The Search for Bridey Murphy

This is one of the best films ever made on the issue of hypnosis, its use and misuse, life before birth and after death and reincarnation, all tremendously difficult issues and almost impossible to discuss, least of all to come to definite terms with, except by hard trial and error in bold experiments, which this film and story is all about.

The one responsible for the book, a tremendous bestseller in its day, a certain Morey Bernstein, has no interest whatsoever and doubts everything, rejecting all psychic business as mumbo jumbo, until a hypnotic experiment in his presence is too authentic to be rejected, which propels him into studying the subject. By pure personal interest he trains himself into an amateur hypnotist and achieves results as such and finds a very susceptible guinea pig for his risky ventures into the unconscious in a young mother Ruth Simmons, whose husband isn't happy about it. With her under hypnosis the amateur hypnotist stumbles into past lives, as she unconsciously remembers her life as a certain Bridey Murphy in Ireland 1798-1864 in great detail including her teacher, her father, her husband, her brother, local songs and dances of that time and finally even her death, how she died and what happened afterwards, going into the existence of afterlife in limbo and that drifting existence in a vacuum of nowhere - where she almost gets lost.

This increasingly hazardous experimentation ultimately risks getting out of hand, so that Ruth's mental health is put at risk, wherefore her husband steps down and will have no more of it.

However, the results already achieved, all documented on tape with witnesses, which sessions are truthfully revived on the screen, provide enough material for Morey Bernstein to write his book, which by no means is any proof of anything - who can even prove God's existence or anything metaphysical at all? - while it certainly is intriguing enough to raise discussions without end.

To this interesting intrigue comes the terrific acting by all persons involved, especially Louis Hayward and Teresa Wright as the hypnotist and his guinea pig, but all the others also are fully convincing - it's all perfectly organic, as Polanski would have put it. Thus it almost becomes like an documentary, and as such it is invaluable.

At the time of release of this film from the book, The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956), the concept of reincarnation was virtually unknown to the masses in the Western World. Today, some 56 years later, it has become fact to many scholars and researchers in this part of the world. Internationally known physicians, specializing in psychiatry, now spend their lives in its research and work in its further exploration. The real miracle of this little, low budget film is that it was made at all at a time of fear and ignorance of one of the basic keystones of ontology.

The book itself is rather shallow as the film but this is probably due to the lack of comprehension of not just the subject of reincarnation but hypnosis itself, which was then not a widely practiced form of psychotherapy. At that time, religionists and their authoritarian scripture heavily controlled the subject of human consciousness much as it is in the Middle East today.

At this writing, schools teach self-hypnosis. It is understood to be a method of focusing and nothing fearful, reprehensible or a dangerous practice of some mysterious Rasputin. In addition, it is known that regression itself is a simple guided focusing and not some bizarre scheme of being controlled by someone else. No one can control anyone else through hypnosis. They can only suggest and persuade. It is up to the subject to accept or reject the persuasion.

Edgar Cayce, who is briefly mentioned in this film, is now honored for his life's work and anyone can join the internationally important Association of Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Virginia to study his life and work as well as research into consciousness.

The movie barely introduces the subject but it does so in a very believable way and with a lot of courage.

This film is modestly budgeted, and was no doubt hastily made. But it is nonetheless a fascinating cultural artifact, a portrait of a time when the idea of reincarnation was a radical concept in America. The director had a genuine interest in the subject, and the always appealing Teresa Wright does a lovely job dancing the "Morning Jig." In many ways, this film is a lot more forthright and a lot less hokey than "The Three Faces of Eve," which would make an interesting pairing with "Bridey" on a double bill. I have to give it an unweighted 8, and pray that Shirley MacLaine never decides to remake it.

Odd structured film has Louis Hayward start out talking to the viewing audience as though he's introducing a TV play, but then he walks onto the set of the story, a cocktail party in 1956 Pueblo, Colorado.

Morey Bernstein (Hayward) is at a boring party where a visiting blowhard is doing parlor tricks by hypnotizing guests. Bernstein thinks it's stupid but his interest in piqued and he investigates hypnosis after being told the stories about Edgar Cayce.

He learns how to do it and starts investigating the phenomenon of hypnosis. One night Ruth Simmons (Teresa Wright) is at a party and lets him put her under. The room is stunned when Ruth seems to regress to a past life where she was the young Bridey Murphy in 1800s Ireland.

Bernstein tapes the session as Wright tells stories full of specific detail about places she's never been to. In a series of taped sessions, Wrights elaborates on the story of Bridey and even talks about her life after death, spooking everyone.

The film uses transcripts of the actual tapes from the real-life sessions Bernstein taped with the real-life Ruth (Virginia Tighe) in Pueblo. His resulting book was a sensation although it was condemned by several churches as it seemed to "prove" the ideas of reincarnation and post-death experiences.

The film basically presents the facts of the sessions and lets the viewer draw his own conclusions.

Wright gives a superb performance, but Hayward is very hammy and rather obnoxious. Co-stars include Nancy Gates as the wife, Kenneth Tobey as the husband, Richard Anderson as a doctor, and in the regression scenes, silent stars James Kirkwood, Hallene Hill, and Anne Cornwall.

Very interesting.

A Colorado housewife is hypnotized at a party. During her session it becomes clear that she is something special when it comes to hypnotism; while under she recalls past lives! The party-goers split, with some finding the phenomenon interesting and some demanding it stop. The hypnotist is swept up by his new finding and decides to ask to keep hypnotizing her so he can document the case. He has to fight the powers that be and shore up backers every step of the way. This flick is based on the best-selling book by Morey Bernstein, which is in turn based on the real-life story of Virginia Tighe Morrow, a Pueblo, Colorado homemaker. This is an interesting enough movie and Theresa Wright always draws the attention. The rest of the cast not so much. The whole thing is rickety in its 50s rigidity. When you put the two together, the hinky cast and the 1950s condescension toward women, it can try a nerve or two, but, nonetheless, I find the movie interesting.