Vicki (film)

Vicki
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Harry Horner
Produced by	Leonard Goldstein
Screenplay by	Dwight Taylor Leo Townsend
Based on	the novel I Wake Up Screaming by Steve Fisher
Starring	Jeanne Crain Jean Peters Elliott Reid Richard Boone
Music by	Leigh Harline
Cinematography	Milton R. Krasner
Edited by	Dorothy Spencer
Distributed by	20th Century-Fox
Release date	September 7, 1953 (1953-09-07) (United States)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$560,000

Vicki is a 1953 film noir directed by Harry Horner and based on the novel I Wake Up Screaming, written by Steve Fisher. The film features Jeanne Crain, Jean Peters, Elliott Reid and Richard Boone.

Vicki Lynn (Jean Peters) is a waitress who is transformed into a fashion model by press agent Steve Christopher (Elliott Reid). When Vicki is murdered, detective Ed Cornell (Richard Boone) tries to blame the crime on Christopher.

In fact, the cop knows who the real killer is, but he is so hopelessly in love with the dead girl Vicki, who herself despised him, that he intends to railroad an innocent man to the electric chair. With the help of Vicki's sister Jill (Jeanne Crain), Christopher tracks down the real killer, Harry Williams (Aaron Spelling) and exposes the crooked cop Cornell, who had manipulated Williams into murdering Vicki.

Vicki is a remake of the 1941 film I Wake Up Screaming starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, and Carole Landis.

Film critic Bosley Crowther certainly did not like the screenplay, but seemed to appreciate the acting. He wrote, "Meanwhile, the rest of the performers—Jean Peters, as the girl who gets killed; Jeanne Crain, as her misgiving sister; Mr. Reid and several more—make the best of Harry Horner's brisk direction to make it look as though they're playing a tingling film. It might be, indeed, if the story were not so studiously contrived and farfetched, and if Mr. Boone did not wear a label that virtually says, 'I'm IT.'"