Her Wicked Ways

[StevePulaski]

Her Wicked Ways (1983)
Directed by: Louis Lewis

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

"Is it true what they said about you in the newspapers and on the TV?," the handsome stud asks the recently widowed Ruby (Jesie St. James). "What's that darlin'?," she asks. "That you're now the richest woman in the world?," he doubles down. "I'm not sure about that. But I'm definitely the hottest and the wettest," Ruby seductively replies. The two proceed to have sex on the bed Ruby once shared with her husband, who has died and left her with a huge house, millions of dollars, and one of the biggest companies in the world whose future is murky.

The opening scene of Her Wicked Ways sets the tone for the entire film in more ways than one. We see the sexually confident and sure-footed Ruby move on from her husband's passing in record-time. We see the lavish paradise in which she lives, and the empire she's primed to control. Moreover, we also see a sex scene robbed of a lot of intimacy due to a lack of music. Something feels... off about Her Wicked Ways from the very beginning. Ambient noises during sex scenes frequently replace music, and over the course of the 79 minutes, several characters and asides distract from the domineering matriarch and her stranglehold on her husband's riches.

The monkey-wrench in Ruby's plan to become the controlling force of Sutton Industries comes in the form of her stepdaughter Catherine (Joanna Storm), who is granted an injunction that freezes her assets. Catherine harbors deep contempt for her stepmom; part of it is due to her sexual energy. Ruby is a woman unfazed by expectations, not afraid to take what she wants. Catherine confides in Gilda (Janey Robbins), her personal assistant, and in one scene, we see how she likes her sex. Gilda takes charge immediately. "I want you to suck on my tits just like you like to suck on your mother's." "Call me daddy," she adds, coaching her sexually repressed muse. I'm not one for lesbian sex scenes, but I'd be lying through my teeth if Robbins and Storm don't strike invigorating chemistry.

The scene that anchors Her Wicked Ways comes when Catherine and Ruby get into a fight in their pool and inadvertently knock the neighbor, Ted (Mike Horner), unconscious. Catherine is shocked when Ruby takes revival matters into her own hands and mouth. The envious stepdaughter concedes and proceeds to masturbate in the other room, thinking how she could please Ted far better than Ruby — all while Ruby proves her point to the groggy neighbor. Catherine's subsequent scene is a dainty fantasy with Ted in an angelic room where everything is perfect. Ruby doesn't need the mood and the surroundings to be perfect. She need only be satisfied.

Her Wicked Ways lacks character outside of Jesie St. James and Joanna Storm, who in turn make personalities out of their one-dimensional archetypes. The film is cluttered with characters like a slimeball shark (Paul Thomas) and an uninvolved chairman (Eric Edwards) whose crowning achievement for the company is eating out the blonde bombshell employee. An inconsistent soundtrack contributing to an overarching lack of ambiance work to undermine the project too. A big orgy concludes things, but it feels strange we don't end with one final bang from Ruby, whose wicked ways are allegedly the thesis of the film.

This is the case where you come for Jesie St. James (read that how you will), maybe Joanna Storm, and tolerate everything else.

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Starring: Jesie St. James, Joanna Storm, Janey Robbins, Paul Thomas, Eric Edwards, and Mike Horner. Directed by: Louis Lewis.