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Hub AI
The Wicked Lady AI simulator
(@The Wicked Lady_simulator)
Hub AI
The Wicked Lady AI simulator
(@The Wicked Lady_simulator)
The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 British costume drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who becomes a highwaywoman for the excitement. It had one of the largest audiences for a film of its period, with an estimated British attendance of 18.4 million seeing it in cinemas, according to a 2004 ranking of the most popular sound films in Britain. In the list, compiled by the British Film Institute for Channel 4, it was placed ninth overall, and was the second-most successful British film, behind only Spring in Park Lane (1948).
It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas, a sequence of very popular films made during the 1940s.
The story was based on the 1945 novel Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall which, in turn, was based upon the (disputed) events surrounding the life of Lady Katherine Ferrers, the wife of the major landowner in Markyate on the main London–Birmingham road.
A remake, also named The Wicked Lady, was made by Michael Winner in 1983.
In rural England in the late 17th century, Caroline invites her beautiful friend Barbara to attend her marriage to wealthy landowner and local magistrate Sir Ralph Skelton. However, the scheming Barbara soon has Skelton entranced, and it is Barbara who becomes Lady Skelton, as Caroline looks on. At the wedding reception, however, Barbara meets a handsome stranger, Kit Locksby. It is love at first sight for both, but it is too late.
Married life in the country becomes a bore for Lady Skelton—that is, until a visit from her detested sister-in-law Henrietta. In a game of Ombre, Henrietta wins Barbara's prized jewels, including her late mother's ruby brooch. A chance remark about a notorious highwayman, Jerry Jackson, gives Barbara an idea. Masquerading as Jackson, Barbara stops Henrietta's coach and retrieves her brooch and the rest of her jewels. Intoxicated by the experience, she continues to waylay coaches until one night, she and the real Jerry Jackson finally meet. Jackson is amused to find his imitator a beautiful woman. They become lovers and partners in crime, with Barbara warning Jackson never to be unfaithful to her with another woman.
Together, they profit off of unfortunate travellers. However, their plot to rob a huge gold shipment goes awry, resulting in Barbara shooting and killing one of Sir Ralph Skelton's tenants. One of Skelton's servants discovers Barbara's involvement, but she manages to convince him that Jackson forced her to be his accomplice. She also manipulates the servant's religious piety, telling him that she wants to live an honest, clean life and is relying on him to show her the way.
Pretending to be newly devout and honest, Barbara secretly poisons the servant. When he falls gravely ill and realizes what she's been doing, Barbara smothers him with a pillow. Ecstatic at being free again, she rushes to the inn where she and Jackson often stayed, but finds him in bed with another woman. Enraged, Barbara anonymously betrays his whereabouts to her husband. Jackson is captured and sentenced to be hanged.
The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 British costume drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who becomes a highwaywoman for the excitement. It had one of the largest audiences for a film of its period, with an estimated British attendance of 18.4 million seeing it in cinemas, according to a 2004 ranking of the most popular sound films in Britain. In the list, compiled by the British Film Institute for Channel 4, it was placed ninth overall, and was the second-most successful British film, behind only Spring in Park Lane (1948).
It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas, a sequence of very popular films made during the 1940s.
The story was based on the 1945 novel Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall which, in turn, was based upon the (disputed) events surrounding the life of Lady Katherine Ferrers, the wife of the major landowner in Markyate on the main London–Birmingham road.
A remake, also named The Wicked Lady, was made by Michael Winner in 1983.
In rural England in the late 17th century, Caroline invites her beautiful friend Barbara to attend her marriage to wealthy landowner and local magistrate Sir Ralph Skelton. However, the scheming Barbara soon has Skelton entranced, and it is Barbara who becomes Lady Skelton, as Caroline looks on. At the wedding reception, however, Barbara meets a handsome stranger, Kit Locksby. It is love at first sight for both, but it is too late.
Married life in the country becomes a bore for Lady Skelton—that is, until a visit from her detested sister-in-law Henrietta. In a game of Ombre, Henrietta wins Barbara's prized jewels, including her late mother's ruby brooch. A chance remark about a notorious highwayman, Jerry Jackson, gives Barbara an idea. Masquerading as Jackson, Barbara stops Henrietta's coach and retrieves her brooch and the rest of her jewels. Intoxicated by the experience, she continues to waylay coaches until one night, she and the real Jerry Jackson finally meet. Jackson is amused to find his imitator a beautiful woman. They become lovers and partners in crime, with Barbara warning Jackson never to be unfaithful to her with another woman.
Together, they profit off of unfortunate travellers. However, their plot to rob a huge gold shipment goes awry, resulting in Barbara shooting and killing one of Sir Ralph Skelton's tenants. One of Skelton's servants discovers Barbara's involvement, but she manages to convince him that Jackson forced her to be his accomplice. She also manipulates the servant's religious piety, telling him that she wants to live an honest, clean life and is relying on him to show her the way.
Pretending to be newly devout and honest, Barbara secretly poisons the servant. When he falls gravely ill and realizes what she's been doing, Barbara smothers him with a pillow. Ecstatic at being free again, she rushes to the inn where she and Jackson often stayed, but finds him in bed with another woman. Enraged, Barbara anonymously betrays his whereabouts to her husband. Jackson is captured and sentenced to be hanged.