Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: They Be Witches Edition, Pt. II

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies

They Be Witches Edition, Pt. II

Well, the big night is almost here.

What better time than now, to take a look at these bewitching films?

It's a very mixed bag, today. Sort of like what you end up with when one goes trick or treating!

Oh, you can knock on that door, but you never know what or who lies behind it... or what you'll get!

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Burn Witch, Burn

(1962)

AKA: Night Of The Eagle

"Do the undead demons of hell still arise to terrorize the world?"

(A British film based upon the 1943 Fritz Leiber novel, Conjure Wife, the film was retitled Burn, Witch, Burn when release in the United States. )

(Starring big band singer Janet Blair, who is best remembered as Rosalind Russell's sister in 1942's My Sister Eileen and Rita Hayworth's best friend in 1945's Tonight And Every Night.)

(The male lead was offered to Peter Finch, who turned it down and Peter Cushing, who was too ill at the time to take it on. But a third Peter must be the charm; actor Peter Wyngarde was cast at the last minute. Wyngarde, who played novelist-turned-detective Jason King in two different series, was considered a fashion/style icon in Britain.)

"Don't see this picture unless you can withstand the emotional shock of a lifetime!"

(In the US, a prologue was added to the film, voiced by Paul Frees, who recited a spell to protect members of the audience from evil. Ticket buyers were also given a special packet of salt and the text of an ancient incantation.)

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The Witchmaker

(1969)

"Their form is human but they have crossed over... is this sex after death?"

(Beautiful young women are dying, the cause of which is unknown. To get to the bottom of it, a top-notch psychic researcher and his assistant are brought in to investigate, only to be horrified by what they find.)

(German-born Thordis Brandt was a trained nurse, who moved to Santa Monica and became actress Patricia Neal's private nurse. Neal recommended her to other actors and eventually she was asked to serve as a consultant on the television program Ben Casey, where she also played a nurse. She appeared in a number of films, typically in bit parts or in roles that did not require her to speak much.)

(Shelby Grant was an actress signed by 20th Century Fox. She appeared in a number of films, including Fantastic Voyage and Our Man Flint. She married actor Chad Everett and she is the wife the the actor was referring to in a sexist manner during an interview on The Dick Cavett Show which so outraged guest Lily Tomlin that she walked off the show.)

"The came to investigate witchcraft... and found terror!

"Why did they celebrate a blood ritual?"

"How did they satisfy their weird desires?"

"Was death only the beginning?"

(Anthony Eisley made a career out of appearing in cheap sci-fi/horror films. His one legit credit is Star! with Julie Andrews. He does appear in one of my all-time favorites The Wasp Women, starring one of my other all-time favorites, Susan Cabot. He also starred in the ABC TV series Hawaiian Eye, which ran for four seasons. Eisley was an active  advocate/activist in the early Prayer In School's debate - he was for it! Now that's truly scary!)

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Night Of The Witches

(1970)

"Don't be afraid to scream in your seats! This is the double horror show of all time!"

"Love potions and death dances! The ritual murders, the midnight mass! The madman, the million dollar secret!"

"See it all! You've never seen it the way the witches do it!"

They'll leave you six feet under!"

(Posing as a preacher, a lecherous thief wanders the coast in northern Mexico. He steals a car and with the police in hot pursuit, stumbles on a decaying seaside mansion occupied by a coven of mysterious, seductive witches. The fool makes the mistake of trying to blackmail the coven... and that's when the thief learns just how dangerous these ladies can be!) 

(Apparently, based on reviews I've read, there is a lot of interpretive dancing in this one and very little horror. The witches worship a papermache dragon's head and at one point we learn that 'Scorpio governs the sex organs.' The director, Keith Larsen, was primarily an actor starring here as the lecherous thief. He married three times; his second wife was actress Vera Miles.)

(Kathryn Loder was primarily a stage actress who made a career of playing slinky, seductive villainesses in exploitation flicks like The Big Doll House and Foxy Brown. Night Of The Witches marks her screen debut. In 1970, while filming The Big Doll House in the Philippines she became deathly ill. She recovered, only to have the disease reappear, causing her death eight years later.) 

