It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This should be one of Hammer's best. A strong cast led by Bona Fide Hollywood royalty who has top class support from some fine actors including Alec McCowen and Leonard Rossiter two of my favourite characters. With the normally reliable Nigel Kneale providing the screenplay this should be a classic. The film looks great- and the print quality is way up from the pretty much contemporary The Reptile which I also saw recently- and it is bursting with ideas but is still nothing more than quite good. The feel of the movie has touches of The Night of the Demon in that the pace is deceptively leisurely and it foreshadows the likes of Rosemary's Baby in that apparently down-to-earth, benevolent types are revealed to be devil worshippers and most obviously the Wicker Man in that a young girl is used as bait to tempt an apparently untouchable outsider into mayhem but it is vastly inferior to those three films and indeed the aforementioned Reptile which although cheap looking and bedevilled with laughable effects remains tense, disturbing and best of all unpredictable throughout. There are good bits in the Witches all right - the skinning of a hare by the apparently affable butcher (my excellent compatriot Duncan Lamont) and the scenes in which La Fontaine acts with children are small moments of real excellence- but it is not scary and the ending makes no sense even before the ludicrous, cheesy finale in which the deeply disturbed McCowen suddenly seems like a swell fellow. There are obvious weaknesses in the story- it has a happy ending for a start- which a better director would have been better at papering over, characters like Fontaine's fellow teacher played by Ann Bell go nowhere and above all that the lush, vaguely butch journalist sibling of McCowen (played by Kay Walsh) is so obviously a 'wrong un' destroys any possibility of suspense. And that is a pity because Ms Walsh was good and steals every scene she is in. Fontaine is also part of the problem. Uncharitably she may have been a touch old for her role but in the film's early scenes she is fine especially, as mentioned earlier, when she is acting with the little children. She suits the low key early scenes but as the film progresses her expression freezes as does her badly over lacquered hair. I gather she did not enjoy the experience of working on such a low budget film and most of the time it is hard not to avoid the impression that she thinks she is above the film she is in. Maybe she is but she is emphatically outperformed by Walsh, McCowen and Rossiter in the scenes she shares with these great actors. The Witches should be a classic but it is not- but it is not a total failure either.

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.

Joan Fontaine, in her last theatrical film, stars as a teacher who has been on a sabbatical because on her previous job, she was traumatized by natives in some remote village who were practicing voodoo and witchcraft. To move forward and away from such things, she takes a new post working for Kay Walsh and her minister-brother. But he's no longer a man of the cloth. That's very mysterious. In fact, just when Joan was trying to not find trouble, it finds her. A young boy and girl in love are told to stay away from each other and its dramatic turn leads to turmoil for Joan. What started out as a somewhat interesting and promising little film seems to go awry with out-of-control antics. On the whole, I'm not much of a horror buff, but I do like the early black-and-white ones of the genre, like The Haunting, etc., where less is more. (In fact, I was only watching this because it was a Joan Fontaine film.) And, while it would have stayed on my to-watch list until I watched it, I still feel like it was essentially a waste of time, considering the disappointing and silly resolution. If you're a Joan Fontaine fan, this is one film that doesn't fit in with her usual roster of good films and could definitely be missed. Period.

"The Witches" is an incredibly silly film. While it has some good moments and is oddly entertaining, the film certainly made me laugh when it shouldn't have! Not surprisingly, this was Joan Fontaine's final big-screen appearance--as she thoroughly embarrassed herself.The movie begins with Miss Mayfield (Fontaine) somewhere in Africa where she's being attacked by some witch doctor sort of fellow. Suddenly, the scene magically cuts away and Mayfield somehow escaped! She's now in England and is applying for a job as a teacher. In this tiny town in the middle of nowhere, Mayfield is very happy and things seem rather ideal. However, after a while, she sees evidence of voodoo--and it reminds her of the evil that befell her in Africa. And, incidentally, Mayfield starts acting VERY nutty. Where does all this go? Well, see for yourself--but suffice to say it ends with a giant pagan orgy with dancing and gyrations--and also, interestingly, some hints at lesbianism.The film clearly has some spooky moments and sets the mood nicely. Unfortunately, it also abounds with silly overacting. Miss Mayfield either smiles and acts like Mary Poppins on goofballs or she acts rather nutty. But her performance pales in comparison of EVERYONE in the final scene--one which is unintentionally hilarious. It's also hilarious that the lady who seems VERY interested in Mayfield also told her about the only way to destroy her and the devil cult! This is much like Dr. No installing a self-destruct button on his nuclear power plant and marking it 'self-destruct' and then allowing James Bond to see it!!! Overall, overacted and full of silly plot holes BUT also oddly entertaining.By the way, perhaps I was a therapist and psychology teacher too long, but at the 5:40 mark, I laughed at the crude Freudian imagery. I am not sure if the filmmakers intended it--I think they did!!