This morning I watched VICKI, Fox's reworking of I WAKE UP SCREAMING. It is one remake that does not come close to the original, in my humble opinion. It's a shame, too, because a good cast is assembled-- Jeanne Crain, Jean Peters, Richard Boone, etc.The greatest problem: they all over-act, even Crain who usually is much more restrained in her other pictures. She can't even pick up the phone and say 'yes' or 'I'll be right down' without heavily breathing every word, and over enunciating every syllable. And we have countless interrogation scenes that wind up with the characters screaming, sometimes screeching, just because they're told they did something they obviously did not do. We get hysterical rants from more than one person on the hot seat shouting 'THAT'S NOT TRUE! I DID NOT DO IT!' I can only imagine how many words in the script were typed in all capital letters and underlined, followed with goodness knows how many exclamation marks.As if the characters throwing hissy fits was not enough drama for the viewer, we are also treated to plenty of door slamming. It's one moment after another of over-gesticulated posturing. Though, strangely, the death scene, where Crain discovers Peters' body is underplayed. That is when you would expect a girl to get hysterical upon learning her sister has been murdered in cold blood. Instead, she quickly turns away and the scene that plays out is about the other guy in the room trying to convince her of his innocence. Forget the lifeless body on the floor, that part of the plot is over.But these issues aside, the biggest stretch in this story is the way the detective (played by Boone) oversteps his authority. In one scene he is watching the innocent suspect sleep in bed. Never mind the fact that he is breaking and entering, or is there without a warrant. He wants to listen to whether or not the other guy will mumble a confession in his sleep. Plus there are many other scenes where the detective ruthlessly hounds Crain and anyone else he wants to cast suspicion over. I would think that such harassment would be against the law.Then we get to a scene late in the picture where the switchboard operator admits he was in the room when Peters was killed. Not too astonishingly, he was in the closet. And he gets all worked up when he thinks Vicki is still alive. His eyes bug out to the point they are like golf balls glued on to his face. He then sobs pathetically on the counter before they haul him out.Of course, as anyone who has seen the original film knows, the switchboard operator is not the true culprit. We cut to a concluding sequence in Boone's apartment where our trusty detective is found to have built a shrine to the late ingenue. And once again, where we would expect dramatic fireworks, we instead get a very underplayed bit of business with him mourning softly while holding flowers and admitting his heinous deeds.What's truly heinous is that Fox attempted to remake a film that was perfectly fine in the first place and needed no updating. And that a cast of great performers is reduced to pitiful contrived camp. The fact that this remake was produced at all and turned out as poorly as it did is the real crime.

The Victor Mature film, "I Wake Up Screaming", has one of the best film noir titles in film history. It also was a pretty dandy movie. Twelve years later, Twentieth-Century Fox remade the movie as "Vickie". This remake isn't bad at all...but why mess with an already classic film?!"Vickie" is about a top model (Jean Peters) who has been murdered. The cop investigating the case (Richard Boone) is clearly a very disturbed man--obsessed with pinning the killing on a publicity agent (Elliot Reid) responsible for Vickie's meteoric rise to fame. If that means manufacturing evidence or beating a confession out of the poor guy, then Boone is more than willing to do this. Vickie's sister (Jeanne Crain) is certain Reid is not responsible for the killing and is willing to do what she can to help him prove his innocence...as if Boone really cared! The film is very noir in the way it portrays the police. While Boone is clearly an evil nut-job in the countless ways he violates civil liberties, the 'good cops' aren't exactly angels--trying to force confessions out of people through very dubious means. Civil rights attorneys must have had apoplexies watching this film, that's for sure! Even my 1940s and 50s movie standards, these cops were playing fast and loose with the law.As for the acting, it's all very good--as is the story. The only really exceptional element, however, is the chance to see Aaron Spelling (yes, the very famous producer) doing some acting! He plays a nutty guy in a very entertaining fashion--kind of over the top but entertaining nonetheless.Overall, this is a very entertaining film with an interesting plot that is reminiscent of noir films such as "The Killers" and "Sunset Boulevard" because the film starts with a killing and then backtracks to show the events leading up to it. Not a great noir film, but very good.

