The Search for Bridey Murphy

I saw this film once late at night (or early in the morning) on television when I was in High School. One thing that struck me about this film that was different to so many others was its ability to captivate me even at that hour, which is generally the type of braindead time usually reserved only for the watching of 'Beavis and Butthead Do America' or 'Dude Where's My Car?'. The fact that at two in the morning ANY film could have a riveting story line absolutely amazed me.

While 'The Search for Bridey Murphy' is largely a fantasy, it is a very interesting one and the end leaves you wanting more. I urge anybody and everybody to search for 'The Search for Bridey Murphy' at all their local video stores. It is definitely worth a watch.

Today this would be an episode of one of those cable docs on the paranormal. It is introduced, Twilight Zone-style, by the actor playing the hypnotist, Morey Bernstein. He steps into the first scene and the story begins.

Ruth Simmons is a friend of Morey and his wife whom Morey hypnotizes one night at a party. He is a self-taught hypnotist, having witnessed a demonstration at another party years earlier. Ruth reveals (after much prodding) that she is a reincarnation of Bridey Murphy, a 19th century Irishwoman. Very few, almost none, of the "facts" she reveals can be verified, a fact which the movie conveniently overlooks. The whole scenario was subsequently debunked by articles in major newspapers and magazines and by various authorities in the scientific establishment.

The movie, however, is an enjoyable fantasy, just don't take it as literal truth unless you are a follower of Ramtha or believe in Shirley MacLaine as some sort of spiritual pioneer.

The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956)

This isn't quite a normal narrative movie but a re-enactment of some true events surrounding hypnosis and supposed past life regression. And it's quite fascinating on some level, for the facts and the possibilities, and it's quite dull on another level, filled with narration and some repetitive scenes and a slow pace. In fact, as good as it is in some ways, it might have made a brilliant half hour short.

Not to take away from the singular performance of Teresa Wright. She's the subject and object all at once, and she makes a lot out of nothing (lying down on the couch most of the time). She makes the subtleties of "reading" have meaning, with slight differences of accent, and a tone of voice that is really convincing. The rest of the cast? Serviceable. There wasn't a huge effort put into making this movie, or making it interesting.

The one inventive aspect is some slightly cheesy cloudy scenes that are meant to be transporting the viewer through the subject's thoughts. It works fine. When it gets to the cosmos (stars), you do wish there had been some attempt to keep up with the audience. It's a congenial movie, and everyone has a terrific upper middle class attitude, which is pleasant.

Some research after the book was published and after the movie as well, has shown some problems with the facts, and some alternate reasons why the subject would be able to invent (or recall) in great detail (including the dance). A better movie might have layered some of the doubts into the apparent wonder and marvel of the actual hypnotic events.

So, actually, this isn't really recommended as a movie experience, but as a way to learn about the subject. It's certainly clear and plain speaking.

This is one of the best films ever made on the issue of hypnosis, its use and misuse, life before birth and after death and reincarnation, all tremendously difficult issues and almost impossible to discuss, least of all to come to definite terms with, except by hard trial and error in bold experiments, which this film and story is all about.

The one responsible for the book, a tremendous bestseller in its day, a certain Morey Bernstein, has no interest whatsoever and doubts everything, rejecting all psychic business as mumbo jumbo, until a hypnotic experiment in his presence is too authentic to be rejected, which propels him into studying the subject. By pure personal interest he trains himself into an amateur hypnotist and achieves results as such and finds a very susceptible guinea pig for his risky ventures into the unconscious in a young mother Ruth Simmons, whose husband isn't happy about it. With her under hypnosis the amateur hypnotist stumbles into past lives, as she unconsciously remembers her life as a certain Bridey Murphy in Ireland 1798-1864 in great detail including her teacher, her father, her husband, her brother, local songs and dances of that time and finally even her death, how she died and what happened afterwards, going into the existence of afterlife in limbo and that drifting existence in a vacuum of nowhere - where she almost gets lost.

This increasingly hazardous experimentation ultimately risks getting out of hand, so that Ruth's mental health is put at risk, wherefore her husband steps down and will have no more of it.

However, the results already achieved, all documented on tape with witnesses, which sessions are truthfully revived on the screen, provide enough material for Morey Bernstein to write his book, which by no means is any proof of anything - who can even prove God's existence or anything metaphysical at all? - while it certainly is intriguing enough to raise discussions without end.

To this interesting intrigue comes the terrific acting by all persons involved, especially Louis Hayward and Teresa Wright as the hypnotist and his guinea pig, but all the others also are fully convincing - it's all perfectly organic, as Polanski would have put it. Thus it almost becomes like an documentary, and as such it is invaluable.

Odd structured film has Louis Hayward start out talking to the viewing audience as though he's introducing a TV play, but then he walks onto the set of the story, a cocktail party in 1956 Pueblo, Colorado.

Morey Bernstein (Hayward) is at a boring party where a visiting blowhard is doing parlor tricks by hypnotizing guests. Bernstein thinks it's stupid but his interest in piqued and he investigates hypnosis after being told the stories about Edgar Cayce.

He learns how to do it and starts investigating the phenomenon of hypnosis. One night Ruth Simmons (Teresa Wright) is at a party and lets him put her under. The room is stunned when Ruth seems to regress to a past life where she was the young Bridey Murphy in 1800s Ireland.

Bernstein tapes the session as Wright tells stories full of specific detail about places she's never been to. In a series of taped sessions, Wrights elaborates on the story of Bridey and even talks about her life after death, spooking everyone.

The film uses transcripts of the actual tapes from the real-life sessions Bernstein taped with the real-life Ruth (Virginia Tighe) in Pueblo. His resulting book was a sensation although it was condemned by several churches as it seemed to "prove" the ideas of reincarnation and post-death experiences.

The film basically presents the facts of the sessions and lets the viewer draw his own conclusions.

Wright gives a superb performance, but Hayward is very hammy and rather obnoxious. Co-stars include Nancy Gates as the wife, Kenneth Tobey as the husband, Richard Anderson as a doctor, and in the regression scenes, silent stars James Kirkwood, Hallene Hill, and Anne Cornwall.

Very interesting.