Dance of the Witches
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Dance of the Witches |
| Original title | Wicked Stepmother |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Larry Cohen |
| script | Larry Cohen |
| production | Robert Littman |
| music | Robert Folk |
| camera | Bryan England |
| cut | David Kern |
| occupation | |
| |
Dance of the Witches is an American film directed by Larry Cohen in 1989. The actress Bette Davis (1908–1989) made her last film appearance in Dance of the Witches .
action
The married couple Jenny and Steve Fisher return from vacation. Jenny's widowed father, Sam, introduces his new wife, Miranda, to greet those returning home. The staunch non-smokers and vegetarians are shocked by the chain smoker Miranda, who has filled the entire refrigerator with meat. Miranda has moved into son Mike's room and is messing up family life. Sam, who had never watched television before, now watches game shows every day . Sam's hair continues to grow on his head again. Miranda's cat causes an allergic reaction in Jenny . Jenny hires private detective Nathan Pringle to find out what Miranda is up to. When Miranda's daughter Priscilla comes to visit, Miranda disappears. Both share a human existence - while one is human, the other must live in the form of a cat.
Priscilla tries to drive a wedge between Jenny and Steve. Finally she seduces Steve, who shrinks back when Priscilla grows a huge cat's tail. Priscilla enchants Sam so that from now on he can answer any question and gets him to take part in a TV game show as a candidate and win. In the meantime, Jenny has found out that Miranda and Priscilla are witches and have previously helped several other families to become wealthy and then shrunk to a few centimeters in height. Together with the dismissed Lt. MacIntosh, who is also on the trail of the witches, tries to avert this disaster from her family. In a final showdown between Priscilla and Jenny, Jenny can drive the witches away with the support of Sam, who can still answer any question.
In the final scene you can see Lt. MacIntosh driving away in his car with the cat when the car and MacIntosh suddenly begin to shrink. In a panic, MacIntosh steers the car, which is only a few centimeters wide, down the highway .
background
Bette Davis withdrew prematurely from the film project after filming began, so the script had to be rewritten and the role of Barbara Carrera was given significantly more space. There are different statements about the reasons for Davis' exit. While Bette Davis cited problems with the script and Larry Cohen's directorial work, Cohen believed Davis' declining health was the real reason she quit.
Actress Joan Crawford can be seen in photos as Jenny's late mother . The feud between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis has been the subject of media coverage in the past.
The Italian film Streghe , also known as the Witch Story , which was titled in German as Tanz der Hexen 2 in 1989 , is not a continuation of these productions.
criticism
The lexicon of international film ruled that the horror film enriched the “genre with comic elements” and attempted to make the genre “social comedy”. However, "slapstick and crude quotes" would prevent the horror and the comedy.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charlotte Chandler: Bette Davis. The personal biography . LangenMüller, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-7844-3137-6 , page 341.
- ↑ Larry Cohen: I Killed Bette Davis. Film Comment, 2012, accessed on January 2, 2020 .
- ^ Nina J. Easton: Bette Davis Smoking Over 'Stepmother'. Los Angeles Times, January 3, 1989, accessed January 2, 2020 .
- Jump up ↑ Dance of the Witches. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 4, 2020 .