The Witches (1966)
1966, UK, Directed by Cyril Frankel
Colour, Running Time: 87 minutes
DVD, Region 2, Optimum, Video: Anamorphic 1.66:1, Audio: Mono
Not the 1990 film with Angelica Huston, this is a lesser-seen Hammer from one of their most productive periods. Following a prelude set in Africa where we’re introduced to Gwen Mayfield (a rather fetching Joan Fontaine, for her age) and offered some idea why she might be considered neurotic thanks to a confrontation with voodoo practice, we skip forward to Gwen obtaining a job as a headteacher at a rural school. Gwen heads off to the beautiful village (shot at a time before England’s countryside was pretty much razed to the ground to make way for apartments, asylum centres, prisons, and recruitment agencies) to take up her new role. The people are an inbred bunch but welcoming and she soon finds herself knowing almost everyone. Before long though it appears as though Black Magic seems to follow her career path and there’s evidence that someone in the village may be involved in witchcraft.
A surprisingly talky project, the first half of the movie is relatively uneventful other than character building and scene setting but the interesting thing that becomes apparent early on is the possibility that any supposed strange goings-on are only occurring in the mind of the neurotically imbalanced Gwen - this illustrated by a nice scene where she wakes up to see what appears to be a similar voodoo doll to what she was exposed to in Africa, only to find, following an irrational panic, that it’s the housemaid’s duster. The housemaid is played by Frank Spencer’s wife to be, Michele Dotrice and, amusingly, Leonard Rossiter also makes an appearance as a sinister doctor. It’s a pretty good film and looks absolutely gorgeous thanks to a stunning colour palette and great location photography. The final act is a little on the insane side, however, and most modern audiences may find it unpalatable. It’s a recommended old-fashioned chiller with probably a little less actual terror than I would have liked.
The disc is part of Optimum’s 21 DVD boxed set (Ultimate Hammer Collection, purchased from Amazon). It’s a brilliant set despite a few undesirable titles in there (e.g. Prehistoric Women!), but the inclusion of some classics (e.g. Plague of the Zombies, Dracula Prince of Darkness, etc.) and some obscure stuff make it an essential purchase if you don’t own more than four or five of the best titles. There’s a nice booklet included and some postcards featuring original poster art. The Witches (also available as a separate release) looks great on DVD, anamorphically enhanced at its correct ratio, chromatically evocative, and sounding good too. Only extra is a trailer but the alluring film presentation itself makes it worthwhile overall.