Throughout her career, Bette Davis didn't really show up in any movies that are just plain horrible. After all, she's one of the most acclaimed actresses of the golden age of movies. Unfortunately, this is the one we're stuck with as her final film role, and my god is it horrendous. I'd rather pull crocodile teeth out of my eyelid than rewatch this. The reasons why it is so bad are multitudinous. First, I'll explain the storyline because that's only the icing on the putrid cake. It follows a witch named Miranda (Bette Davis) who marries Sam, a father of a daughter named Jenny. Jenny is married to Steve Fisher, and after coming home from vacation, they discover Miranda has loaded the fridge with meat, much to the distress of Jenny (she's a vegetarian). Later, we are shown how Miranda has a daughter of her own named Priscilla. At one point, it suddenly occurs to Jenny that Priscilla and her mother are never encountered together, raising some questions about whether or not they're actually the same person. Some time after, we are told they are never seen together because one must live in the body of a cat while the other remains in human form. They switch periodically but only one can be the human at any given time. Jenny later discovers this and confronts Priscilla after the inside of her house has been wrecked by the witches. Eventually, Priscilla is defeated because she doesn't let Miranda come out of the cat's body to assist her, and Jenny's family is saved. This movie is pure garbage, I'm truly stunned. There's things like Reefer Madness and Plan 9 From Outer Space that are so laughably terrible that they're amusing and even pretty hilarious to witness, but this is way, way below that. This is the bottom of the barrel of what can actually be considered a movie, and when you consider this was Davis' last film, it is a truly despicable excuse for entertainment. With her last performance, she should have been in something amazing, but it didn't work out that way. This movie was such an atrocious mess that it cost about 2 and a half million dollars to make, but only got back about 44,000 at the box office. A profit worth a pathetic 2 percent of the original budget. Clearly, nobody likes this movie. How could this have passed? Terrible actors (except Davis) that speak in the same bland, monotone voice the entire time, a ridiculous plot, an annoying game show towards the end, etc. It's a disaster. I can't think of any reason whatsoever to recommend this movie. Even Davis fans should stay away. It is garbage in all respects. Strangely enough, TCM sometimes plays it, the only reason being that it was Davis' last movie. If you for whatever baffling reason still want to see it, you could probably find it on there, but just one warning: you will not be happy.
Review of Wicked Stepmother
