The Devil's Own (1966)/Also Called The Witches

 Okay, I really liked Joan Fontaine in the film. But this lost me by the end. So Fontaine is Gwen Mayfield, an English schoolteacher hired in a village that could be a haven for witchcraft. I did really like the twist with Kay Francis, as Stephanie, who seems to be a reasonable, rational mind, an ally to Gwen, only to be quite the opposite.

I got lost there for a minute when Gwen is in Africa when a voodoo tribe seem to arrive at her hut to terrorize her for, I think, bringing her education to their village. It seemed like she was about to be killed, with her screams heard as the camera pulls out of the hut as the credits open. I thought to myself: is Fontaine a special guest star? The film then takes us to England where Gwen meets who she believes is a priest, Alan Bax (Alec McGowen), still quite shaken clearly by the experience in Africa, startled that he hires her.

Initially, when she arrives in Heddaby, everything seems to go swimmingly. The students seem to love Gwen and the villagers seem to like her okay. But when she wants to help a student, Ronnie (Martin Stephens), build on his superior intellect, the boy's relationship with a teen girl, Linda (Ingrid Brett), appears to draw the ire of village adults. Later, Ronnie is taken out of his home in a coma, his mom practically hysterical because she wanted him to be placed in a prep school instead of taught by Gwen.

The film, a Hammer Studios joint, clearly is about this sinister "secret" that Gwen inadvertently stirs up, preparing to speak at an inquest when Ronnie's father is found in a lake drowned, believing the village is responsible. When a shield with that same tribal face that sent her on a nervous breakdown in Africa pops up in her rooming house, Gwen faints, later awakening in a nursing home with amnesia.

There was a ton of swerving in the film, I'll give it that. Gwen is taken here and there, but a lot like other films in Fontaine's past, she is like a boat in torrential waters, rattled about by manipulation and enigmatic characters who won't be straight up with her. She gets her memory back, leaves the hospital, finds her way back to Stephanie, whose arms are open to her...for a reason. Stephanie reveals herself as the Queen Witch, totally in power over the village, having them act like subservient animals, crawling about the floor of a ritual chamber, squeezing fruit juice all over their bodies, as she prepares to free her soul/persona into the body of much-younger, Linda. Gwen, who was knelt to her knees involuntarily and "brought in" to Stephanie's "community", wants to make sure Linda isn't a victim of Stephanie's selfish desire to split her aging body for a younger one.

The ritual with all the dancing and gyrating villagers, looking as if they were prehistoric cave people, with Stephanie throwing her hands/arms up straight for them to stop when she wants silence, was really campy to me. Stephanie would throw out some Latin she found in an old historic book of black magic, as Gwen always seems perplexed and concerned with all this weird shit thrown at her. This is a lot to take in for Gwen who just wants to teach children. Thankfully Gwen read the book, too, knowing a ritual that might rescue Linda. I really liked the part of the film where Gwen is trying to get to the bottom of things, is tricked into a hospital, must use her cleverness to escape, and figure out how to undermine a lot of batshit crazy stuff happening to the village. Fontaine in a Hammer film is cool, though. There was some color issues with certain moments in the film, especially when Fontaine's Gwen is talking to Robbie's father in her room. The voodoo opening really threw me off, but I rebounded until that camp ending backed me off again. All in all, as someone who really liked Fontaine a lot -- particularly because I think "Rebecca" is one of the greatest films ever made and "Suspicion" where her performance is sadly under the shadow of her "Rebecca" acting triumph -- I think her presence in this film benefits "The Devil's Own" a hell of a lot. She's a major actress: if she had just been treated better in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". 3/5