Le démon sur la ville

In 1692 Salem, a devious child's lies about a slave's involvement in witchcraft sends an entire community into an uproar. Costume drama starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray isn't stuffy, though neither is it a vivid depiction of contagious hysteria. Worked on by three writers (Walter Ferris, Durward Grimstead, and Bradley King), the story elements are rather interesting (especially coming out of Hollywood in 1937), though to anyone who has since read Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", the hoked-up melodrama on display here won't be tolerated for very long. Biggest problem with the picture may lie in the casting: Colbert and MacMurray are an ill-matched pair of lovers hindered by the witch-hunt, MacMurray being far too contemporary a presence for these surroundings. *1/2 from ****

The film takes place in the village of Salem, Massachusetts during the famous witch trials of 1692. I have just seen Bonita Granville in a comedy from 1937 ("It's love I'm After") in which she plays an annoying brat of a child. Here she goes a step further and turns evil! She starts the ball rolling as she accuses a black servant Madame Sul-Te-Wan (Tituba) of being a witch in revenge for having a book that she had stolen from her strict father about witchcraft confiscated. Hysteria takes over and so-called witches are hung. Set against this, we have a romance being played out between Claudette Colbert (Barbara) and Fred MacMurray (Roger) who puts on a dodgy Irish accent. We soon have the finger of accusation pointed at Colbert...

It is staggering that this situation was allowed to develop. And all because of religious intolerance. It is also mind-blowing to think that all of this is also partly down to adults believing children. Even today, children are given precedence over adults in everything we do - entertainment at fetes is usually centred around children's activities (nothing for adults to do), pubs put up bouncy castles so they can be child-friendly (how about having no children and being adult-friendly), schools no longer have any discipline over kids and are not allowed to hit them anymore and police can't do anything but soak it up if a kid taunts them. We need to develop a society that looks after its adults first. Then, when children grow up, they can have the respect due them.

We must avoid the path where society adopts a child's word as sacrosanct. We are already allowing laws whereby they can change their gender at a very young age. What a load of nonsense. We are only a step away from the Salem Witch Trials part 2. "Children should be seen not heard" - that was the oft used quote when I was younger. Quite right.

This is not one of Claudette Colbert's more famous films, though it deserves more attention. It's an excellent retelling of the Salem Witch Trials and does a reasonably good job of explaining both how the hysteria began and the evil attitudes of those in charge that allowed for the hangings. Both Colbert and co-star Fred MacMurray do a great job with the excellent and intelligently written script. The movie would be a good film to explain the hysteria to kids but is entertaining enough that most should enjoy the film. In fact, apart from people with VERY SHORT attention-spans, I can't see how anyone could not enjoy the film.

Solid 30's costume melodrama, certainly an artistic equal to director Frank Lloyd's more famous "Mutiny on the Bounty". Excellent acting from Colbert and, surprisingly, MacMurray (but then he's great in "Double Indemnity" too). Sterling Holloway is wonderful as the spurned suitor, and Madame Sul-Te-Wan is great as the VooDoo Woman. An excellent introduction to the Witch-Hunting syndrome that is suitable to show to young children. Witch-Hunting still occurs today in politics, religion, workplace, school and sometimes even in the family, and this film could be a tool for inciting discussion.

A splendid cast, well-crafted set pieces and a strong theme work in this film's favor. The legendary witchcraft hysteria that gripped the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692 is given the conventional Hollywood studio adaptation – that is, reconstructed to fit around a romantic love story – but done so well within the studio strictures that it can still hold the interest decades later. The lovers here are the oft-paired screen team of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. At first they seem miscast as a Puritan maiden and a lusty political rebel but they both handle their roles with conviction and spirit.

Director Frank Lloyd, no stranger to period dramas (he also directed MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and BERKELEY SQUARE) and his frequent collaborator, screenwriter Bradley King, tell a good and gripping tale of rumors run amok, when scheming child Bonita Granville decides to get attention and sympathy by pretending to be possessed by the devil, setting in motion a chain of accusations that eventually sends fifteen people to the gallows. The supporting cast is one of the most impressive ever assembled for a standard Hollywood production. What a roster! Louise Dresser, Henry Kolker, Sterling Holloway, Beulah Bondi, Donald Meek, Madame Sul-te-wan (powerfully effective as Tituba, the West Indian slave accused of bewitching her mistress's family), Gale Sondergaard, Effie Tilbury, and a trio of exceptional – or exceptionally well directed - child actors (Granville, Virginia Weidler, Benny Bartlett). And that's only about half of the fine ensemble on display.

Colbert's 20th-century-urban eye makeup (lipstick, plucked brows, mascara-coated lashes, eye shadow), while far less intense than usual, is still somewhat distracting but at least gets toned at an appropriate point in the scenario, and she has a hot-blooded courtroom scene which again proves how deftly she can hit the ball out of the park when necessary. For the record, Gale Sondergaard's face is also cosmetically enhanced but we don't see nearly as much of her, so she doesn't stand out.

The struggle dramatized herein between superstition and emotion vs. evidence and reason is ongoing. The real story of the Salem trials is of course far more complicated than what is presented here. Let's say that MAID OF SALEM gives a strong suggestion of what really went on and would be good encouragement for further study.