Witchcraft (1964 film)

Last updated

Witchcraft
Witchcraft poster 01.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Don Sharp
Written by Harry Spalding
Produced by Robert L. Lippert
Jakc Parson
Starring Lon Chaney Jr.
Jack Hedley
Jill Dixon
Cinematography Arthur Lavis
Edited byRobert Winter
Music by Carlo Martelli
Color process Black and white
Production
company
Distributed by 20th Century-Fox
Release dates
  • March 1964 (1964-03)(UK)
  • September 1964 (1964-09)(USA)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Witchcraft (also known as Witches and Warlocks) is a 1964 British horror film directed by Don Sharp and starring Lon Chaney Jr., Jack Hedley and Jill Dixon. [1] The script was written by Harry Spalding. [2]

Contents

Plot

In the 17th century, in order to take over the Whitlock family's properties, the rival Lanier family accused Vanessa Whitlock of witchcraft and had her buried alive. As a consequence, the Whitlocks still maintain a bitter hatred of the Laniers to the present day. However, two young descendants, Amy Whitlock and Todd Lanier, fall in love with each other regardless of the objections of Amy's stern uncle, Morgan Whitlock.

Todd is a business associate of his older brother Bill Lanier. They are building developers who plan to transform and renovate the old Whitlock estate. Without their knowledge, their business partner Myles Forrester instructs his workers to bulldoze over headstones and graves in the old Whitlock Cemetery, enraging Morgan Whitlock. From an exhumed grave emerges Vanessa Whitlock, still alive after three centuries. The Whitlocks still practice the old religion, and Morgan leads a coven that soon embraces Vanessa's return. Using her hex powers, they caused the mysterious deaths of Myles Forrester, as well as Bill and Todd's aunt, Helen. Morgan is arrested as a suspect in the Forrester case, and the Laniers take Amy in while her uncle is in custody. More incidents nearly take the life of Bill, Todd and their grandmother Malvina.

While Bill and Todd are away on business, Bill's wife Tracy follows Amy into the Whitlock family crypt near the old Whitlock mansion, now residence of the Laniers. In a secret chamber deep inside the crypt, Tracy witnesses Amy, Morgan and the rest of the coven perform magic rites which include sacrificing an infant. Tracy is captured and tied up, to be used as a human sacrifice. Looking for Tracy, Bill and Todd enter the Whitlock crypt, where they find and rescue her. Once Bill has taken Tracy to the house, Todd goes back into the crypt to look for Amy, who was participating in the rituals with her family. As her uncle is about to kill Todd, Amy is pushed past her breaking point and tips over a giant brazier that sets Vanessa and the entire room on fire. Todd tries to reach Amy but the entire crypt has turned into a raging inferno, which soon extends to the adjoining mansion. Screaming her name, he can only watch as the flames consume everything and everyone.

Later, a broken Todd joins his family outside and watches the Whitlock estate burn to the ground, ending the 300-year-old feud.

Cast

Production

Writer Harry Spalding says he got the idea to make a film from an incident that happened in San Francisco when an old cemetery was converted into a real estate development. [3]

Don Sharp had received good notices for his direction of Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and was receiving lots of offers to do horror movies. He says Milton Subotsky wanted to work with Sharp and offered him a choice of three scripts to make but Sharp liked none of them. He wound up making Witchcraft. [4]

Sharp liked the script for Witchcraft, calling it "a damn good story", although he felt that it suffered credibility problems being set in the present day. [4]

According to one account the film was shot over 14 days, which was twice what Robert L. Lippert such productions took in the US. [5] Sharp said in an interview that it took twenty days. [4] Filming took place in January 1964 at Shepperton Studios just after 110 technicians had been fired from the studio. [6]

Spalding says that director Don Sharp "realized the thing very well" and burnt down an actual house for the climax. [3]

Release

Witchcraft was released in the UK in March 1964 and in the U.S. later the same year.

