feminist film noir like i've rarely seen. beverly michaels is a terminally weary marilyn monroe knockoff who just can't catch a break. the seediness of her surroundings defeats her at every turn. wicked woman indeed

It’s still funny to me that this film was marketed solely on the sex appeal of my aunt Beverly. This is my first time seeing a film starring my Great Aunt Beverly and directed by my Great Uncle Russell. It’s definitely not a hidden masterpiece but it’s incredibly fun and my Aunt is fantastic as the leading lady. Hopefully more people can see this film and appreciate it for the fun genre film it is. I recommend also to everyone you should watch my Uncle’s film “The Fastest Gun Alive” which is an extremely underrated film. This was a blast and quite surreal to see this made by people I was related to.

She uses sex like a hoodlum uses a loaded gun!... has to be one of the great poster tag lines.

Green and Rouse seemed to have watched The Postman Always Rings Twice and thought it was a bit too nuanced for the masses. So they took the recipe and spiced it up with more overt sexual quid pro quo and tossed in a secret ingredient: a horny Percy Helton.

The result is delicious, tawdry fun. A final nice touch was switching it up to make the drifter who arrives in town a woman and implying that she’s a recidivist adventuress by mirroring her bus ride arrival and exit.

Cheap film with a lot of value!* Dynamite lead with a fairly tame scheme by noir standards. Her greatest sin, other than the crimes, is the way she bruises men's egos. Truly wicked! You can keep your Wonder Woman!

*I'd have made a great poverty row hack

Lovely B-flick with an astonishing performance, with every line and movement of her body expressive, by Beverly Michaels playing a heroine who troubles the femme fatale topos more deeply than any I can think of now: a sort of cross between the brassy blonde say à la Phyllis Dietrichson, expert user of her sex appeal and the lost searching Wanda. Here's Kim Morgan's lovely appreciation: sunsetgun.typepad.com/sunsetgun/2015/02/wicked-woman-in-february-sight-sound.html

The role of Billie is played by a robot pretending to be a human woman.

"I want to get tan... but not too tan."

White-hot and low-budget 1950s crowd-pleaser noir with a script as lean as its leading lady, the "wicked" Beverly (Billie Nash) Michaels. Told from the femme fatale's perspective, WICKED WOMAN is just one stop along the bus route for a surprisingly vulnerable character whose rough and tumble exterior and none too subtle sex appeal are her only (or primary) potential means for survival. Nash hustles to get by and just barely gets by to hustle another day. The sort of marvelous motion picture that boasts an instantly memorable and charming original theme song that tells the whole story before it even begins. Presented by the glorious Guy Maddin & Kim Morgan at the 41st Telluride Film Festival.

How soon can I see all of both Russell Rouse's and Beverly Michaels' films?

A working-class zero is nothing to be.

Coarse underbelly of postwar America, and a woman navigating that beaten-down landscape of bus terminals and boarding houses without a safety net. Watch "Billie" get tired of living, watch her do all the unpaid labor of dressing and being presentable, watch her snarl with frustration at anybody who crosses her path.

And yeah, watch the crime-drama stuff, since there wouldn't be a movie to see without those narrative hooks to hang it from.

Percy Helton. You may not know the name, but you'll recognize the actor and, especially, the voice. In what is the biggest role of his movie career, he's a pathetic hoot. Be warned: Don't call him a runt.

An astrology-obsessed, "over it" blonde who uses her feminine wiles to scam a block-headed bartender into committing fraud so that she can finance her trip to Acapulco, where she can tan and listen to her records in peace? Sounds like a lot of women I know!

Just kidding! Love you, ladies!

Well, she's not SO terribly wicked. Beverly Michaels saunters through life, tall, blonde, with the face of an angel; she's no angel, but she sees things pretty clearly, and she's easy to sympathize with. Sure, she manipulates lusty, lustful men and seduces her (unhappily married) boss, but nobody is being coerced, you know? Sure, she's mean once in a while--it happens. Plus, a girl's gotta live. There's a kind of Macbeth/Postman Always Rings Twice situation here, with the couple plotting how to get rid of the unwanted third member of the triangle. But instead of murder, they consider ideas like divorce, or forging the wife's signature to void the contract. Nobody is beaten, stabbed, poisoned (well, maybe a little), or shot. Maybe they should have called this "The Not Very Nice Woman." The wicked woman really just wants a shot at a decent, unharried life for once. So I kind of love this film, and Beverly Michaels.

Fun noir told from the perspective of the femme fatale. Low budget which hampers it and it's a little on the predictable side. But it still made for a very enjoyable watch.

I might have liked this a bit more if the print I saw on Amazon Prime wasn't so wretched. But nothing could remove the plot holes and implausibilities or improve the acting of Ms. Michaels. She plays the leggy dame to the hilt and has her, um, good points; but, based on this film, it's not surprising her career was so short-lived.

Beverly Michaels is a true femme fatale in this sleazy B-noir by director Russell Rouse.  I have to admit I have never heard of her but she acts up a storm as the trashy blonde Billie Nash who rolls into town on a greyhound bus, seduces the husband of drunkard Dora in order to run off with him and his money and makes dubious friends with her neighbour tailor Charlie Borg.  Percy Helton is quite brilliant as the sleazeball older Charlie who becomes obsessed with Billie, in fact he is so good it made me feel queasy to watch him.  Richard Egan and Evelyn Scott as the husband and wife team who own the bar where Billie works give solid performances.  All in all a different kind of noir, a noir that breaks all the rules, but good for all that.

Greatest theme song in cinema history

Noirvember #30

Cheap, nasty B noir.

- fastpaced and hard hitting in its seduction
- tense ending too

when she was reading the astrology book.....me too queen

Never underestimate a hot girl and her astrology chart

not to be crude but Beverly Michaels could extinguish her cigarette on my arm and I'd thank her