The Search for Bridey Murphy

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.

Today this would be an episode of one of those cable docs on the paranormal. It is introduced, Twilight Zone-style, by the actor playing the hypnotist, Morey Bernstein. He steps into the first scene and the story begins.

Ruth Simmons is a friend of Morey and his wife whom Morey hypnotizes one night at a party. He is a self-taught hypnotist, having witnessed a demonstration at another party years earlier. Ruth reveals (after much prodding) that she is a reincarnation of Bridey Murphy, a 19th century Irishwoman. Very few, almost none, of the "facts" she reveals can be verified, a fact which the movie conveniently overlooks. The whole scenario was subsequently debunked by articles in major newspapers and magazines and by various authorities in the scientific establishment.

The movie, however, is an enjoyable fantasy, just don't take it as literal truth unless you are a follower of Ramtha or believe in Shirley MacLaine as some sort of spiritual pioneer.

The Search For Bridey Murphy was a best selling book and sparked a lot of interest in reincarnation when it came out in the middle 50s of the last century. As for Bridey Murphy herself whether she was real or something out of the mind of Ruth Simmons the questions still remain.

Louis Hayward plays Morry Bernstein and narrates the film as well. I'm having a bit of trouble believing that one could teach one self the art of hypnosis. Still Hayward becomes interested in the art and devours all he could on the subject.

His neighbor Kenneth Tobey's wife Teresa Wright seems to be an apt pupil for hypnosis. As Ruth Simmons regresses she goes beyond her childhood back into the lives of others. But the one she constantly refers to is that of Bridey Murphy whom she says lived on earth from 1798 to 1864 in a few places in Ireland.

In real life a lot of investigation is done and some parts of the Bridey Murphy for which Ruth Simmons seem to have a particular attachment for that life. Some things were proved, some were not, her case remains open to speculation. Bernstein made a fortune off the book, Simmons wanted to fade into obscurity, she didn't like celebrity focus and eventually she got it.

The characters here are your average middle Americans of the Eisenhower era and besides those mentioned Nancy Gates does well as Mrs. Bernstein.

Watch the film and read up on Bridey Murphy and come to your own conclusions.

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.

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.