While a Freshman in College decades ago, I was persuaded by a mysterious classmate (whom I never saw again after that year) to take a Humanities course that as luck would have it, fulfilled my required course load for the second semester. The course concerned the transition in post Middle Age European society (no doubt the West), mostly among the masses and the poor, from the age old beliefs in witchcraft, mysticism and pagan rituals to a corporate structured-type belief in Jesus Christ and the Sacraments. Many interesting Historical and Anthropological tidbits were unearthed for me during my 5 month long participation in the class, run by an outstanding learned Professor, Professor Andrew Barnes. Professor Barnes had strong opinions on History and the Arts, forged by decades of experience and research. He would discuss with me a common interest we had a few times during the semester after class; Jazz music and it’s contributing musicians, both historical and present day. Professor Barnes also had no issue voicing his opinion on a myriad of subjects concerning the Arts for all to hear. “William Friedkin”, Professor Barnes once loudly proclaimed in the cavernous halls of Carnegie-Mellon’s Baker Hall to a few of his students after class, “Was a deeply disturbed filmmaker…….his abuse of cast and crew on the sets of ‘The French Connection’ and ‘The Exorcist’ was notorious and his film ‘Cruisin” was an absolutely sick, twisted movie.”
Professor Barnes and many like him in my Scholastic days in Public School and College for the majority fostered a positive and intelligent environment, one where critical thinking was encouraged, supporting no one political ideology was insinuated, developing a sense of personal accountability was a virtue of paramount importance. One of the historical aspects of the transference of communal focus and power discussed in the course with Professor Barnes all those years ago concerned the belief in Matriarchy in many places prior to a replacing established Patriarchy with religious back-up. The ancient ideas of who theologically runs a village, regardless of where one is, came hurtling back to me as I found myself viewing one of the lesser-known Hammer Studio Horror films, released in 1966, titled “The Witches”. Also referred to as “The Devil’s Own”, it is at first glance a slight-looking and even lampoon-worthy effort. It takes ridicule on line with Horror movie devotees for a daffy ritual sequence, but I see the sequence in question as nothing more than a substitute for a musical number, which were quite common back in the day, so for me as a viewer it was no harm, no foul. Unlike visually haunting Vampire and Mummy pictures from Hammer Studios from the late 1960’s that were certainly both more profitable and predictable than this off-beat bit of British gothic Horror, there is something to discuss here, something to analyze long after the movie is over.
Author Nora Lofts penned a novel in 1960 titled “The Devil’s Own” about a village in rural England practicing Black Magic as part of it’s communal construct. Part of the villagers’ immersion in the occult was participating in an occasional human sacrifice, usually of a younger village member. These sacrifices had varying benefits. Hollywood turned to Gothic Horror in the 1960’s, the marriage of creepy Gothic Horror with big-name Female stars of yesterday was a winning formula at the box office. Previous favorable combinations had been Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” in 1962, followed a couple of years later by Davis and Olivia de Haviland in “Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte”. Both of these films were huge financial and commercial successes, so more of this type of material was desired to be mined by film executives.
Supposedly, Actress Joan Fontaine became extremely interested in filming the aforementioned Nora Lofts’ novel. When Hammer Studios agreed to make the film, the title was altered to “The Witches”. Fontaine was near the end of her illustrious film screen career when she agreed to make the movie, but she still appears to look like a Hollywood star in this film and her acting ability and presence casts this potentially minor film to the next level. Fontaine takes the journey of her character, Gwen Mayfield, in and out of madness with old-school Protestant housewife charm and grace. I would not label this film disturbing as it is quite tense and there is an air of dreaded anticipation hovering over the picture throughout.
“The Witches” begins in Africa, somewhere in the Congo. As the incessant beating of drums is heard at night in the jungle, Gwen Mayfield, a determined Christian Missionary School Teacher, has incurred the wrath of the local Witch Doctor. So much that He (she/they/them?) home invades her jungle schoolhouse in the middle of the night (after all her help runs away fearing for their lives) with the biggest angriest mask on you have ever seen, he and his cohorts do a Freddy Kruger routine on her prim and proper WASP upscale suburban brain. The official story we hear Gwen relate to people later is that she suffered a nervous breakdown, which I suppose is what typically happens when one is subjected to an ill-intentioned African supernatural mindfuck.