Don Sharp says the film received "marvellous notices" and claimed that because the film was so cheap to make it made its cost back in "the first two weeks in California". [4]

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This is an unpretentious and uncommonly gripping horror film, directed by Don Sharp rather after the style of the Val Lewton films. The backgrounds are quietly realistic, with grey, atmospheric photography, matter-of-fact underplaying from Jack Hedley and Jill Dixon, and a more tormented, grander style of acting from the ambiguous Malvina (Marie Ney. ... [Lon Chaney] huffs and puffs to a degree where he seems not only out of place but completely out of his own control and everybody's else's." [7]

Variety wrote: "Eerie music, low-key photography, competent acting and a gimmick-filled plot combine to make the horror-feature Witchcraft a good example of its kind. The Robert Lippert-Jack Parsons production has the added feature of a plastic 'witch deflector' for each viewer. This, along with heavy sell-promotion, should attract audiences addicted to horror films. ...Chaney tended to overact, but others in cast handled chores in workmanlike fashion, with Diane Clare particularly appealing as the ingénue. Arthur Lavis' photography was competent for a horror story, with murky shots of church steeples and graveyards through ever-present fog." [8]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Spasmodically arresting horror film spoiled by too complex a plot line and some variable acting." [9]

Home media

Witchcraft was released on Region 1 DVD, along with Devils of Darkness as part of the Midnite Movies range of classic and cult horror films, in 2007.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lon Chaney Jr.</span> American actor (1906–1974)

Creighton Tull Chaney, known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film The Wolf Man (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard in Son of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in many Universal horror films, including six films in their 1940s Inner Sanctum series, making him a horror icon. He also portrayed Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men (1939) and played supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies, including High Noon (1952), The Defiant Ones (1958), and numerous Westerns, musicals, comedies and dramas.

The year 1914 in film involved some significant events, including the debut of Cecil B. DeMille as a director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lon Chaney</span> American actor (1883–1930)

Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces".

<i>London After Midnight</i> (film) Lost 1927 American silent film

London After Midnight is a lost 1927 American silent mystery horror film directed and co-produced by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney, with Marceline Day, Conrad Nagel, Henry B. Walthall and Polly Moran. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was written by Waldemar Young, based on the story "The Hypnotist" which was written by Browning. Merritt B. Gerstad was the cinematographer, and the sets were designed by Cedric Gibbons and Arnold Gillespie. Harry Sharrock was the assistant director. The film cost $151,666.14 to produce, and grossed $1,004,000. Chaney's real-life make-up case can be seen in the last scene of the film sitting on a table, the only time it ever appeared in a film.

<i>Kiss of the Vampire</i> (film) 1963 British film by Don Sharp

Kiss of the Vampire is a 1963 British vampire film directed by Don Sharp and starring Edward de Souza and Jennifer Daniel. It was written by producer Anthony Hinds and made by Hammer Film Productions.

<i>Curse of the Fly</i> 1966 British film by Don Sharp

Curse of the Fly is a 1965 British horror science-fiction film directed by Don Sharp and a sequel to Return of the Fly (1959), as the third installment in The Fly film series. Unlike the other films in the series it was produced in the United Kingdom. It was written by Harry Spalding.

<i>The Devil-Ship Pirates</i> 1964 British film by Don Sharp

The Devil-Ship Pirates is a 1964 British pirate adventure film directed by Don Sharp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evelyn Ankers</span> British-American actress (1918–1985)

Evelyn Felisa Ankers was a British-American actress who often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man (1941) opposite Lon Chaney Jr., a frequent screen partner.

<i>Face of the Screaming Werewolf</i> 1965 film by Jerry Warren

Face of the Screaming Werewolf is a 1965 horror film directed by a low budget film maker Jerry Warren. The film was created by combining parts of two unrelated Mexican horror films, La Casa del Terror (1960), and La Momia Azteca (1957), with the addition of original footage shot by Warren. It was released on March 3, 1965, on a double-bill with another of Warren's films, Curse of the Stone Hand.

<i>Dracula vs. Frankenstein</i> 1971 film directed by Al Adamson

Dracula vs. Frankenstein, released in the UK as Blood of Frankenstein, is a 1971 American science fiction horror film directed and co-produced by Al Adamson. The film stars J. Carrol Naish as Dr. Durea, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein who is working on a blood serum with his assistant Groton. The serum soon becomes sought after by Count Dracula, who hopes that it will grant him the ability to be exposed to sunlight without harm. Other members of the film's cast include Anthony Eisley, Regina Carrol, Angelo Rossitto and Russ Tamblyn.

