Legend of the Witches

Extraordinary film. Passes itself off as a documentary, but the rituals are obviously staged for the camera and although there is the presence of noted Wiccans Alex and Maxine Sanders, the covens feel slightly too young and nubile to be entirely convincing. Still a very interesting watch, and there are undoubtedly elements of truth and documentary to it.

The later part of the 1960s was a watershed in terms of censorship.The power of the Lord Chamberlain to censor the stage was abolished.Shortly after that the all nude revue Oh Calcutta was staged.At about the same time there was a furore about the showing of a females pubic hair.The film was shown uncut at the NFT.The censor,John Trevelyan wanted to keep in step with public tastes,so full frontal nudity was allowed.So all of a sudden producers were allowed to show everything,though there were and still are things they couldn't show.So give the audience a large dose of education and you could put in a reasonable amount of nudity.So that is clearly what happened here.It is actually quite entertaining.I think that the sonorous narration was by Valentine Dyall.Somehow I doubt that this was ever shown in any of the major circuits cinemas.

Halloween viewing and surprisingly effective it turned out to be. As excited children could be heard squealing on the streets outside this by contrast was a creepy and somber affair painting a most believable picture of witchcraft through the ages. There is much speculation about a 113 minute version but whilst there is no evidence to support this, the recent BFI Blu-ray set contains an 85 minute film which is considerably longer than the IMDb 70 minute quote and likely to be the full length. I imagine the shorter version is that which went briefly on general release because watching this I was amazed at the extent of the explicit nature of the content. I was also most impressed with the camera work throughout. From the misty sunrise opening and moon across the water to the naked rituals and more this was eye opening stuff indeed. Particularly pleased to see the Witchcraft museum in Boscastle featured as I remember my father donating much material there in his later years. Fabulous view and can't wait to watch the accompanying short and numerous extras.

Something witchy this way comes, in the form of a documentary about witchcraft in the British Isles. It features much footage of ceremonies and the like. Its kind of like a newer version of the silent doc Haxan, only not as good. On the one hand its quite fascinating and visually well shot but on the other hand its really quite boring as well, with the lack of synchronised sound being a core reason for this. A definite curiosity piece though but whether you like it is another matter entirely.

This 1970 movie is a dramatised documentary on the cult and practice of witchcraft since pre-Christian times in Britain. Featuring tales of Pagan gods and goddesses mingling with artful landscape shots, pictures of wildlife, Stonehenge and other images, narrated in typically 1970s droning voice over by Guy Standeven, it tries to sell itself as a serious investigation into witchcraft in the modern world, but is just an excuse for copious amounts of female nudity. The whole thing just comes across as a titillating exploitation flick (director Malcolm Leigh went on to make the British Sex film, Games that Lovers Play in 1971), and is a really slow paced film which is pretty boring despite its far out subject matter. It does however feature a pretty mesmerising soundtrack which changes intensity throughout the film, and is also notable for including the only known footage of Alex Sanders, dubbed the King of Wicca.