Not a bad concept but the movie gives away the mystery of the killer way too soon. It has short tugs of predictable suspense, although it was watchable. The most engaging moments are when one side of the screen tells the true story behind the words of those on the other side, sometimes humorously. More of that might have made this a cult hit but it takes itself a bit too seriously. When the two shots do work for suspense, it is undercut by an organ score taken directly from the silent Phantom of the Opera. It reminded me of those 70s Vincent Price movies like Theater of Blood that assumed the audience was better knowing more.It IS a testimony to 1973 fashions and hairstyles. Tiffany Bolling was actually very good, appearing in scores of good TV series and movies before and after. I suspect she was one of the talented, beautiful women who just never found the big break. She certainly was a bright spot (along with Madeline Sherwood in a juicy supporting role). Randolph Roberts did what he could for his role, a star turn in a bigger budget feature and you can see him working at it. He needed another few roles to solidify and make a name for himself but sadly found bigger fame as Ritchie's original brother Chuck Cunningham, banished to college, in the first few Happy Days TV series.Also, the title song, performed by Miss Bolling (Wicked, Wicked), sounds like it was written years earlier and even then, it wouldn't have been a hit. The women's lib oriented song 'Be Myself' was also out of place, but Bolling was belting away, bless her. The Hotel Del Coronado looked fantastic all the way through. It was a great backdrop and was only used as well in Somewhere in Time. The film suggests that there are hidden rooms and floors to the Coronado and I'd love that to be true. Be forewarned - there is a scene of child molestation tucked away in there.

A mentally disturbed electrician for a beach front resort, Jason(Randolph Roberts), a victim of a terrible childhood, murders selected blonde females(..modeled after a woman who adopted him, attempting to molest the child leading to her husband's beating him)checking in for a room, peering from a hole in the attic with his binoculars. He's a skilled locksmith(..just one of many talents)and has the ability to get into his victims' rooms using a spare key, hiding in their closets, before attacking them with a knife he sharpens. Jason wears a red jacket(..the kind porters wear)and grotesque Halloween mask before startling his victims who have no clue that a killer awaits them. Securtity guard for the resort, Rick Stewart(David Baily), an ex-cop who lost his job after the unfortunate shooting of an innocent man, is called on to find missing women who supposedly left the hotel without paying their bill. As Rick begins investigating the case, however, he believes there's a murderer loose, but getting others(..like his boss who doesn't want any bad publicity ruining business and tourism, or a sergeant who wants this big city cop "from the north" to let the police handle the situation)to listen is another story. Meanwhile, Stewart's ex-wife, Lisa(..the curvy Tiffany Bolling), on tour trying to find a record label, decides to dye her hair blonde, with Jason(..operating the spot-light for her singing performances at the resort)making her his next target. Jason confides in Lenore(Madeleine Sherwood of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), a relic whose incoming checks from the inheritance of her late husband having run dry leaving her with the possibility of being thrown out after nearly 22 years of living in the resort, perhaps representing the mother he never had. When an attempt to murder Lisa is unsuccessful, Jason's life slowly unravels with Rick nipping at his heels. Jason's hide-out, a specific room hidden within the resort whose blue-prints have been revised over the years as the hotel has been re-modified and renovated, gives him access to roam the halls quietly. But, it's only a matter of time before Jason makes that fatal mistake which leads to his ruin.Besides the gimmick of "duo-vision", while the film is, in essence, the hunt(..by an amateur sleuth, with a detective's instincts)for a serial killer, I think "Wicked, Wicked" is mostly a 70's "Grand Hotel" without the big name cast often associated with such a film. Utilizing the split screen, the director is able to build exposition on the characters. Like Jason. We're able to see what motivates his desire to kill, and why he chooses blonds..this happens while he's speaking with Lenore on the other side of the screen. Lenore's real past is displayed on one side of the screen while she's telling a fabricated one to Jason on the other. The director can show Jason getting prepared for the kill while on the other side the screen we see a victim getting undressed for her shower. As a killer peers from the attic with his binoculars on one side of the screen, who he is eyeballing is getting her key to the room(..and while the killer is sharpening his knife, the female victim is closing in on her hotel room). The split screen allows the director a chance to tell simultaneous stories at the same time, without taking away from the viewer, even if such a process makes the audience work harder in gathering the information presented. I can understand why the use of "duo-vision" didn't catch on, though, because most audiences will probably find having to follow events taking place on two sides of the screen exhausting. I found the challenge stimulating, even if there were times where the director had nothing to do but show an organist playing "Phantom of the Opera" as a murder sequence was being carried out. The macabre premise of a killer working within the confines of a resort, achieving access due to his knowledge of old rooms abandoned by those who developed the hotel, really won me over big time. Especially, when we find out where Jason keeps the murdered corpses of the women who wound up missing. There's a clever use of a dumbwaiter which Jason is able to use to get into the Presidential suite of Lisa's newly applied quarters, and the cat-and-mouse between the killer and sleuth is fun to watch. Many found this boring, because a great deal of the film shows characters talking using split-screen to tell their stories, often in two ways..the past and present. Slasher fans might enter expecting constant blood-shed, but I think this is about what drives this psycho to commit these deeds, his methods and travel, and the mistakes he makes along the way. There's a beheading by a guillotine, though, and the first knife-murder certainly is memorably nasty. I really think the film has so many clever ways of using the duo-vision process, that "Wicked, Wicked" shouldn't be totally dismissed. I think some folks, seeking something different, might like this flick. It's an interesting curio, and I thank Turner Classics for bringing it to me. Despite a PG rating, this film has a disturbing scene where Jason, as a child, is almost sexually molested by an adopted mother. And, the film has a warped sense of humor, not to mention a rather startling conclusion regarding Jason's fate.

Gruesome serial killer schlock from the once mighty MGM before It remembered it had a treasure box of classics to cut up into docos, this is the sort of awful film major studios make today. Sort of SCREAM meets HOTEL (which indeed might be a good idea to a suit in Hollwood right about ...now).....using the dual image or cinemasope cut in half, it rendered the viewer dizzy by reel 2.. .......... ....when the girl in the bikini gets the bread knife in the guts over and over and over and over and over....just like they want you to enjoy today (WOLF CREEK). Maybe Tarantino could remake it on that possibility alone and we can laugh as illiterate critics label it 'cool' and dear Quentin can enjoy putting more imagery of mutilated females on the wide screen. Anyway.....it is all there in 1973 in gory banal grossness. Whoever said it should be DVD reissued with a co feature of NIGHT OF THE LEPUS is right. Stabbings and rabbits. Sounds very Multiplex 2006 to me.

Wicked, Wicked is unique in that it is shot entirely in DUO-VISION (a gimmick of early 1970's cimena). Brian DePalma used this technique with great success in both Carrie and Phantom of the Paradise. The problem here is that Richard Bare is no Brian DePalma and the story is completely idiotic.the one saving grace of this film is the moment at which the duo-vision becomes "uni-vision" during the climactic moment of the story. You have to see it to appreciate the greatness of that one shot. Perhaps the director came up with that idea and then made a whole story around it?