Night of the Eagle [Burn, Witch, Burn!] *** (1962, Margaret Johnston, Janet Blair, Peter Wyngarde) – Classic Movie Review 5,867

The scary 1962 British witchcraft horror film Night of the Eagle [Burn, Witch, Burn!] stars Margaret Johnston as jealous Flora Carr using black magic on medical professor Norman Taylor (Peter Wyngarde) and his wife Tansy (Janet Blair). 

Director Sidney Hayers’s scary 1962 British witchcraft suspense horror thriller Night of the Eagle [Burn, Witch, Burn!] stars Margaret Johnston as jealous Flora Carr using black magic on medical professor Norman Taylor (Peter Wyngarde) and his wife Tansy (Janet Blair).

The movie is boosted by a stylish production, telling performances (especially from Johnston) and a chilling yarn with a good finish.

The effective screenplay by Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson and George Baxt is based on Fritz Leiber Jr’s 1943 novel Conjure Wife, which was previously filmed in 1944 with Lon Chaney Jr as Weird Woman. The 1979 film Witches’ Brew, starring Teri Garr, Richard Benjamin and Lana Turner, is also based on the novel.

The original script was started by Richard Matheson and completed by Charles Beaumont, both paid $5,000 by James H Nicholson of AIP, who passed it to their partners Anglo-Amalgamated in England, where UK producer Albert Fennell bought in George Baxt to work on the script.

Filming took six weeks, and it was released in May 1962 (UK) and on 25 April 1962 (US).

It also features Anthony Nicholls, Reginald Beckwith, Kathleen Byron, Colin Gordon, Jessica Dunning, Norman Bird, Judith Stott, Bill Mitchell, George Roubicek, Frank Sanguineau, and Gary Woolf.

Night of the Eagle [Burn, Witch, Burn!] is directed by Sidney Hayers, runs 87 minutes, is made by Independent Artists, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated (UK) and American International Pictures (US), is shot in black and white by Reginald H Wyer, produced by Leslie Parkyn, Julian Wintle, Samuel Z Arkoff (executive), Albert Fennell (executive), Nat Cohen (executive) and Stuart Levy (executive), scored by William Alwyn, and designed by Jack Shampan.

It was called Burn, Witch, Burn! in the US.

Peter Wyngarde was cast as Norman Taylor at the last minute after Peter Cushing decided to make Captain Clegg instead and Peter Finch turned down the part.

A shorter version of Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife was first published in 1943 in Unknown magazine and then published fully as a single book in 1953. The film changes its New England setting to rural Britain.

The cast are Peter Wyngarde as Norman Taylor, Janet Blair as Tansy Taylor, Margaret Johnston as Flora Carr, Anthony Nicholls as Harvey Sawtelle, Colin Gordon as Lindsay Carr, Kathleen Byron as Evelyn Sawtelle, Reginald Beckwith as Harold Gunnison, Judith Stott as Margaret Abbott, Jessica Dunning, Norman Bird, Bill Mitchell, George Roubicek, Frank Sanguineau, and Gary Woolf.

RIP Peter Wyngarde, who died on 15 January 2018, aged 90.

Peter Wyngarde died on 15 January 2018, aged 90. He also notably starred in The Innocents (1961).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,867

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