I have a feeling there are two groups-- those who rate this a good example of Bette's acting late in her career (and her willingness to still act at all); and those who find the film so abysmal as to be an embarrassment that mars the Davis legacy. From what I have read, she was quite ill during filming. It probably became too much of a toll for her, but she labored on because she still wanted to act and my guess is she needed the money for her mounting medical bills. Then, there were creative differences over the script and how the project was being filmed. So she walked off.WICKED STEPMOTHER had a rather small budget of $2.5 million. But it only made $43,000 at the box office. So by all accounts, it was a huge bomb and not the type of movie swan song befitting a legend of Davis' magnitude.

As you probably know, Bette Davis walked off of "Wicked Stepmother" after just a week of filming, leaving writer/director Larry Cohen scrambling to rewrite his script and get the movie completed. While the end results make sense (sort of), what is really amazing is that Cohen not only managed to sell the completed movie to a major Hollywood studio, he made enough on the sale to make a profit. The movie simply isn't good, which is probably why the Hollywood studio barely released it to theaters. In her footage, Bette Davis not only looks and sounds extremely ill, she doesn't seem to give a darn about this project. The other actors come across somewhat better, but even they aren't able to generate laughs at any point in the movie. The screenplay they are stuck with simply isn't funny at all. The heavily rewritted screenplay also (perhaps inevitably) feels like Cohen is making things up as he goes along. It also doesn't help that the special effects are mostly pretty cheesy, even for an 1980s film. In short, the movie is a low point for Davis, Cohen, studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer, and everybody else involved with it.

Thank God the Divine Miss Davis had enough sense to kick off before it was finished. It was horrible! The Whales of Agust was a bit better. Lilian carried that movie. Miss. Davis was in it only to prove that she hadn't given up yet. This movie proved the ship was going down, and the lifeboats all had dry-rot! I give it 4 stars! Old ladys are a force to be reckoned with, and Bette proves that she was a wreck!But, She has given a stand performance for a woman of her age, smoking habits, clips,clichés under wire supports(my gawd, where did that bra system come from?) All in all, it's Bette at her best at 89(or so?)At having suffered two strokes, four husbands, a carload of ungreatfull kids, and the fact that she was a Yankee, It's not that bad. Her marker on her grave says it best, "She did it the hard way". This film was Viagra at it's hardest! But, Bette was still able to pull it off....

Sadly this film has been trashed over and over. But Bette Davis actually saves this movie from being totally forgotten. It was our last opportunity to see her act before her passing in Oct 1989. She doesn't look anywhere near as bad as she thought she did; in the scene where she meets her new step-grandson, she looks very effective in her white ensemble.It has it's funny moments, Bette is both dry and witty in her principal scenes and I'd love to see it out on DVD. I gave it 8 out of 10. No problems with the production design nor direction. Cohen made a courageous attempt to put together a quick fix storyline after Bette Davis walked out after one week's filming and I salute him for giving Bette a final opportunity to appear on screen. She's wonderful in her too few scenes. A complete riot. If only it could have been completed, this would have been quite a comedy.Thanks to the cast and crew for working on this film after the difficulties. If they hadn't, we'd never have seen the scene's Bette did film.I liked it!