This “Oblong Box”-esque beginning, while seemingly being callously exploitative, to my sensibilities had profound relevance to the rest of the picture, it surprisingly sets the stage for later events. One of the unexpected themes to me of this film is the portrayal of the gospel of insidious self-righteous Suburban conventionality. That it is a sorcery of it’s own, an alchemy of congenial appropriateness and aggressive punctuality. My WASP Grandma had at times the color scheme vision of a South American Softball All-Star team uniform, but she knew how to strike an enterprising and stylishly chic pose in an argyle sweater, plaid skirt and heels, not to mention the pearl necklace. This was a uniform of power.
We gather that Gwen’s attempt at being International Julie Andrews Missionary Avon Lady was met by overwhelming disapproval by the locals in the Central African Country that her bosses were attempting to colonize. The film moves forward to a few months later as Gwen has gotten her mind right with hospitalized care and therapy. She is now attempting to work again as she is home in England, she wants to work as a schoolteacher. Gwen is approached by the civic leaders of a small rural village in England; one of the leaders appears to be a priest, his sister is the apparent unspoken alpha leader of the community. The Brother/Sister team seem to really, really want Gwen to work for them. Like even Gwen has reservations, but hey, her resume looks great except that part that reads “lost her fucking mind in Africa.”
Gwen packs her things and moves to the quaint village of Heddaby. Where all is at peace and the crackers and cheddar be. Gwen seems to quickly outperform her foreseen status, she is fast to establish herself as a trusted source of virtue and wisdom in the village, where odd shit seems to be occurring on the regular. Gwen discovers that Allan, the Brother, (played by Alec McCowen) is not a priest, he just rocks a priest’s collar for prestige and caste status. His Sister, Stephanie, appears to easily be the wealthiest, most intellectual and most pragmatic individual in the area. Everyone else are like salt-of-the-Earth commoners; tradespersons like butchers, mailmen, nothing very complex. Due to Gwen’s experience in Africa, she has now had her mind opened to the goings on and signs of the occult. When she realizes there is no active Christian Church nor any other organized Religion in the vicinity, her institution-friendly persona sees instant red flags.
Once Gwen gets involved, however, in a situation involving a romance between two village teenagers that comes to a screeching halt when one suddenly goes into a coma while Gwen discovers a damaged voodoo doll with a missing head, the movie becomes a tense supernatural thriller. One that is aided tremendously by the writing of screenwriter Nigel Kneale , Director Cyril Frankel and the incredibly professional work of Fontaine. English actress Kay Walsh also gives a standout performance as Stephanie, the sister of Allan, usually Kay is the smartest person in the room around these parts.
What makes “The Witches” work in the modern context is the film’s shock is there, we don’t see it as much as it’s in the dialogue and delivered in such a matter-of-fact way that we don’t see the Horror potential here, we just hear about it. In one sequence, Gwen has done research on human sacrifice recently and discovers in some rituals the victim is to be skinned. She then finds herself at the butcher’s shop and we view the local butcher gruesomely skin a rabbit in front of us in a nonchalant fashion. The terror is sold in Fontaine’s performance, I couldn’t make up my mind whether we are watching her spiral out of control into self-defeating madness or whether she is emotionally strategizing, Fontaine’s ability to portray a Woman on the edge of the publicly accepted levels of Feminine hysterics is eloquently impressive. When Gwen is in her element as the classroom teacher for the children of the Village, the look and decor of her classroom reminded me of my first grade Public School classroom in 1974, although I do recall visiting the playrooms of prospective private schools in 1973. The look of the room in Miss Mayfield’s classroom is meant to look bright and alive, the children seem happy there and Miss Mayfield is a benevolent force for altruism and correctness.
