts off as a BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, becomes either a Handley Page H.P.81 Hermes or Douglas DC-7C in mid-flight, then is a Stratocruiser again on landing.
- Quotes
Kathleen 'Kathy' Allen, nee Allenborg: Girls like me don't usually get proposals - just propositions.
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Human Jungle: Struggle for a Mind (1964)
Featured review
A real potboiler
Arlene Dahl is "Wicked as They Come" in this 1956 film also starring Philip Carey. Soap fans may know Carey as Asa Buchanan in "One Life to Live," the soap opera from which the 82-year-old actor recently retired, having been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2006. In 1956, he was as hunky as they get. Herbert Marshall also stars.
A Hollywood insider once told me that the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in person - and he had seen them all - was Arlene Dahl. So she's a great choice to play a man-hating, gold-digging femme fatale in this British drama. Her character, Kathy, suffered some sort of trauma which has caused her to turn on men. To her, they're just steppingstones to big bucks. One man (Carey) sees through her and acts as her conscience throughout the film.
If this film had been a lot worse or a lot better, it could today be a camp classic. Unfortunately it falls in between. Kathy pulls some outrageous stunts, but the script doesn't have enough bite to it. Not only that, it's entirely predictable. Case in point is Kathy's romance with her boss, Stephen (Herbert Marshall). He agrees to leave his wife for her. Later that evening, Kathy realizes that Stephen's wife is no less than the daughter of the owner of the company. Leaving her will certainly put Stephen out of a job. When Stephen's wife confronts Kathy in the ladies' room, you had to know she'd be calling Kathy "Stepmommy" pretty soon, now that Kathy knows the score and the players. That's hardly my favorite Kathy moment - the best is when she becomes engaged and practically buys out a store on the guy's charge account, then pawns everything and blows town. That took guts.
Dahl, despite her beauty, was never really given a chance to show what she could do in Hollywood acting-wise, and here, she's good. Had she been around at the height of Hollywood's golden age, she perhaps would have had more opportunities. As a post-war actress with the studios on the verge of breaking up, she really didn't, and while another redhead, Rhonda Fleming, had a slightly better career, neither achieved the stardom they might have.
Recommended for beautiful Arlene, handsome Phil, a pretty old Herbert Marshall and some beautiful fashions.
A Hollywood insider once told me that the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in person - and he had seen them all - was Arlene Dahl. So she's a great choice to play a man-hating, gold-digging femme fatale in this British drama. Her character, Kathy, suffered some sort of trauma which has caused her to turn on men. To her, they're just steppingstones to big bucks. One man (Carey) sees through her and acts as her conscience throughout the film.
If this film had been a lot worse or a lot better, it could today be a camp classic. Unfortunately it falls in between. Kathy pulls some outrageous stunts, but the script doesn't have enough bite to it. Not only that, it's entirely predictable. Case in point is Kathy's romance with her boss, Stephen (Herbert Marshall). He agrees to leave his wife for her. Later that evening, Kathy realizes that Stephen's wife is no less than the daughter of the owner of the company. Leaving her will certainly put Stephen out of a job. When Stephen's wife confronts Kathy in the ladies' room, you had to know she'd be calling Kathy "Stepmommy" pretty soon, now that Kathy knows the score and the players. That's hardly my favorite Kathy moment - the best is when she becomes engaged and practically buys out a store on the guy's charge account, then pawns everything and blows town. That took guts.
Dahl, despite her beauty, was never really given a chance to show what she could do in Hollywood acting-wise, and here, she's good. Had she been around at the height of Hollywood's golden age, she perhaps would have had more opportunities. As a post-war actress with the studios on the verge of breaking up, she really didn't, and while another redhead, Rhonda Fleming, had a slightly better career, neither achieved the stardom they might have.
Recommended for beautiful Arlene, handsome Phil, a pretty old Herbert Marshall and some beautiful fashions.
helpful•251
- blanche-2
- Dec 15, 2007
- How long is Wicked as They Come?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Keiner ging an ihr vorbei
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 34 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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