The Unholy Wife (1957)

Diana Dors shows in "The Unholy Wife" that besides a smashing, busty figure she had serious acting chops as well (even when she is completely un-glamorous in the "present day"scenes). The plot of the film is not bad, and it has an ironic finish, but it's drearily directed. ** out of 4.

Dark and brooding suspense Thriller starring Diana Dors.Whoever said that blondes were dumb has not seen Diana Dors as the 'Unholy Wife'! Giving one of her greatest performances, she plays the beautiful, but deadly wife of Rod Steiger in this marvellous and riveting Movie with a startling twist at the very end! Dors has an agenda of her own, and shows an adept ability at changing her evil plans at the blink of an eye to fit the new circumstances she finds herself in. Looking so good here, Dors has a way of making you want her to get away with everything she can for the handsome San Sanders played by Tom Tryon.One of two Films Diana made at around the same time, as a woman facing the death penalty.

The comment by Melvelvit also on this site is fantastic...and I think he is right. I have only just discovered this - yes - lurid thriller - made in the final days of RKO, and it is as much fun in a demented way as it is genuinely interesting. Now that I have seen the film again with Melvelvit's believable comments under my, er, belt, well, it might just be Rod Steiger after all, and not poor Diana at all who is the genuine Unholy Wife. All that (later) Baby Jane and Charlotte campery can be seen it its seed form in this well produced, decorated stylish dark mansion melodrama...complete with trashy rodeo handsome hick and lusty barfly floozies for added tarty extras. Imagine running a cinema in the mid to late 50s and having RKO call you once a month offering double features of any of these mix'n'match titles: SON OF SINBAD / THE FRENCH LINE / SLIGHTLY SCARLET / INFERNO / THE UNHOLY WIFE/ THE GIRL MOST LIKELY etc. What a life there was for some excited cinema goer!

As devoted to Blonde Bombshells as I am to food and oxygen, on first viewing The Unholy Wife I really wanted / NEEDED this film to be great. It's not - but DO SEE IT. Forget the plot and just absorb yourself in Hollywood's version of mid-fifties womanhood as a drippingly lacquered Dors, encased in silver lame', is unconvincingly rammed down the audiences throat as a heartless, lusting bitch. Enjoy.