I found the 1945 British movie The Wicked Lady on YouTube last night. All I knew of it was it was my grandma’s favourite movie (her second was Citizen Kane on account it was ‘very clever’) and every time it came on the cinema grandma would take my mum to see it. I never met my grandma so I decided to watch; maybe I’d get some insight into her.
The Wicked Lady is no Citizen Kane but it’s very charming. It’s a good story: a Lady gets a taste for highway robbery and lives a double life (and double loves). It’s so rare for a vintage film’s plot to be pushed along by the female lead (Margaret Lockwood is just damn perfect) and for the heroine to be, well… an anti-heroine.
The British film industry should do a remake! All the pretty costumes but with a strong, complex female who kicks arse and swaggers about with a flintlock pistol. There’s bits that would certainly need changing for a 21st century audience but not all that much. It’s a story that can be made to say a lot while still being great entertainment.
Grandma had good taste in films. I know that much.
