“They relish the idea of a secret power.”
If you’re looking for a film with an amazing cast, a strong story, and plenty of atmosphere and build up, 1966’s The Witches is exactly the film you want to see. Oh, if you also want a brilliant film that is entirely derailed by complete absurdity in its final ten minutes, The Witches is also the film that you wish to view. This film pulled me in right from the beginning and held my attention until its climax. At that point I threw my head back a bit and said, “This is bad.” It’s a true shame, because up until the climax this film is a pure joy to watch. Perhaps the book that it is based upon by Norah Lofts has a better ending? I might just have to read it.
In the film, Joan Fontaine portrays Gwen Mayfield, a missionary school teacher who has a terrifying experience with a witch doctor in an African village. Hoping to avoid another nervous breakdown like the one she experiences in Africa, Gwen takes a job at a school in Heddaby. She visits with the school’s director, Reverend Alan Bax, and his sister, Stephanie, and soon discovers that Alan isn’t actually a reverend at all. In fact, the church where the school is located has burned down and has not been replaced. Gwen quickly becomes acquainted with the rest of the locals in Heddaby and begins her work as a teacher. She starts noticing that some of the villagers act just a bit different, some almost sinister, especially toward young Ronnie Dowsett, who has formed a close bond with a young girl in his class named Linda Rigg. Linda’s grandmother and many of the other villagers do not believe that the two youngsters should be “courting” so much and try to keep them apart.
As the film continues, strange things begin happening and old reminders of Africa start showing up in Gwen’s life. She has yet another breakdown, a brilliant twist in the film in my opinion, but eventually returns to Heddaby only to find out that a dark force is at work in the village. When the truth is revealed, Gwen learns that the locals have plans for certain people in the village and she must play a part. Does she manage to survive the terrible scheme? Watch The Witches to find out!
Promoted in the United States as The Devil’s Own (which is also the title of Loft’s book), The Witches is an amazing film, quite possibly one of Hammer’s best productions, so long as you don’t include the film’s final ten minutes in that statement. The ending is rather hysterical and won’t spoil it for you. If you haven’t seen this film I want you to get slapped in the face with the absurdity just as hard as I was while watching this film for the first time. It’s a really, really bad ending, and if just a few minor changes had been made, the film probably would have been considered a masterpiece.
The cast was great. Every single person in this film did a brilliant job. Fontaine was excellent as Gwen and Kay Walsh and Alec McCowen were excellent as the Bax siblings. Ingrid Brett does a fine job as young Linda Rigg and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies was quite wicked as her granny. The local butcher was played with plenty of gusto by Duncan Lamont and Michele Dotrice did a great job as the sweet-on-the-surface Valerie Creek.
Cyril Frankel’s direction is great until those final minutes where complete idiocy takes control. The music by Richard Rodney Bennett is excellent as well. Arthur Grant provides perfect cinematography as he almost always does in Hammer films and the rest of the crew do fine jobs also.
I really enjoyed this film and wish that it had a better ending. I do recommend that you check it out simply because of how brilliant it is until the finale. Unfortunately a solid cast, great direction, and amazing music cannot save this film from its dismal ending.
Thanks for reading my post. It’ll be Hammer time again, tomorrow!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 