Night of the Eagle (1962)

This British horror film is an adaptation of the 1943 novel Conjure Wife by the German-American science fiction writer Fritz Leiber. The conceit of the movie is an intriguing if dated one. Witchcraft you see is kind of an open secret among women, one that the men are oblivious too. I didn't fully understand that this was the point while viewing the movie, though of course I did notice the undertones and prevalence of witchcraft among the female characters, it was while doing a little research on the film after viewing that I put this part together. It now makes more sense why Tansy Taylor (actress Janet Blair, best known as Ann Ferries on TV's Marcus Welby MD) would use various charms, rites, and curious objects to ensure the continuing success of her husband Norman's (Peter Wyngarde) academic career.

As the movie opens up Norman Taylor is a sociology professor at a private English university whose star is quickly rising in the department, leading to resentment by faculty wives (while the faculty members themselves seem to like the guy). Anyway Norman is a very rational person, the movie even begins with him giving a lecture decrying superstition and the like, so its not a big surprise that when he discovers that his wife has stashed magical objects around their country home that he reacts negatively. Tansy tries to explain to her husband that she does these things (tricks she picked up from a shaman when the couple were living in Jamaica) to advance his career, and protect them from the attacks of their enemies, i.e. magic practiced by jealous faculty wives. Norman forces his wife to cease such superstitious practices, but she insists she is not to be held responsible for what happens to them if she does, Norman burns the objects in the fireplace.

The next school day Norman is almost hit by a truck, and a once admiring student accuses him of having a relationship with her, prompting a school inquiry and the jealous boyfriend to threaten Norman. Still Norman can't accept the things his wife alleges, that is until she leaves in the night to conduct a ceremony that she claims will cost her her life but will save his. Norman goes on desperate quest to save his wife, and he actually succeeds in preventing the completion of the ceremony, but now conflict with the schools head witch, faculty secretary Flora Carr (Margaret Johnston) is bound to ensue.

I liked certain things about this film, I liked its treatment of witchcraft, with witch's doing the kind of petty things through magic that got many women accused of witchcraft in the past. I liked its oddness, and the setting. I really liked the sequence with the eagle, neat visuals there. What I didn't like was the slow pace, and that to much of the film was obvious while other things that should have been made clearer never were, such as the reasons behind widespreadness of witchcraft. Unique, but clunky and uneven. *1/2

This film is also known by the alternate title of Burn Witch Burn.