WICKED AS THEY COME

Poor girl from the slums Katherine Allenborg trades on her looks. She enters a beauty contest, then charms the elderly gentleman running it, Sam Lewis, into fixing it so she will win first prize, a trip to Europe. She promptly abandons Sam.

On a plane to London, after changing her name to Kathy Allen, she is attracted to Tim O'Bannion, who works for an ad agency. However, she is determined to land someone wealthier, and photographer Larry Buckham, whom she meets at her London hotel, fits the bill. Invited to use his charge account at a department store for a wedding dress, Kathy makes many purchases, pawns the merchandise, and leaves Larry without a word.

She gets a job at Tim's advertising firm and seduces Stephen Collins, the man who runs it, and who is married. Tim arouses passion in her, but Kathy is strictly out for herself. She demands that Collins divorce his wife Virginia, whose father John Dowling owns the agency. Virginia tries to pay her off, but Kathy requests a transfer to the agency's Paris headquarters, where she immediately uses her wiles to get Dowling to marry her.

Anonymous threats begin by mail and phone, and someone in the shadows begins stalking her. Kathy picks up a gun and shoots through the door, accidentally killing her husband. No one believes her tale of a prowler and Kathy is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

Realising Larry is the prowler, Tim reveals to him something he has only just discovered, an explanation for Kathy's cold treatment of men: when she was a teenager, she was brutally assaulted. Larry has a change of heart and confesses to stalking her. Kathy's sentence is reduced to time in prison, and she hopes Tim will give her another chance once she gets out.

Kathy accidentally kills her husband while shooting at a supposed prowler, is convicted and sentenced to death, but later receives a reduced sentence when her stalker confesses. She hopes for a second chance after serving time.

The ending ties Kathy’s fate to both her actions and her past trauma, acknowledging that her ruthless behavior was shaped by earlier abuse. The film ultimately grants her a measure of hope and potential redemption, suggesting that even the most calculating social climbers may find a path to change if confronted with their own vulnerabilities and if others are willing to see their humanity.