Witches' Brew

Three modern-day housewives casually use witchcraft to further their husbands' careers. Only one of the couples, Teri Garr and Richard Benjamin, are nicely-matched (brightly-zonked Garr can make any screen-partner look good), but this sloppy comedic rendering of 1944's "Weird Woman" (and its popular remake, 1962's "Burn, Witch, Burn") had a troubled production that shows its seams on-screen. Poorly written, directed, photographed and edited, the film served as the final bow for actress Lana Turner (in a throwaway role as sort of a matriarch witch) and should be justly forgotten. NO STARS from ****

My review was written in January 1985 after watching the film on Showtime.

"Witches' Brew", a/k/a "Which Witch is Which?" is a comedy about witchcraft filmed in 1978, revamped years later by film doctor Herbert L. Strock and finally surfacing on pay-cable after having been shelved for theatrical release and subjected to litigation. Review here is for the record.

An impressive toplined cast is trapped in this amateurish production, revolving around the sitcom premise (in the vein of the "Bewitched" tv series) of housewife Margaret (Teri Garr) helping her college psychology prof hubby Joshua (Richard Benjamin) get ahead via witchcraft. His luck changes for the worse when she lifts all her benevolent spells, after Joshua marks her aid.

Key point of historical interest is that "Brew" relies upon exactly the same premise employed years later in Carl Reiner's Steve Martin hit "All of Me": wicked witch Vivian (Lana Turner) is ailing, but contrives to shift her soul into pupil Margaret's body having willed her fortune to "Margaret". Even the differing mirror image gimmick is trotted out here.

Garr and Benjamin make a comfortable team, but entire cast is hurt by poor sound recording, unfunny dialog ("Bat jowls" is frequently repeated for supposed sure-fire laughs) and terrible continuity.

This was a successful scary but funny flick for kids between 8 and 14 years of age. Teri Garr is an excellent actress. If there was ever a Bewitched character to replace Montgomery, Garr would have been perfect. This film is something to remember, is funny, and in its time, it was fun to watch. Today's movies, sure, somebody rents it and of course it's cheesy. Check out Rocky 1. Check out Star Wars 1. Great movies then, but today, they play like a radio on while you focus on fixing the car out in the garage or cutting the lawn. This movie is fun and I give it 6 out of 10. It is a classic to slapstick horror. The other characters in the movie are interesting.

WITCHES BREW was hyped in the early 80's by the same horror fanzines that hyped SATURDAY THE 14th. OK, so I can't help it. This is a pretty lame flick.

And Teri Garr is in it. Granted, she is all right in small doses. Overbearing, yes. Annoying, yes. But she was good in last year's DICK. I can't really pick on her too much (Dave Letterman takes care of that for me).

This film has a few effects around the silly housewife hijinks, and those said effects are of the Q variety. At least the gargoyle's supposed to be made of clay.

Still, I haven't seen this picture in years, mostly by choice. It is an unmemorable, and thoroughly draining, viewing experience.

"Joshua Lightman" (Richard Benjamin) is a college professor who seems to have everything going for him which includes an attractive and loving wife named "Margaret" (Teri Garr) and an extremely rewarding career in which all kinds of good things just happen to come his way. What he doesn't fully realize is that the reason for much of this is because his wife dabbles in witchcraft and has placed multiple spells upon him which ensures his good luck at every opportunity. Unfortunately, during the course of one of these spells, he and Margaret have a disagreement and because of that she decides to revoke all of them to teach him a lesson. This, in turn, creates all kinds of trouble for him which even Margaret did not foresee. To matter matters even worse, because of his recent success, one of Margaret's friends by the name of "Susan Carey" (Kathryn Leigh Scott) becomes so concerned that Joshua's upward mobility will impact her own husband's career that she puts a curse on him to slow his progress down as well. But as bad as that is it is nothing compared to what a woman named "Vivian Cross" (Lana Turner) has in mind for the two of them. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a pretty good low-budget film which benefitted from the presence of two attractive actresses like Teri Garr and Kathryn Leigh Scott. That being said, however, it still suffered somewhat from its rather limited financial resources and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.