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Mark Of The Witch

(1970)

"Innocent co-ed... or bride of the devil?"

"A college campus terrorized by a killer witch... dead 300 years!"

(Seeking revenge on the descendants of the man who accused her of witchcraft, a 300 year-old witch rises from her grave, wreaking havoc in her wake.)

(Filmed in Texas by director Tom Moore, who directed and produced Return to Boggy Creek, starring Dawn Wells of Gilligan's Island fame and Dana Plato, the rather tragic actress who appeared in Diff'rent Strokes. Moore directed and produced over 100 television commercials during his career.)

(Love this graphic.)

(Actress Anitra Ford is primarily remembered for her stint as a model - 1972-1976 - on the game show The Price Is Right. She also appeared in the woman in prison film, The Big Bird Cage and one of my favorite B-films - or Bee films - Invasion Of The Bee Girls, which is surprisingly good!)

"Ancient rituals of witchcraft in an age of computers!"

(Watch it for free on YouTube... if you dare!)

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The Witches' Mountain

(1972)

(While staying overnight in an ancient Spanish castle, a photojournalist, on assignment with a beautiful writer, learns of a coven of witches living nearby. Traveling through the Pyrenees, the pair soon begin experiencing supernatural encounters.)

(Patricia Moran Shepard appeared in over 50 Spanish and Italian films between 1960 and 1980. Her most notable film is probably her starring turn in Hannah, Queen Of The Vampires.)

(It's soundtrack was released as an album. Though it looks as if they are about to sacrifice Barbie!) 

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Demon Witch Child

(1975)

AKA: The Possessed

"If you were terrified by the Exorcist, horrified by Beyond The Door... now see the greatest shocker of them all!!"

(A woman from a witches' coven possesses the body of  a young girl in order to enact vengeance, terror upon the girl's family and the neighboring townsfolk.)

(Director Amando de Ossorio's Demon Witch Child - one of the many European Exorcist clones - is today regarded by his fans as an underrated must-see horror classic.)

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Escape To Witch Mountain

(1975)

(Pursued by a scheming millionaire, two orphan children with mysterious powers try to stay one step ahead of and out of the clutches of danger.)

 

(Disney was struggling to find its place in the market at the time that this movie was released. It was their first big hit after a run of lackluster films This one proved popular enough that it spun off a sequel in 1978.)

(Stars Kim Richards, a child star who would go on to be featured in the reality show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, along with Eddie Albert of Green Acres fame, Ray Milland, who won an Oscar as Best Actor for Lost Weekend, and Donald Pleasance, a regular in the Halloween franchise.)

(Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann appear in at least four films together, the last being 2009's Race To Witch Mountain.)

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The Witch Who Came From The Sea

(1976)

(A psychological horror film. Haunted by memories of childhood abuse, a mentally-disturbed woman struggling with alcoholism goes on a murder spree.)

(Millie Perkins made her film debut playing the title character in 1959's The Diary Of Anne Frank. She was a favorite of Jack Nicholson, who cast her in two westerns he produced and starred in; The Shooting and Ride In The Whirlwind. Her first husband was actor Dean Stockwell. Her second husband was screenwriter Robert Thom, who was racking up some hefty medical bills. In order to improve their financial state, he decided to write the screenplay for this film with Perkins in mind.) 

(The film also stars Lonny Chapman, a familiar face who appeared in such notable films as East Of Eden, Baby Doll, The Birds, and Norma Rae.)

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Return From Witch Mountain

(1978)

(Tia and Tony return for a sequel. During a visit to Los Angeles, Tony is kidnapped by a scientist who plans on using the boy's powers for evil purposes. Tia, fraught with fear, searches the city, desperately trying to locate Tony. Bette Davis plays the wealthy Letha Wedge, who is financing the scientist, played by Christopher Lee, and his research.)

Bette Davis, Ike Eisenmann, and Christopher Lee

(Bette Davis was on her best behavior. So much so, that Disney and this film's director, John Hough, asked her back to star in 1980's The Watcher In The Woods. Davis agreed to do this movie because it was a movie her grandchildren could watch. Also, she had three personal assistants tending to her every need on the set throughout the shooting of this movie.)

