Der Teufel tanzt um Mitternacht

Female schoolteacher in an English village senses something strange is afoot while observing the townspeople's cold reaction to the budding relationship between a local teenage boy and girl; turns out, they want to keep the lass a virgin, and soon the boy is mysteriously out of the picture. Hammer Films thriller, an adaptation of the novel "The Devil's Own" by Peter Curtis (aka Norah Lofts), begins promisingly but deteriorates in the final stretch. The prologue, with missionary teacher Joan Fontaine being run out of Africa by witch doctors, is rendered vague and nearly useless by it not being used as a proper bridge to the main story (she's shaken up, but the experience certainly hasn't taught the heroine anything about black magic). The fine location shooting and tidy production are both impressive, and the cast is nearly terrific (save for the two central students, who are wooden). The plot unfortunately derails at a critical juncture: the boy's father drowns, rampaging sheep spoil some evidence in the mud, Fontaine learns too much and vows to testify at an inquest...but then wakes up in a nursing home with amnesia! From this point on, "The Witches", which has heretofore built up a good amount of tension within its curious scenario, loses all credibility and finesse--and the supporting cast is made to hop around in the dirt, groping one another and gibbering like possessed fools. It's a letdown for Fontaine's fans, although she manages to retain her dignity even as the picture lapses into camp. **1/2 from ****

The Witches is a very watchable film, but also an uneven one, Hammer have done some very good to great films but this is not one of them. It's one of those cases where the first half, which was reasonably strong despite a few problems, fares far more strongly than the second half, which was incredibly problematic and awful at its worst.

Visually, The Witches, as with most Hammer efforts, looks great. The scenery and sets are both beautiful and eerie, it's stylishly shot and the lighting helps give off an effectively creepy atmosphere. The music is resolutely haunting and has a thrilling intensity while also having the ability of being intimate when it calls for it.

The script does lack horror and mystery, but flow-wise and structurally it flows well and is decently written, and while the film is reasonably tame by today's standards the atmosphere still has a creepiness and the first half interests and entertains mostly. The direction is very competent in the first half and shows great technical assurance but falls flat in the last thirty minutes. The cast are very good and are the best thing about the film aside from the visuals. Joan Fontaine has been better, but the vulnerability of her character is very deeply felt, Alex McCowan has a lot of fun with his role while Kay Walsh's excellent performance steals the film.

As said, the first half is reasonably strong. It does have its flaws, it does move too slowly in places and the prologue was rather vague and somewhat irrelevant. It's always professionally made and well-acted on the whole, and is intriguing and entertaining, with a great creepy atmosphere and some decent suspense.

However, the second half really disappoints. It gets really tedious, gets increasingly confused, suspense, mystery and horror are non-existent and it dissolves into camp, which I don't think was intended. The film's biggest flaw is the climax, which has to be the worst ever ending for a Hammer film with its inept choreography, even worse dancing and it was just too amateurish to even be considered unintentionally funny.

Overall, good first half, but very bad second half. An uneven film, with a lot of strengths and some big flaws. 6/10 Bethany Cox

After being threatened by witchcraft in Africa, Gwen Mayfield (Joan Fontaine) has a nervous breakdown and returns to England. She is invited to teach in a private school, owned by the wealthy Alan Bax (Alec McCowen) and his sister Stephanie Bax (Kay Walsh), in the village of Heddaby. After a period in the place, she witnesses weird events with locals, and she realizes that the place is indeed a coven and her student Linda Rigg (Ingrid Brett) is being prepared for a sacrifice.

"The Witches" is a Hammer film that can be divided in two parts: the first one, with the arrival of Mayfield to Heddaby, is intriguing and suspenseful. Joan Fontaine, in her last work in the cinema, performs a fragile and vulnerable woman due to a trauma in Africa, and wondering if there are witches in the village. The second part, when she returns from the mental institution, is simply awful. The long ritual of the witches is disgusting and silly, and spoils a promising film. Kay Walsh, the former wife of David Lean, has a great performance, highly above the rest of the cast. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Face do Demônio" ("The Face of the Demon") Note: On 10 Dec 2018 I saw this film again.

After suffering a shock in Africa, young Gwen Mayfield starts working as a teacher in a small village somewhere in England. Two of her students behave rather strange, and some people in the village try to separate the two from each other. Gwen becomes curious but suffers another shock. When she returns to the village, she finally finds out why its inhabitants behave so strange: They are really witches and plan to sacrifice a girl from Gwen's class...

One of the lesser known horror movies from legendary British Hammer films, this was also Joan Fontaine's last role. It's a slow and surprisingly tame movie, but well-made and atmospheric. While it's nothing outstanding, it certainly is worth watching. The ending may be a bit of a letdown. I also liked the music score during the opening credits, and some bits of the soundtrack are really good.

This interesting if not altogether successful production for Britains' legendary Hammer Studios has a generally intriguing plot (it's scripted by Nigel Kneale, based on a novel by Norah Lofts) but it tends to become much less interesting after a crucial turn in the story, and leads to a less than satisfactory resolution. That's too bad, because the material did have some potential.

Perhaps part of the problem is that Hammer was always so good with their period pieces that there's a lack of truly oppressive atmosphere with this contemporary set tale. After a hell of a start, the film, which could indeed have used a more masterful director like Terence Fisher at the helm, slowly loses its grip.

Joan Fontaine made her last appearance in a theatrical feature here, from then on only acting on TV. The star of Hitchcocks' "Rebecca" and "Suspicion" plays Gwen Mayfield, a teacher who after a traumatic experience in Africa comes to the small English village of Heddaby to instruct at its local school. She'll soon come to suspect that some of the citizens are up to no good...but she'll have no idea just how big the problem is.

The lovely Ms. Fontaine is appealing and sympathetic in the lead, and she receives solid support from an exemplary cast - Kay Walsh, Alec McCowen, Ann Bell, Ingrid Boulting, John Collin, Michele Dotrice, Gwen Ffrangcon Davies, Duncan Lamont, Leonard Rossiter, and Martin Stephens. As could be expected, this is a good looking Hammer production, well designed and photographed and featuring an eerie score composed by Richard Rodney Bennett.

Admittedly, this can't compare to the best that Hammer has to offer, but it remains watchable enough until its finale. It may work better for those who aren't fans of the studio to begin with.

Six out of 10.