The Witches (1966)

The Witches is a very watchable film, but also an uneven one, Hammer have done some very good to great films but this is not one of them. It's one of those cases where the first half, which was reasonably strong despite a few problems, fares far more strongly than the second half, which was incredibly problematic and awful at its worst.Visually, The Witches, as with most Hammer efforts, looks great. The scenery and sets are both beautiful and eerie, it's stylishly shot and the lighting helps give off an effectively creepy atmosphere. The music is resolutely haunting and has a thrilling intensity while also having the ability of being intimate when it calls for it.The script does lack horror and mystery, but flow-wise and structurally it flows well and is decently written, and while the film is reasonably tame by today's standards the atmosphere still has a creepiness and the first half interests and entertains mostly. The direction is very competent in the first half and shows great technical assurance but falls flat in the last thirty minutes. The cast are very good and are the best thing about the film aside from the visuals. Joan Fontaine has been better, but the vulnerability of her character is very deeply felt, Alex McCowan has a lot of fun with his role while Kay Walsh's excellent performance steals the film.As said, the first half is reasonably strong. It does have its flaws, it does move too slowly in places and the prologue was rather vague and somewhat irrelevant. It's always professionally made and well-acted on the whole, and is intriguing and entertaining, with a great creepy atmosphere and some decent suspense.However, the second half really disappoints. It gets really tedious, gets increasingly confused, suspense, mystery and horror are non-existent and it dissolves into camp, which I don't think was intended. The film's biggest flaw is the climax, which has to be the worst ever ending for a Hammer film with its inept choreography, even worse dancing and it was just too amateurish to even be considered unintentionally funny.Overall, good first half, but very bad second half. An uneven film, with a lot of strengths and some big flaws. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Female schoolteacher in an English village senses something strange is afoot while observing the townspeople's cold reaction to the budding relationship between a local teenage boy and girl; turns out, they want to keep the lass a virgin, and soon the boy is mysteriously out of the picture. Hammer Films thriller, an adaptation of the novel "The Devil's Own" by Peter Curtis (aka Norah Lofts), begins promisingly but deteriorates in the final stretch. The prologue, with missionary teacher Joan Fontaine being run out of Africa by witch doctors, is rendered vague and nearly useless by it not being used as a proper bridge to the main story (she's shaken up, but the experience certainly hasn't taught the heroine anything about black magic). The fine location shooting and tidy production are both impressive, and the cast is nearly terrific (save for the two central students, who are wooden). The plot unfortunately derails at a critical juncture: the boy's father drowns, rampaging sheep spoil some evidence in the mud, Fontaine learns too much and vows to testify at an inquest...but then wakes up in a nursing home with amnesia! From this point on, "The Witches", which has heretofore built up a good amount of tension within its curious scenario, loses all credibility and finesse--and the supporting cast is made to hop around in the dirt, groping one another and gibbering like possessed fools. It's a letdown for Fontaine's fans, although she manages to retain her dignity even as the picture lapses into camp. **1/2 from ****

Cyril Frankel directed this horror tale that stars Joan Fontaine as schoolteacher Gwen Mayfield, who has returned from Africa as a missionary after an unpleasant encounter with the local witch doctor drove her out. Now hired to be the headmistress at the Haddaby school run by Alan Bax(played by Alec McCowen)and his sister Stephanie(played by Kay Walsh) Things are fine at first in this seemingly quiet English village, but sinister undercurrents present themselves as it turns out someone is leading a voodoo cult in an effort to claim power and reclaim youth, even if people have to die... Uneven film starts well, with fine performances, but someone let it slip away as it leads to a most absurdly over-the-top climax that isn't to be believed. A shame.

An extremely well produced Hammer entry directed by Cyril Frankel. After surviving an attack by a witch doctor while working as a mission in Africa, teacher Joan Fontaine begins a new job at a boarding school in a quiet English village. She soon realizes that a lot of the population belongs to a coven of witches. Talk about lightening striking twice! Fontaine has a breakdown but recovers to confront the coven. Director Frankel creates a creepy enough atmosphere and the classy script keeps you guessing just who is friend & who is foe. Fontaine is great, nearly 50 but as striking as ever. The supporting cast includes Kay Walsh, Alec McGowen, Gwen Ffrangcon Davies (extremely creepy as Granny Rigg) and Ingrid Boulting as Linda. Boulting, a lousy actress, would appear 10 years later in Kazan's THE LAST TYCOON where she proved she'd learned absolutely zero about acting. The excellent music score is by Richard Rodney Bennett.