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Witches' Brew

AKA: Which Witch Is Which?

(1980)

 (Three wives use witchcraft to further the careers of their respective professor husbands. When a higher position becomes available at the university, they turn on one another and no one is safe. Based on Fritz Leiber's novel Conjure Wife, which had been previously filmed in 1944 as Weird Woman and, again, in 1962 as Night of the Eagle, AKA Burn, Witch, Burn.)

 

(Filmed in 1978, this one didn't see the light of day until 1980. Though it starred Teri Garr, Richard Benjamin and Lana Turner, it seems United Artists wasn't sure what to do with it or how to market it - which could explain the lack of a decent poster. The story is half traditional comedy and half horror flick, and would end up being Lana Turner's final film appearance.) 

(I do remember this video box, though.)

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Halloween III: The Season Of The Witch

(1982)

(A trio of Halloween masks - a glow-in-the-dark skull, a lime-green witch, and an orange Day-Glo jack-o'-lantern - produced by the Silver Shamrock corporation are all the rage among the trick or treat crowd. But then, odd things begin to happen, causing Doctor Daniel Challis to seek out Silver Shamrock's owner, Conal Cochran for some answers.)

(This is the film that temporarily killed a franchise. Having nothing to do with iconic killer Michael Meyers, the film was deemed dull by audiences and critics, and, despite making $14.4 million on a budget of $2.5 million, declared a failure at the box office. It remains the only non-slasher flick in the storied series. Six years would pass before John Carpenter, who served only as producer for this film, would be brave enough to relaunch the series.) 

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The Worst Witch

(1986)

(Based on the 1974 children's book, this is the story of Mildred Hubble, a student at a prestigious witch academy. Trouble is afoot, as the head mistress' evil twin plots to destroy the school. Can Mildred foil the twin's evil plan before the Grand Wizard arrives to celebrate Halloween?)

(A British musical fantasy starring the regal Diana Rigg, the sexually ambiguous Tim Curry, the ever bubbly Charlotte Rae, and a very young Fairuza Balk. Balk would go on to make her mark as goth girl Nancy Downs in the cult classic The Craft.)

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Witchboard

(1986)

"When you open the door to the unknown, there's no telling who is going to drop in... or who is going to drop dead." 

(Former childhood chums join forces when the girl one stole from the other becomes obsessed with and then possessed by a ghost contacted using an Ouija board. The two adversaries must work together in order to exorcise the evil spirit before it is too late!)

(Starring model Tawny Kitaen, who is best remembered for all those hair-metal videos she was featured in for the bands Whitesnake and Ratt. As revealed during the trial of the century, Kitaen had a year-long affair with OJ Simpson while he was married to Nicole Brown Simpson. She then married David Coverdale, the lead singer of Whitesnake and then baseball player Chuck Finely. After a domestic abuse charge, she fell into a life rife with DUI's and minor drug offenses. She died, without warning, in her Newport Beach house at the age of 59.)

 

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The Witches Of Eastwick

(1987)

(When a mysterious man purchases and takes up residence in a picturesque New England village, three women find their lives turned upside down as their wishes are granted one by one.) 

(Based on the novel by John Updike, this fantasy/dark comedy with an all-star cast proved to be a huge box office hit.)

(Bill Murray was originally cast in the role taken by Jack Nicholson. Nicholson's then-girlfriend, Angelica Huston screen-tested for the role of Alexandra opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, who had been signed to play Suki. But, as Houston would tell an interviewer at a later date, the audition was   "terrible", as she struggled with what she considered "tough" dialogue, and by the end of it, she knew she'd lost the role. Amy Madigan was being considered for the role of Jane and it was decided that Susan Sarandon was to play Alexandra. Enter Cher. Cher was interested in the film, and was offered the role of Jane, but insisted on playing Alexandra. The producers gave in to her demand, but failed to give Sarandon proper notice. Sarandon didn't find out she'd been recast as Jane until the day she showed up on the set to begin filming!)

(Poor Veronica Cartwright. I bet that women never ate a cherry ever again!)

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week!

Same time, same channel.

Halloween - Tim Curry

from the motion picture The Worst Witch