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jackhammer · 06-18-2009, 11:40 AM

Night Of The Eagle (AKA Burn Witch, Burn) (1962)

Following on from my promise of tackling a couple of atmospheric psycholgical films here for your delectation is the little known British film 'Night Of The Eagle' . Coming a year before the very well known 'The Haunting' often classed as THE haunted house film, NOTE peddles a similar set up but in a much more intimate and claustrophobic house.

A young Peter Wyngarde is a succesful professor in Psychology who disbelieves in anything supernatural. To his dismay he finds out that his wife is a practising witch and orders her to destroy any artifacts she owns to do with witchcraft. Immediately the teacher suffers a downturn in fortune, accused of sexual harrasment and bullying. Were his wifes trinkets and utter belief in them really a source of his success or are there other forces at work?

To expand on this would let too much plot slip. NOTE success is built upon it's superb sense of menace, eerie chills and very very credible acting from all concerned. Despite it's middle England setting, the film never becomes stuffy and aloof (many British movies dealing with the middle class at the time were all stiff upper lip and starched collars) and the B&W photography works wonders and the shadows are used expertly.

Adapted from a Fritz Leiber story by Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), this is a tight, economic and genuinely scary movie (for it's time) that holds up extremley well even by today's standards.

The only clip I could find which is terrible quality:

06-18-2009, 11:40 AM	#144 (permalink)
jackhammer Ba and Be. Join Date: May 2007 Location: This Is England Posts: 17,331	Night Of The Eagle (AKA Burn Witch, Burn) (1962) Following on from my promise of tackling a couple of atmospheric psycholgical films here for your delectation is the little known British film 'Night Of The Eagle' . Coming a year before the very well known 'The Haunting' often classed as THE haunted house film, NOTE peddles a similar set up but in a much more intimate and claustrophobic house. A young Peter Wyngarde is a succesful professor in Psychology who disbelieves in anything supernatural. To his dismay he finds out that his wife is a practising witch and orders her to destroy any artifacts she owns to do with witchcraft. Immediately the teacher suffers a downturn in fortune, accused of sexual harrasment and bullying. Were his wifes trinkets and utter belief in them really a source of his success or are there other forces at work? To expand on this would let too much plot slip. NOTE success is built upon it's superb sense of menace, eerie chills and very very credible acting from all concerned. Despite it's middle England setting, the film never becomes stuffy and aloof (many British movies dealing with the middle class at the time were all stiff upper lip and starched collars) and the B&W photography works wonders and the shadows are used expertly. Adapted from a Fritz Leiber story by Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), this is a tight, economic and genuinely scary movie (for it's time) that holds up extremley well even by today's standards. The only clip I could find which is terrible quality: __________________ It be my music and film collection. “A cynic by experience, a romantic by inclination and now a hero by necessity.”