Description
A mother/daughter pair of witches descend on a yuppie family's home and cause havoc, one at a time since they share one body, and the other must live in a cat the rest of the time. Now it's up to the family's mother, a private detective and a suspended police officer to try and stop the witches.
Commentary
This is the last film of Bette Davis, who got top billing despite only being in the movie for about 11 minutes. Bette actually left the picture a few days into production. At the time, it was said that she was disgusted with the script. However, it later came to light that he was having health problems and was worried that if anyone found out she would never get any work again. Producers approached Lucille Ball to take Bette's place, however, due to her own illness Lucille couldn't take the part.
It was then decided to re-write the script to explain Miranda's (Bette Davis' character) absence. The best solution they could come up with was that Miranda and her daughter Priscilla shared one human existence. What this means is that Miranda and Priscilla cannot exist in human form at the same time. Whenever one woman is present, the other woman exists as a cat.
Miranda's daughter, Priscilla, is played by the fabulous Barbara Carrera who you might know as Fatima Blush in the 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again. Ever since I read the Girl with No Shadow, I thought Barbara Carrera would be the perfect choice to play Zozie de l'Alba if they ever made a movie from the book.
Wicked Stepmother is classified as a black comedy. It doesn't go deep into witchcraft, there are no cool spells or rituals for you to try. However, the witches plan to gain riches is quite clever and I won't spoil it for you.
- Carolina Dean
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