The Wicked Lady (1983 film)
Encyclopedia
The Wicked Lady is a 1983
British
drama film
directed by Michael Winner
. It was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival
. It is a remake of the 1945 film of the same name
, which was one of the popular series of Gainsborough melodramas
.
While on the road she meets a famous highwayman (Jerry Jackson) and they continue as a team, but some people begin suspecting her identity and she risks death if she continues her nefarious activities.
appeared in The Wicked Lady as King Charles II, but during the filming, director Michael Winner
could not afford to pay him even the Equity union minimum fee. Burns told him to make a donation to the Police Memorial Trust
, run by Winner. Years later, when Burns appeared at a magistrates court on a charge of speeding, Winner told the bench that the actor had given "his entire fee" for a major film to the fund, and Burns was subsequently discharged.
The film received a Razzie Award nomination for Faye Dunaway as Worst Actress.
1983 in film
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British
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Michael Winner
Michael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
. It was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival
1983 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*William Styron *Henri Alekan *Yvonne Baby *Sergei Bondarchuk *Youssef Chahine *Souleymane Cissé *Gilbert de Goldschmidt *Mariangela Melato *Karel Reisz...
. It is a remake of the 1945 film of the same name
The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement...
, which was one of the popular series of Gainsborough melodramas
Gainsborough melodramas
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures during the 1940s which conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films which had similar themes and frequently recurring actors...
.
Plot
Caroline is to be wed to Sir Ralph and invites her sister Barbara to be her bridesmaid. Barbara seduces Ralph, however and she becomes the new Lady, but despite her new wealthy situation, she gets bored and turns to highway robbery for thrills.While on the road she meets a famous highwayman (Jerry Jackson) and they continue as a team, but some people begin suspecting her identity and she risks death if she continues her nefarious activities.
Cast
- Faye DunawayFaye DunawayFaye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
as Lady Barbara Skelton - Alan BatesAlan BatesSir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...
as Jerry Jackson - John GielgudJohn GielgudSir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
as Hogarth - Denholm ElliottDenholm ElliottDenholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits...
as Sir Ralph Skelton - Prunella ScalesPrunella ScalesPrunella Scales CBE is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife in the British comedy Fawlty Towers and her award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question of Attribution.-Career:Throughout her long career, Scales has usually been cast...
as Lady Kingsclere - Oliver TobiasOliver TobiasOliver Tobias is a UK-based film, stage, and television actor and directorBorn Oliver Tobias Freitag in Zürich, Switzerland, he is the son of Austrian-Swiss actor Robert Freitag and German actress Maria Becker. He came to the United Kingdom at the age of eight and trained at East 15 Acting School,...
as Kit Locksby - Glynis BarberGlynis BarberGlynis Barber is a South African actress of Afrikaner descent, born and brought up in South Africa. She was born Glynis van der Riet. When she was five years old, her parents divorced, and she and her mother moved to Johannesburg. She is best known for her portrayal as Sgt...
as Caroline - Joan HicksonJoan HicksonJoan Hickson OBE was an English actress of theatre, film and television, famed for playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple.- Wivenhoe :...
as Aunt Agatha - Helena McCarthy as Moll Skelton
- Mollie MaureenMollie MaureenMollie Maureen was an Irish-born actress who worked mainly in Britain.-Life and career:Maureen was born Elizabeth Mary Campfield in 1904 in Ireland....
as Doll Skelton - Derek FrancisDerek FrancisDerek Francis was an English comedy and character actor.He was a regular in the Carry On film players, appearing in six of the films in the 1960s and 1970s. He appeared in Roger Corman's last film of his Edgar Allan Poe series The Tomb of Ligeia...
as Lord Kingsclere - Marina SirtisMarina SirtisMarina Sirtis is a British-American actress of Greek descent. She played the role of the human/Betazoid Commander Deanna Troi, ship's counselor, on the television and film series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Life:...
as Jackson's Girl - Nicholas GecksNicholas GecksNicholas Gecks is an actor who appeared in Series Four of Rumpole of the Bailey as his modernising colleague Charles Hearthstoke.Gecks starred as Father Mike in the 1983 film Forever Young.-Notes:...
as Ned Cotterell - Hugh MillaisHugh MillaisHugh Geoffroy Millais was a British author and actor known for his film collaborations with director Robert Altman.-Early years:...
as Uncle Martin - John SavidentJohn SavidentJohn Savident is a British actor, best known for playing the part of Fred Elliott in the soap opera Coronation Street from 1994 to 2006. And also was a frequent guest on Soccer AM alongside fellow actor Jack 'The Rigger' Spooner....
as Squire Thornton - Mark BurnsMark BurnsMark Burns was an English film and television actor.Burns was born in Bromsgrove in the county of Worcestershire and educated at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire...
as King Charles II
Production
The actor Mark BurnsMark Burns
Mark Burns was an English film and television actor.Burns was born in Bromsgrove in the county of Worcestershire and educated at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire...
appeared in The Wicked Lady as King Charles II, but during the filming, director Michael Winner
Michael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
could not afford to pay him even the Equity union minimum fee. Burns told him to make a donation to the Police Memorial Trust
Police Memorial Trust
The Police Memorial Trust is a charitable organisation founded in 1984 and based in London. The trust's objective is to erect memorials to British police officers killed in the line of duty, at or near the spot where they died, thereby acting as a permanent reminder to the public of the sacrifice...
, run by Winner. Years later, when Burns appeared at a magistrates court on a charge of speeding, Winner told the bench that the actor had given "his entire fee" for a major film to the fund, and Burns was subsequently discharged.
The film received a Razzie Award nomination for Faye Dunaway as Worst Actress.