<i>Weird Woman</i> 1944 film by Reginald Le Borg

Weird Woman is a 1944 noir-mystery horror film, and the second installment in The Inner Sanctum Mysteries anthological film series, which was based on the popular radio series of the same name. Directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Lon Chaney Jr., Anne Gwynne, and Evelyn Ankers. The movie is one of several films based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber. Co-star Evelyn Ankers had previously worked with Chaney in Ghost of Frankenstein, where Chaney played the Frankenstein monster, and The Wolf Man, where Chaney played the title role.

<i>Outside the Law</i> (1920 film) 1920 film

Outside the Law is a 1920 American pre-Code crime film produced, directed and co-written by Tod Browning and starring Priscilla Dean, Lon Chaney and Wheeler Oakman.

Poor Jake's Demise is a 1913 American silent short slapstick comedy film directed by Allen Curtis featuring Max Asher, Louise Fazenda, and Lon Chaney. The film focuses on Jake who finds his wife in a compromising position with another man and later takes his revenge with a seltzer bottle. It is one of several slapstick comedy films Chaney made for Universal at the start of his career and is also his first credited screen role.

<i>Riddle Gawne</i> 1918 film

Riddle Gawne is a 1918 American silent Western film directed by William S. Hart and Lambert Hillyer, and featuring William S. Hart, Katherine MacDonald and Lon Chaney. The film was co-produced by William S. Hart and Thomas H. Ince. The screenplay was written by Charles Alden Seltzer from his earlier novel The Vengeance of Jefferson Gawne. Chaney historian Jon C. Mirsalis claims that William S. Hart contributed greatly to the screenplay but all other sources credit the writing of the screenplay solely to Charles Alden Seltzer.

<i>Witches Brew</i> (film) 1980 film by Richard Shorr

Witches' Brew, also known as Which Witch Is Which?, is a 1980 American comedy horror film co-written and directed by Richard Shorr, and starring Richard Benjamin, Teri Garr, and Lana Turner. It was based on Fritz Leiber Jr.'s horror-fantasy novel Conjure Wife. Herbert L. Strock directed additional sequences for the film.

<i>The Horror of It All</i> 1964 British horror comedy movie by Terence Fisher

The Horror of It All is a 1964 British horror comedy film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Pat Boone and Erica Rogers. The screenplay was by Ray Russell.

Yvette Rees, born Eiros Yvette Rees, was a Welsh actress who appeared in many TV series and several noteworthy films in the 1960s. She trained at RADA, and graduated in 1949. In the mid-1970s she moved to Australia where she continued to work on TV and film until 1979 when she appears to have retired. She is perhaps best remembered for her memorable role in 1964's Witchcraft as the witch Vanessa Whitlock who returns from the grave to avenge being buried alive several hundred years previously. Yvette is also the grandmother of stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen. Through her son Simon, who also worked in TV and cinema. She was married to Morten Smith-Petersen.

Jill Dixon is an English actress.

<i>Law of the Lawless</i> (1964 film) 1964 film by William F. Claxton

Law of the Lawless is a 1964 American Techniscope Western film directed by William F. Claxton, produced by A.C. Lyles, and starring Dale Robertson, Yvonne De Carlo and William Bendix. The supporting cast features Lon Chaney Jr., Kent Taylor, Barton MacLane, John Agar, Richard Arlen, Bruce Cabot and Don "Red" Barry. This was the first of eight westerns Chaney made for A. C. Lyles between 1964 and 1968.

References

  1. "Witchcraft". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  2. Vagg, Stephen (27 July 2019). "Unsung Aussie Filmmakers: Don Sharp – A Top 25". Filmink.
  3. 1 2 Weaver, Tom (19 February 2003). Double Feature Creature Attack: A Monster Merger of Two More Volumes of Classic Interviews. McFarland. p. 331. ISBN   9780786482153.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Sharp, Don (2 November 1993). "Don Sharp Side 4" (Interview). Interviewed by Teddy Darvas and Alan Lawson. London: History Project. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  5. John Hamilton, The British Independent Horror Film 1951-70 Hemlock Books 2013 p 124-128
  6. "Film studios resuming full production". The Guardian. 28 January 1964. ProQuest   184839939.
  7. "Witchcraft". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 32 (372): 28. 1 January 1965 via ProQuest.
  8. "Witchcraft". Variety . 236 (4): 19. 16 September 1964 via ProQuest.
  9. Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 1123. ISBN   0586088946.