La vergine di Salem

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.

As studio policy went at Paramount controversial subjects were usually shied away from. So when Maid Of Salem came out this was a big surprise for the movie-going public and those who review films back in 1937.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible has become the defining work about the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, but Maid Of Salem should not be readily dismissed by Miller's admirers.

Claudette Colbert is in the title role and Fred MacMurray who is a refugee from Virginia colony star in this film. In fact MacMurray's very presence inadvertently ticks off fear of witches and demons and goblins and all kinds of things that go bump in the night. He puts on a spook act that scares some gullible Puritans after they've been given the word of warning about witches.

But the real demons are in one's own mind and in the evil intent of those who use fear of same. That in this film is Bonita Granville who is playing the same kind of role she did in her breakthrough part in These Three.

Lest you think that Maid Of Salem is an unrelenting drama, there are two very nice comic roles. First from E.E. Clive who is a drinker and unashamed of his vice and who goes obligingly off to the stocks like Andy Griffith used to let town drunk Otis lock himself in the jail cell every night. Secondly is Sterling Holloway a person of some property who just can't understand why Claudette Colbert should be less than enthusiastic about getting such a catch.

The performance of Madame Sul-Te-Wan should also be singled out. Back in this day most of the northern colonies also permitted slavery and she does a superb job as a woman who basically because she's not forgotten her African roots yet, still going by a tribal name she becomes an easy first target when she's accused.

Frank Lloyd got good if under-appreciated work from his whole cast. This film ought to be better known for today's audiences.

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 ****

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.

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.