VICKI (guess they thought changing "Vicky" to "Vicki" would look more modern or something) plays like a watered-down version of the original I WAKE UP SCREAMING (IWUS), though it tries real hard to remind you of another classic 20th Century-Fox thriller, 1944's LAURA. A LAURA-like painting of title character Vicki Lynn can be seen behind the opening credits. Listen carefully to the background dialogue during the scene where our protagonists hide in a movie theater (we don't see the film-within-the-film, we just hear it): the dialogue is from LAURA! To be fair, VICKI is watchable, but despite the filmmakers' best efforts to evoke superior Fox mysteries, it's ultimately pedestrian and forgettable, lacking the pizazz of its predecessors. Director Harry Horner, who was also the Oscar-winning art director and production designer of THE HUSTLER and THE HEIRESS (THE HUSTLER AND THE HEIRESS -- now that sounds like a fun picture! :-)), worked from Dwight Taylor's earlier IWUS script, this time given a little uncredited tweaking by Leo Townsend. Perhaps Townsend's the one responsible for the nice touch of having Vicki's face plastered all over almost every frame of the film, on posters, magazine covers, etc., even after her death, until the film's wry final shot.However, while the actors are capable and easy on the eyes, the principals just don't have the edge, charisma, and screen presence of the original 1941 leads. In the title role, unlike IWUS's luminous Carole Landis, Howard Hughes protégée Jean Peters is just another pretty girl, albeit with ambition and a hard edge. Indeed, as Vicki's nice, sensible sister Jill, Jeanne Crain is more classically beautiful than Peters. If I were a promoter, Jill's the sister I would've been trying to groom for stardom! :-) But maybe that was the point: our promoter hero is trying to manufacture a star out of the raw material that is Vicki, like so many promoters and stars then and now. Film noir historian Foster Hirsch suggests this, too, in the DVD's interesting commentary track.Speaking of our hero, instead of Victor Mature's beleaguered promoter hero Frankie Christopher, formerly Botticelli, VICKI gives us Elliott Reid as Steve Christopher (a tip of the hat to source author Steve Fisher?). Reid was a light leading man best known for comedy. That didn't necessarily have to be a liability, considering the story has comic moments, but alas, I'm afraid it is. I wanted to root for Reid, but he comes across as a lightweight in every way, pleasant without being memorable. Heck, I'm trying to picture him in my mind right now and I'm having a hard time, that's how little impression he made on me.The sexual tension of IWUS is virtually nonexistent here. I've enjoyed the attractive Peters in more down-to-earth roles such as the 1953 thriller NIAGARA, but here I didn't find her irresistible in either physical or emotional allure. While you can't help but pick up on IWUS's Frankie, Larry, and Robin being drawn to Vicky, in VICKI, the lure somehow isn't as strong between Vicki and benefactors Steve; Robin, played here by suave Egyptian actor Alex D'Arcy; and Larry, played likably by one of our household's fave character actors, Casey Adams. Fun Facts: Under his real name, Max Showalter, Adams co-wrote VICKI's instrumental theme, and he'd also appeared with Peters in NIAGARA, in which Marilyn Monroe commanded the screen in an atypical bad-girl role. Crain and Reid come across like a nice-enough couple, but they simply don't have the sizzle and sparkle that Victor Mature and Betty Grable had between them in the original. At least Carl Betz of THE DONNA REED SHOW is a likable presence as Steve's cop pal.Frankly, the antagonists are far more memorable than the protagonists. Richard Boone stands out most as obsessed cop Ed Cornell. True, Boone is no Laird Cregar; he's nowhere near as physically imposing or silver-tongued as Cregar was. Still, Boone's rough, harsh quality gives VICKI much-needed energy as he snarlingly invades people's space with wild abandon. Seeing vicious Boone zero in on bland Reid is like watching a feral dog attack a pampered puppy; it's not a fair fight, whereas IWUS's Mature and Cregar are more exciting to watch, being more evenly matched physically and temperamentally as well as in the charisma and screen presence departments. (Even Hirsch agrees in his commentary. Sharp guy, that Hirsch! :-)) Aaron Spelling's no slouch, either, as he takes over Elisha Cook Jr.'s role. Yes, you read that right: before he became one of the most successful TV producers of all time, Aaron Spelling was a quirky young actor, and he makes a great weirdo here. Occasionally, Spelling chews the scenery, but at least he's not insipid like most of the rest of the cast.Even the film's lighting and staging is flat and bland, except for the expressionistic lighting of the interrogation and the night scenes. There aren't even any little fun quirks, like the use of "Over the Rainbow" in the original. My verdict: I WAKE UP SCREAMING is the clear winner here, with VICKI worth a look primarily for completists.

"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?