THE WITCHES

THE WITCHES

(A.k.a. THE DEVIL’S OWN)

Gwen (Joan Fontaine) is working as an English school teacher in Africa when a local witch doctor and his creepy henchmen break down the doors of her makeshift classroom and terrify the living daylights out of her.

Some time later and back in the UK, we learn that Gwen suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the attack and is only now ready to face going back to work. Only, this time she’s going to stay on home turf.

To this end, she accepts a job working at a school in a quaint little English village of Heddaby. Here she meets siblings Alex (Alec McGowen) and Stephanie (Kay Walsh), who own the school and appear to be the epitome of benevolence.

But all is not what it seems. Little, seemingly inconsequential occurrences play on Gwen’s mind to the point that she begins to suspect the village of being run by a coven of witches. Is she going mad again, or do the local women really want to poach a girl from Gwen’s class and sacrifice her to Satan?

Based on Norah Croft’s novel and adapted for the screen by Nigel Kneale, THE WITCHES was one of Hammer Studio’s few forays into the subject of witchcraft. While perhaps not as celebrated as the earlier WITCHCRAFT, it still retains a lot of appeal to this day.

Fontaine, in her last major role, acquired the film rights to the source novel. She is the key to the film’s success. Her performance, though perhaps a little over-boiled for today’s audiences’ tastes, helps director Cyril Frankel raise the pitch to fever level on more than a few occasions. She’s likeable, vulnerable and just the right side of intolerable: it’s a riveting lead performance from her. Having said that, the show is stolen by Walsh in later scenes: such as when the sometime Mrs David Lean dances while wearing a crown of lit candles, for example …

Elsewhere, the cast are good in that outdated stiff-upper-lip manner. Keen-eyed viewers can be on the lookout for a young Leonard Rossiter and the guy who plays Patrick in TV’s "EastEnders". Though you’re more likely to notice Michele Dotrice …

Keenly shot with some lovely, colourful compositions and a great sense of atmosphere towards the end, the film is also intelligently paced and blessed with a better script that most Hammer films of its era. It does run out of steam due to a sloppy final act, admittedly, but for the most part THE WITCHES provides solid entertainment.

It’s also interesting to watch THE WITCHES now, and consider what influence it may have had on later films such as ROSEMARY’S BABY, THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and especially THE WICKER MAN …

Studiocanal are releasing Hammer’s 1966 classic as a 2-disc blu-ray and DVD combo pack. The blu-ray disc was made available for review purposes.

The company have grown up publicly when it comes to their series of recent Hammer restorations. DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS suffered an initially troubled transfer which was corrected in later pressings; the decision to ‘complete’ a few half-realised special effects for their presentation of THE DEVIL RIDES OUT was, to say the least, controversial.

But THE WITCHES joins other releases of theirs such as THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES and THE REPTILE as boasting a presentation worth writing home about.

The film is presented uncut as a healthily sized MPEG4-AVC file. A top-notch restoration job has been undertaken, working from an original negative and proffering the movie in full 1080p resolution. The original 1.66:1 aspect ratio is respected, and has been enhanced for 16x9 televisions. From the moment the brief prologue kicks in (following the original BBFC ‘X’ rating title card – nice), it’s apparent that this is going to stun. Colours are more vivid and true than ever before; authentic skin-tones and fine detail impress with pleasing consistency. Solid blacks and a fine layer of natural grain help achieve that genuine, filmic texture. Sharp without undue enhancement, bright without being unnaturally so: THE WITCHES looks fantastic on blu-ray.

English 2.0 audio gets given the lossless Master Audio treatment and is, again, a gratifyingly clean and clear proposition throughout. Optional English subtitles for the Hard-of-Hearing are well-written and easily legible at all times.

The disc opens to a subdued animated menu. From there, pop-up menus include a scene-selection option allowing access to the film via 12 chapters.

Although a commentary track had been touted by the likes of Amazon, the only extra on offer (on the blu-ray, at least) is a 42-minute HD documentary entitled "Hammer Glamour".

Narrated by Damien Thomas, this is a brilliant look at the studio’s history of employing buxom girls to frontline its low-budget productions. Interspersed with plenty of clips from films such as SHE, DR JECKYL AND SISTER HYDE and SLAVE GIRLS, the documentary is careful to cover all eras of Hammer and touches most obviously upon the impact of stunners such as Ursula Andress, Barbara Shelley, Veronica Carlsen, Raquel Welch and Ingrid Pitt.

Even better, there are new onscreen contributions from some of the ladies themselves. Martine Beswick is refreshingly honest about finding Welch "difficult" and her refusal to go full-frontal nude in SISTER HYDE. Vera Day has a good story about how she was introduced to legendary filmmaker Val Guest almost by accident and unwittingly became a starlet shortly afterwards. Valerie Leon, Caroline Munro, Jenny Hanley and Madeline Smith all have valid recollections to share too, making this rather splendid viewing.

THE WITCHES has aged in some respects, of course, but that all adds to its charm. It stands up as a great slice of B-movie entertainment and looks spellbinding on Studiocanal’s blu-ray.

Recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Studiocanal
Region B
Rated 18
Extras :
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