Pacte avec le diable

Joan Fontaine's final film is a horror flick for Hammer. She plays a teacher recovering from a nervous breakdown after surviving a terrifying experience with witch doctors in Africa. She takes a job in a small English village and seems happy there, despite the odd behavior of some of the locals. When weird things start happening, Joan investigates and discovers a plot to sacrifice a young girl in a pagan ritual.

Joan does a fine job in her final movie. She would do some more TV work but this is it for her long film career. The rest of the cast is made up of solid British actors. Cyril Frankel's direction is good. He manages to evoke a fair amount of atmosphere for a picture that takes place almost entirely in daylight. In some ways it's a precursor to The Wicker Man. It's nowhere near as good as that film but there are some similar plot elements. The screenplay is from Nigel Kneale, best known for being the creator of Professor Quatermass and for his screenplay for the excellent 1957 Abominable Snowman film. Reportedly Kneale was dissatisfied with this film because he intended it to be a dark comedy that poked fun at witchcraft but Hammer wanted a serious horror movie so all comedic touches were removed. Well they missed a few because some of the most memorable parts of the movie, such as Joan being overrun by a flock of sheep and every scene of Kay Walsh in her pagan ritual get-up, are very funny. It's a decent movie of its type. Not really scary but interesting, particularly for Fontaine fans.

1966's The Witches rates in the upper half of 1960's era horror. Its not outstanding but it is very interesting. I would certainly recommend it for viewing, just don't expect a classic.

Leading lady Joan Fontaine was still an impressive screen presence at this time and she portrays the courageous but vulnerable headmistress Gwen Mayfield very well.

But - a little bit about the story. Heroine Gwen suffered a nervous breakdown when in Africa, brought on by a traumatic experience with tribal witchcraft. Gwen recovers and takes a teaching job in a quiet, out of the way English village. Little did she know that even greater horror than what she experienced in Africa awaited her! It takes her awhile to realize that the town is home to a witch's coven, a coven that she will unwillingly be admitted into.

Before we get to this point, the story unfolds with some fairly decent character development. The too-jolly meat cutter Mr. Curd, the dour Granny Rigg and her overly-protected grand daughter Linda, Linda's boyfriend Ronnie and the brother sister team of Alan and Stephanie Bax, very capably portrayed by Kay Walsh and Alec McCowen as the village leaders, are the main characters which keep life interesting for Gwen. One gets a clear sense of life in a small English village, a place where fear and superstition become horrible reality.

The problem with reviewing The Witches is, if too much of the film is detailed, the ending is predictable and viewing ruined for those who have not seen it. Keep in mind this is a Hammer film and is similar to other films of the day, such as The Plague of the Zombies, (1966, also by Hammer), and 1960's City of The Dead, (AKA Horror Hotel), to name a couple.

If you are a fan of horror, and I suspect you are if you are reading this review, then you are probably already aware of this film and its exciting conclusion. This was one of Ms. Fontaine's last major screen roles so view it for this reason if for no other.

Female schoolteacher in an English village senses something strange is afoot while observing the townspeople's cold reaction to the budding relationship between a local teenage boy and girl; turns out, they want to keep the lass a virgin, and soon the boy is mysteriously out of the picture. Hammer Films thriller, an adaptation of the novel "The Devil's Own" by Peter Curtis (aka Norah Lofts), begins promisingly but deteriorates in the final stretch. The prologue, with missionary teacher Joan Fontaine being run out of Africa by witch doctors, is rendered vague and nearly useless by it not being used as a proper bridge to the main story (she's shaken up, but the experience certainly hasn't taught the heroine anything about black magic). The fine location shooting and tidy production are both impressive, and the cast is nearly terrific (save for the two central students, who are wooden). The plot unfortunately derails at a critical juncture: the boy's father drowns, rampaging sheep spoil some evidence in the mud, Fontaine learns too much and vows to testify at an inquest...but then wakes up in a nursing home with amnesia! From this point on, "The Witches", which has heretofore built up a good amount of tension within its curious scenario, loses all credibility and finesse--and the supporting cast is made to hop around in the dirt, groping one another and gibbering like possessed fools. It's a letdown for Fontaine's fans, although she manages to retain her dignity even as the picture lapses into camp. **1/2 from ****

No need to recap the plot.

Except for the hokey demon in the opening, the first part is nicely understated. Life at the English school seems normal enough even if the business with the dolls is a little unsettling. As a result, we can't be sure what's developing, which for me generates suspense since we know something sinister is afoot but can't be sure what. Frankly, I wish the movie's remainder had remained in this understated vein, with a creepy upshot instead of the wildly misguided finale.

With an actress of Fontaine's caliber, it would have been possible to develop this dark psychological aspect, which, for example, is nicely done at the rest home, but soon gives way to silly high-priestess antics (Bax). I guess Hammer figured audiences expected a big lurid payoff leaving nothing to the imagination, which is just what they provided. Anyway, the film's colorfully set in the English countryside, and smoothly directed by Frankel. But for those of us that believe the most effective horror lies in an aroused imagination, the movie proves an ultimate disappointment.

Joan Fontaine plays a woman traumatized in Africa that eventually takes a teaching job in the English countryside. This is your typical Hammer fare with a pretty good story of re-provoking the trauma within Ms. Fontaine as she discovers that a coven of witches resides in her new home town. The script has some good suspenseful moments and the acting is good all around. Ms. Fontaine does a better-than-average job in her role, yet is easily upstaged by Kay Walsh, a writer friend of Ms. Fontaine's character. A fun film to watch..the end is a bit hokey but what the hey...it's the sixties!