Witches' Brew

Three modern-day housewives casually use witchcraft to further their husbands' careers. Only one of the couples, Teri Garr and Richard Benjamin, are nicely-matched (brightly-zonked Garr can make any screen-partner look good), but this sloppy comedic rendering of 1944's "Weird Woman" (and its popular remake, 1962's "Burn, Witch, Burn") had a troubled production that shows its seams on-screen. Poorly written, directed, photographed and edited, the film served as the final bow for actress Lana Turner (in a throwaway role as sort of a matriarch witch) and should be justly forgotten. NO STARS from ****

I stumbled across this movie on cable and watched for a while, thinking with Benjamin and Garr it wouldn't be a complete waste of time. Wrong! To compound the disappointment of wooden performances, I eventually realized the plot was lifted right out of Fritz Leiber's "Conjure Wife" -- a wonderful horror tale set in academia. If you go for horror and/or "weird tales", find the book (and read Leiber's "Our Lady of Darkness" while you're at it -- it's better). But forget this movie. Closest video approximation to the tone of Leiber's work is the Night Gallery episode, "The Dead Man". A student of Lovecraft, Leiber is one of the true greats in weird fiction.

WITCHES BREW was hyped in the early 80's by the same horror fanzines that hyped SATURDAY THE 14th. OK, so I can't help it. This is a pretty lame flick.

And Teri Garr is in it. Granted, she is all right in small doses. Overbearing, yes. Annoying, yes. But she was good in last year's DICK. I can't really pick on her too much (Dave Letterman takes care of that for me).

This film has a few effects around the silly housewife hijinks, and those said effects are of the Q variety. At least the gargoyle's supposed to be made of clay.

Still, I haven't seen this picture in years, mostly by choice. It is an unmemorable, and thoroughly draining, viewing experience.

Silliness about a group of faculty wives using witchcraft to advance their husbands careers. Picks up and drops ideas willy-nilly although it isn't completely without an ultimate goal. But the picture becomes increasingly ridiculous as it progresses.

Odd to see gifted comedienne Teri Garr in such as this, although it is played initially with a light touch. She's not bad but it doesn't play to her strengths, she was however still working her way up so probably taking whatever was offered. She's also a peculiar match with Richard Benjamin, who spends what seems an inordinate part of the movie in various states of undress, their styles don't mesh very well.

This was Lana Turner's cinematic screen swan song. While its not the horrifying train wreck that some Golden Age stars, Joan Crawford, Veronica Lake etc., were subjected to it's hardly the sort of film a legendary star should be exiting the stage in. She does look glamorous throughout until script dictates strip her of her trappings, an oasis of pizazz in a sea of slack suits.

Worth catching for the two lead actresses if you're a fan of either but strictly a mediocrity.

"Joshua Lightman" (Richard Benjamin) is a college professor who seems to have everything going for him which includes an attractive and loving wife named "Margaret" (Teri Garr) and an extremely rewarding career in which all kinds of good things just happen to come his way. What he doesn't fully realize is that the reason for much of this is because his wife dabbles in witchcraft and has placed multiple spells upon him which ensures his good luck at every opportunity. Unfortunately, during the course of one of these spells, he and Margaret have a disagreement and because of that she decides to revoke all of them to teach him a lesson. This, in turn, creates all kinds of trouble for him which even Margaret did not foresee. To matter matters even worse, because of his recent success, one of Margaret's friends by the name of "Susan Carey" (Kathryn Leigh Scott) becomes so concerned that Joshua's upward mobility will impact her own husband's career that she puts a curse on him to slow his progress down as well. But as bad as that is it is nothing compared to what a woman named "Vivian Cross" (Lana Turner) has in mind for the two of them. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a pretty good low-budget film which benefitted from the presence of two attractive actresses like Teri Garr and Kathryn Leigh Scott. That being said, however, it still suffered somewhat from its rather limited financial resources and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.