That's about it in the Laura department, though. Vicki, while not a bad film, is no Laura, and it falls short of I Wake Up Screaming due mostly to differences in casting. Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters are as convincing as sisters as were Betty Grable and Carole Landis in I Wake Up Screaming, but their acting chops are a little less. Elliott Reid, a minor, light dramatic actor, is pleasant in the Victor Mature role, but "pleasant" isn't really that interesting. And while craggly Richard Boone approaches the role of the off-kilter police detective in an effective, more vicious way than did Laird Cregar, he can't match Cregar's hulking, horrific presence in the original film. (Though in fairness, who could?)
The story itself, of a model's murder and a detective's determination to find her manager guilty, is still pretty good, and the use of multiple flashbacks to gradually piece together what happened maintains our interest. Jeanne Crain was an elegant beauty, if merely a decent actress, and may have been more effective had she been cast in the Jean Peters role of the murdered Vicki. Peters, too, was known more for her looks than her acting chops, and her brief Hollywood career would end a few years after the release of Vicki when she married Howard Hughes.
One of the weirdest delights of Vicki is seeing Aaron Spelling in his acting debut as the gangly switchboard operator at Vicki's apartment building. It's a small but pivotal role (played by Elisha Cook, Jr., in I Wake Up Screaming) and was the best acting job Spelling ever had. He changed professions, of course, and was the most successful TV producer in history when he died in 2006.
Foster Hirsch's commentary tends toward the vague and lackluster, and is too often of the telling-us-what-we-can-already-see type. He is quite good, however, on the comparison between the two movies. Other extras include still galleries, an interactive pressbook, and the theatrical trailer. Picture and sound quality are tops.
For more information about Vicki, visit Fox Home Entertainment. To order Vicki, go to TCM Shopping.
by Jeremy Arnold
