Wicked, Wicked is a 1973 horror-thriller film written and directed by Richard L. Bare and starring David Bailey, Tiffany Bolling and Randolph Roberts. It was presented in "Duo-Vision", a gimmick more commonly known as split-screen.
Plot
The Grandview is a sprawling Californian hotel with a terrible secret: single blonde visitors who check in don't check out. Hotel detective Rick Stewart (David Bailey) begins investigating what's happened to a handful of vanishing guests but he soon becomes personally involved when his brunette ex-wife, Lisa James (Tiffany Bolling), arrives for a singing engagement at the hotel. When Lisa dons a blonde wig for her performance, she finds herself the next target of a psychopathic killer.
Production
Script
The film was the brainchild of writer-director Richard L. Bare, who got the idea for the Duo-Vision gimmick while driving one day, when he noticed the line that divided the road. "As I glanced from one side of the freeway to the other, I noticed how my mind was taking a picture over here, then another over there," Bare later stated. "Why not tell a film story with two simultaneous images?"
The idea stayed in Bare's head for two years before he decided to pursue it. "I had a script I had written called The Squirrel which had been on the market but hadn't sold, so I just cut it up and patched scenes together here and there to make two parallel scripts." The script pages were divided in half, with each half of the page corresponding to what was to appear on screen. Finding a typewriter that could accommodate these unique needs proved challenging for the writer. "My first problem was finding a typewriter with a carriage wide enough to take a legal-size piece of paper sideways, so I could type parallel scripts," Bare said. "Then I had to find a duplicating machine that would do the same thing."
Once completed, Bare brought the script to William T. Orr, his former boss at Warner Bros. Together the pair formed a production company, United National Pictures, and brought the project to MGM. Within 48 hours, they sold it.
Casting
The casting of the killer proved to be a difficult challenge. "We needed intensity and passion as well as innocence, a combination of qualities we found to be rare among the many, many young actors we interviewed," Orr revealed. A young Vietnam veteran named Randolph Roberts was sent by his agent to audition for the role of Hank Lassiter (a minor part which ultimately went to Edd Byrnes). When Ore and Bare saw him, they knew they'd found their star. "It's impossible to believe that this is Randy's first motion picture," claimed Orr. "His experience in front of a camera is very limited. Yet he has a presence that reveals itself on film that I have found to be very rare." Bare was equally impressed. "There are many difficult scenes in which Randy, as the psychotic killer, must wordlessly and subtly express his progression from naive handyman to crazed killer in a matter of seconds," Bare said. "With all this, Randolph has still managed to make his character quite sympathetic."
Casting the role of hotel detective Rick Stewart was substantially easier. David Bailey had been in a popular commercial for Mitchum deodorant in which he proclaimed, "I didn't use any antiperspirant yesterday and I may not today." Bare saw the commercial and asked Bailey to come to California for an interview. "We had only talked a few moments," said Bailey, "before they told me, 'You've got the part.'"
Edd Byrnes was an equally easy find. Byrnes skyrocketed to fame as "Kookie" on the popular television series 77 Sunset Strip, and became typecast as a result. Orr was the one who'd originally cast Byrnes as Kookie, and Bare directed several episodes of the show.
The casting of Tiffany Bolling was an entirely different matter. In 1970, Bolling released an album titled Tiffany. The album didn't sell well and the company backing it went out of business, so Bolling continued her acting career. For the part of lounge singer Lisa James, the filmmakers needed someone who could both act and sing. "My singing was one thing that helped me get the part in Wicked, Wicked," Bolling said.