The devil dances at midnight
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The devil dances at midnight |
| Original title | The Witches |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Cyril Frankel |
| script | Nigel Kneale |
| production | Anthony Nelson Keys |
| music | Richard Rodney Bennett |
| camera | Arthur Grant |
| cut |
Chris Barnes James Needs |
| occupation | |
| |
The Devil Dances At Midnight is a 1966 British horror film produced by Hammer Films and starring Joan Fontaine in her final role. Directed by Cyril Frankel , the novel was written by Norah Lofts under the male pseudonym Peter Curtis.
action
The elderly Englishwoman Gwen Mayfield works as a teacher in a mission school in the heart of Africa. There she gets caught up in a rebellion carried out by shamans and is shocked as a result of these events. Back in England, Gwen wants to continue teaching there and therefore applies to a man who introduces himself as Reverend Bax. She gets the job and becomes the first teacher at a small private school that the Reverend and his sister Stephanie, a well-known journalist, set up for the children of Heddaby. Soon Gwen has to discover inconsistencies. There is a school, but there is neither a Reverend Bax nor an associated church. Alan Bax, pretending to be the Reverend, shows Gwen the old church, which only exists as a ruin. He had once aspired to a church career, according to the false reverend, but he failed with his intention. When the teacher wants to learn more about the fate of the ruined church, Alan Bax falls into an inexplicable silence.
Gwen Mayfield's students include the gardener's son Ronnie Dowsett and the pretty, but a little anemic-looking Linda Rigg. They both spend a lot of time together. When a romance seems to develop between the two, this meets surprisingly massive resistance in the village, and Linda's grandmother in particular wants to tear the two young people apart at all costs. Miss Mayfield can't figure it out, but when certain strange events take place, Gwen also begins to be interested in the background. Ronnie appears to have fallen into a coma one morning and Gwen Mayfield accompanies him on his way to the hospital. When she finds a male doll a little later, which Ronnie has given Linda as a kind of image of herself (just as she had given him a female doll of herself), Gwen is surprised. The doll has been impaled with a fork, is full of needles ... and her head is missing! Should this be a devil's craft or some kind of voodoo ?
When the teacher approaches Stephanie Bax, she comes too late when Gwen pulls the needles out of the battered doll's body. According to the experienced journalist, this would mean that she would admit to believing in this hocus-pocus herself. Gwen and Stephanie agree to write a newspaper article about sorcery in what is now England. The next day, Ronnie is well again, and he is brought to her family in Wales by his mother, who had a heated argument with Gwen the day before. Obviously, this is also the result of the falling out love affair between the two young people, for Gwen reports to Mr. Dowsett that last night his wife visited Mrs. Rigg, apparently to make some sort of deal concerning the two young people. When Dowsett tries to talk to Mrs. Rigg with this knowledge, his body is found on the beach the next day. Gwen goes to the beach to look for tracks and meets Stephanie Bax, who is walking her dogs. Stephanie ponders whether the footprints that can be seen on the beach might not be the nightly aftermath of a witch's Sabbath. Dowsett, Stephanie said, could have got in their way.
Things will soon come to a head. Gwen, who was run over by a horde of sheep on the beach, receives from the village doctor Dr. Wallis administered a tetanus injection as a precaution. She thinks she is hallucinating when she wakes up the following night and repeats things that had happened in Africa during her shock. Here, too, a shaman suddenly appears in full body mask. The teacher then had another nervous breakdown. Several weeks later, Mrs. Mayfield woke up in a small private sanatorium, but couldn't remember anything, in fact, she even believed she was still in Africa. Dr. Wallis explains that her friends from Heddaby have looked after her generously. Alan Bax is seen outside with Dr. Wallis, who she doesn't think she knows from before. When a little girl enters the clinic with a doll, Gwen's memory gradually comes back. The teacher firmly believes that Linda, who is still in Heddaby, is in great danger and may be intended by witch worshipers as part of a planned human sacrifice. Gwen immediately leaves the hospital and sets out to return to Heddaby.
There she is approached by the wife of the local butcher, Mrs. Curd, who says “You have the girl!”. With that, Gwen's worst fears have come true. The Baxes greet Gwen Mayfield with open arms and pretend to be delighted with how well she seems to be doing. When Gwen went to Mrs. Rigg shortly afterwards and asked about Linda's health, she was told that she had left to live with relatives in Great Yarmouth . From her room in the Bax house, Gwen watches as a number of people scurry outside and make their way to the church ruins. She follows them and sees a sack doll there with a picture of Linda attached. This doll is dancing in the middle of a circle of witches. When Gwen jumps out and tears down the sack, there is only Mrs. Rigg's cat underneath. Gwen soon finds out that Alan and Stephanie are also in leading positions in this coven. Stephanie had factored in Gwen's appearance because she (from Africa) also has experience with magic cults and she would do well in this circle of witches. Gwen is introduced to an initiation rite. On the way home, the sorceress Stephanie explains everything to her, namely that she has studied witchcraft as a science and that she intends to use it with all her might.
In order to attain higher ordinations, one must sacrifice a virgin according to an ancient record of a monastery brother. That is why Ronnie was taken out of circulation because he did not deflower Linda and brought the girl with absolute purity for the rite. Linda is ideal for this part, because the girl must not be older than 15 years old, and Linda is only just 14. The following night, this rite is to be performed with a ritual dagger from ancient Mexico. Gwen does everything possible to save Linda, who was hidden in the ruined church. When approached by Gwen, however, she does not respond: Linda has already been put into a trance. In a final act of desperation, Gwen cuts her arm and smears her blood on Stephanie's warlock robe. “Blood!” She shouts, “No blood should be shed at the moment of the sacrifice!” Dismayed by her defilement, Stephanie tears off her robe and dies immediately afterwards. Then all the other participants in the witch circle wake up from their trance. A few weeks later: the new school year has started, and the memories of the dark events of yesteryear have been wiped away. On the contrary: a new happiness has spread everywhere.
Production notes
The Devil Dances At Midnight premiered in London on November 21, 1966. The German premiere took place on May 27, 1995 as a television premiere on ZDF .
Bernard Robinson created the film structures .
Reviews
“An atmospherically dense horror film, well cast and photographed in harmonious colors. Joan Fontaine can be seen in her last film role. "
The Movie & Video Guide briefly called the film a “good hammer shocker”.
Halliwell's Film Guide saw the film as "tasteless horror with predictable development and a laughable climax".
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Devil Dances at midnight in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on September 15, 2018
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 332
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 1123
Web links
- The devil dances at midnight in the Internet Movie Database (English)