The movie is somewhat claustrophobic in that most of it takes place indoors or under gray skies in a rural English village. There are no special effects, with a notable exception and that particular moment involves an empty costume, a kitty cat and a camera speed effect. Cinematographer Duncan Lamont gives the film a stock look, but the movie has the look of a movie that could have been filmed in Cinemascope. There is a straight forward narrative employed here, nothing is out of sequence or abstract. The music score by Richard Rodney Bennett is solid and at times effective in a hokey manner.
The film does have ideas, whether they were intentional or not. One being the idea that people, especially those showing need of interdependency, are drawn to and led by strong and dominating personalities, religious specifics be damned. A human behavioral trait for centuries. Gwen begins to discover that she was recruited into the rural Pagan village because they believe her to be easily malleable, that she will wilt under pressure and conform out of a necessity to comply or memories of her African nightmare will most likely return.
As Gwen begins to understand what she must do to keep her sanity and thrive because there is nowhere for her to run to now, she begins to understand the need to defeat her own personal demons, she realizes she must deal with her own neuroses before she can handle anything else. Fontaine shines in this aspect of the role and the character’s journey of self-discovery. She learns to think on her feet, in part, due to her traumatic African experience. The Third World taught her a lesson that she would now use to battle evil forces with from her own culture. In this particular film, the specter of the supernatural and subsequent belief in it spans all constructs and all societies.
In the home stretch, just as my College course discussed years ago, the battle for the heart and soul of the rural English village is a battle of wits and philosophy. The ignorance and tradition of the Pagan village is steeped in it’s dysfunctional heritage of witchery. Gwen realizes she carries a new power to this hamlet, the gospel and doxology of Suburban Protestant propriety. She wishes to indoctrinate all of the children into behaving like proper Western society contributors, she wants to rid the village of it’s belief in it’s dysfunctional barbaric caste system and it’s occasional need to use human sacrifice as a method of bolstering community enthusiasm. In short, Gwen sees an opportunity to bring this community, that wanted to exploit her to maintain a creepy status quo, into the Twentieth Century, kicking and screaming.
Upon my initial viewing of Director Cyril Frankel’s “The Witches” I thought it obvious and simplistic, but upon watching it further and re-watching pivotal scenes, I find it to be a film that stuck with me, not because it was terrifying in so much as it was creepy and unnerving, as well as topical. Fontaine’s dialed-in performance and the film’s look and atmosphere create a tension that we all can relate to. Fontaine’s Gwen relies on the character’s intelligence, her insight and her innate sense of what is decent. For all her character’s outward emotional struggles, she creates a Feminine heroine that speaks the language and knows the signs of the supernatural like a scientist. She contains the psyche of the Righteous Protestant Suburban Working Woman while having a soft spot for children and the meek and carries a vein of benevolent sorcery with her as well. The movie puts forth the thought that all persuasion carries a kind of wizardry with it, whether it is backed by religion or the occult, it is only as effective as the fortitude of the individual that seeks to wield it’s power.
Some familiar names that are in the film as supporting cast include Ingrid Boulting, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as villagers, Duncan Lamet and John Collins as the local butcher and a concerned parent, and Stanley Kubrick film regular Leonard Rossiter as the local Doctor. This film is one of the more interesting Hammer Studio films in part in that it is not involving a typical subject. For a long time now, most Horror films concern something that is consuming and/or violating people randomly. In a way, Gwen Mayfield’s character is akin to a social scientist, she goes into areas considered by the status quo to be in the “first” or “third” world, and learns that she herself is a ramrod for what the establishment considers to be “progress”. That cultures and communities left to their own devices will rely on a belief system that aligns with their limited knowledge of science, agriculture, physics and of themselves. In the film “The Witches”, the character of Gwen Mayfield had initially wanted to teach disadvantaged children. She learns that in order to do so, she has to debrief and recalibrate the disadvantaged adults that surround those children as well. You gotta know witch way you want things to go.
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