Wicked, Wicked (1973)

Before Christmas, I posted a bit here about the various promotional gimmicks used to sell exploitation movies in the sixties and seventies.  The ultimate such gimmick lies in marketing a film on the basis of some 'special' technique that has been used in its making.  The 3-D 'craze' of the fifties is probably the most obvious of these.  The term 'craze' implies that its use was audience led but, in truth, it was simply a novelty employed by producers to try and offer something TV couldn't.  It is notable that it was never employed on A-features (that would only come decades later, with films like Avatar), instead being confined to the likes of House of Wax, The Mad Magician or It Came From Outer Space.  Not that A-features weren't immune from using production gimmicks: arguably the various widescreen processes like Todd-AO, Cinerama and the like were gimmicks designed to keep audiences away from TV.  Likewise, things like 'Sensurround', which made cinema floors vibrate with soundwaves - it could be found on such seventies disaster pics as Earthquake, war films like Midway and even Italian Exorcist rip-off Beyond the Door.  All of which brings us to Wicked, Wicked (1973) and its gimmick of 'Duovision'.  

In truth, there was nothing very novel or unique about this process - it was simply a split screen, a technique that had long been used to allow actors playing dual roles to appear in the same scene as themselves.  The 'novelty' in its use in Wicked, Wicked comes from the fact that it is used throughout most of the film, which proves, ultimately, to be highly distracting for the viewer, who is forced to try and follow two narrative threads simultaneously.  It is notable that the film's original trailer doesn't actually contain any extensive footage involving the split scree process, preferring to show 'normal' versions of various sequences.  The clip below, (which includes Tina Bolling singing the the theme tune), demonstrates the process as actually deployed in the movie:

As can be seen, the split screen adds little to the experience - most of the stuff seen in the right hand window could, arguably, have been achieved more effectively and economically using conventional cutaways.  The only time its use is, in any way, justified is when one screen is used to run a flashback sequence for one of the characters in the other screen, in effect allowing the audience to see the memories invoked the scene playing out in the present.

Otherwise, all it does is provide a distraction in what is, effectively, a proto-slasher movie, featuring a masked killer responsible for the disappearances of various female guests at a luxury hotel.  Without the split-screen gimmick, Wicked, Wicked might have made for a tolerable sub-Giallo, with its smattering of more bizarre elements, but as it stands, it feels cluttered and slow moving, with the split screen militating against the creation of any real suspense.  Unlike most of the 3-D movies, which can still be enjoyed when viewed 'flat', the gimmick here is embedded in the movie and, ultimately, overwhelms it.