Bewitched (1945)
For you curators and collectors of obscure, weird cinema.....BQ found a goody for you.
This might be the first split personality thriller from a major studio (MGM).....over a decade before Joanne Woodward's "The Three Faces of Eve" (a triple play, that one) and Sally Field's terrific TV movie "Sybil" (where our gal Sal practically hosted a convention of multiple people inside her addled head.)
'Bewitched' came to life from the prolific mind of writer-director Arch Oboler, whom we'd describe as a sort of minor-league, C-minus Rod Serling/William Castle. Oboler began in his career in radio mysteries like 'Lights Out' and in moving on to the movies, dabbled in sci-fi, horror, mystery and generally oddball exploitation....(such as "Bwana Devil", the first official 3-D film).
"Bewitched", in its swift, trim 65 minutes, throws us into the torments of sweet innocent cutie-pie Joan Ellis (a game enough Phyllis Thaxter). It's a little crowded inside Joan's mind, since it's also housing her evil alter-ego Karen (voiced by Audrey Totter).
Joan's Karen is way more malignant than today's Karens, the ones who call the cops on black kids mowing the lawns. This Karen, a snarling bitch-on-wheels, wants full possession of Joanie's bod.....she's done squatting in there and announces her intention to stick around as the sole tenant.
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, Joan ditches her too-good-to-be-true fiance Bob (Henry H. Daniels Jr.) and flees across the country to New York. Young lawyer Eric (Stephen McNally) falls hard for sweet Joan but invisible psychotic Karen continues to make life hell for her. When Bob tracks her down to bring her home, Karen takes over completely, encouraging Joan to plunge a scissors into Bob's back. Bobby...we hardly knew ye.
And now we come to the film's most interesting concept....uncomfortably similar to today's recent headlines about the mom who could only get a hung jury for killing her three children.
Joan's now on trial for murder, with one foot in the electric chair and the other on a banana peel. Her lawyer (Eric, of course) tries defending her on an insanity plea, arguing that Cuckoo Clock Joan couldn't possibly be held accountable for her actions. And believe or not, he's on the verge of a Not Guilty verdict, till Joan stands up shrieking "I did it! I did it!".......which puts her right back on death row and a sit-down on that juiced up hot seat.
Arch Oboler, always a dedicated pulp fictioneer, then sends the film lurching into a ridiculous. overheated but none the less entertaining climax in the office of the New York state Governor.
For a stay of execution, Eric and a previously skeptical psychiatrist (Edmond Gwenn) try to show the Gov and his wife that Joan's being trolled by that krazy Karen. At long last, under hypnosis, Karen's evil bad self comes out to play. And Gwenn, like a modern day witch doctor or "The Exorcist"s Father Merrin banishes Karen into oblivion......(or for all we know, a prime position on Trump's cabinet as Director of Homeland Security.)
Silly, but sincere in its clunky plotting and questionable mental health ethics, we got a nice little pre-Halloween chill out of 'Bewitched" .....and you've gotta love the scene where lawyer Eric starts doing a a way too frenzied out loud play-by-play on the jury's facial expressions when they return with a verdict....
For those curators and collectors we mentioned at the beginning of this review, (especially those familiar with some of Arch Oboler's nuttier projects, like "The Twonky" and "The Bubble", this one's worth checking out.
3 stars (***). Nutty as a peanut M & M, but fun to munch.
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