Legend of the Witches

Legend of the Witches

source: Legend of the Witches

Something witchy this way comes, in the form of a documentary about witchcraft in the British Isles. It features much footage of ceremonies and the like. Its kind of like a newer version of the silent doc Haxan, only not as good. On the one hand its quite fascinating and visually well shot but on the other hand its really quite boring as well, with the lack of synchronised sound being a core reason for this. A definite curiosity piece though but whether you like it is another matter entirely.

The later part of the 1960s was a watershed in terms of censorship.The power of the Lord Chamberlain to censor the stage was abolished.Shortly after that the all * revue Oh Calcutta was staged.At about the same time there was a furore about the showing of a females pubic hair.The film was shown uncut at the NFT.The censor,John Trevelyan wanted to keep in step with public tastes,so full frontal nudity was allowed.So all of a sudden producers were allowed to show everything,though there were and still are things they couldn't show.So give the audience a large dose of education and you could put in a reasonable amount of nudity.So that is clearly what happened here.It is actually quite entertaining.I think that the sonorous narration was by Valentine Dyall.Somehow I doubt that this was ever shown in any of the major circuits cinemas.

I was excited to see that this film had been released on DVD by DD Home Entertainment, and delighted that their version was supposed to be 113 minutes (1hr 53 min) long. Like most people who have seen the movie at all I had only seen the 72 minute, cut-down, version of this film that was shown in theatres in 1970 and was broadcast on the UK Horror Channel in October 2004. I trawled the net trying to find more information on the length of the original release, to get some idea of what might be in this longer cut, but found nothing. So I spent my money and waited, anxious to see what the extra 40 minutes of footage contained, and keen to see the Special Feature Photo Gallery. As my title suggests, the playing time of this DVD is not remotely close to 113 minutes, despite what the packaging says, it is 72 minutes! It is the same version as was shown on the UK Horror Channel, not a single frame more. To make matters worse, the Special Feature is the most pathetic I have ever seen on a DVD: eight poorly selected images from the film. These are not Stills (still photos taken at the time of filming, to be used for promotional purposes) but images that have been taken from the video itself: exactly what you would get by using your pause button. The good news is that the image and sound are quite clear. This suggests that we may eventually get, from someone else, a decent release of this film, uncut and with a few interesting extras.

Extraordinary film. Passes itself off as a documentary, but the rituals are obviously staged for the camera and although there is the presence of noted Wiccans Alex and Maxine Sanders, the covens feel slightly too young and nubile to be entirely convincing. Still a very interesting watch, and there are undoubtedly elements of truth and documentary to it.

This 1970 movie is a dramatised documentary on the cult and practice of witchcraft since pre-Christian times in Britain. Featuring tales of Pagan gods and goddesses mingling with artful landscape shots, pictures of wildlife, Stonehenge and other images, narrated in typically 1970s droning voice over by Guy Standeven, it tries to sell itself as a serious investigation into witchcraft in the modern world, but is just an excuse for copious amounts of female nudity. The whole thing just comes across as a titillating exploitation flick (director Malcolm Leigh went on to make the British Sex film, Games that Lovers Play in 1971), and is a really slow paced film which is pretty boring despite its far out subject matter. It does however feature a pretty mesmerising soundtrack which changes intensity throughout the film, and is also notable for including the only known footage of Alex Sanders, dubbed the King of Wicca.

Halloween viewing and surprisingly effective it turned out to be. As excited children could be heard squealing on the streets outside this by contrast was a creepy and somber affair painting a most believable picture of witchcraft through the ages. There is much speculation about a 113 minute version but whilst there is no evidence to support this, the recent BFI Blu-ray set contains an 85 minute film which is considerably longer than the IMDb 70 minute quote and likely to be the full length. I imagine the shorter version is that which went briefly on general release because watching this I was amazed at the extent of the explicit nature of the content. I was also most impressed with the camera work throughout. From the misty sunrise opening and moon across the water to the naked rituals and more this was eye opening stuff indeed. Particularly pleased to see the Witchcraft museum in Boscastle featured as I remember my father donating much material there in his later years. Fabulous view and can't wait to watch the accompanying short and numerous extras.

While this documentary does do an engrossing and illuminating job of covering various aspects of witchcraft in England throughout the ages, there's no denying that writer/director Malcolm Leigh used the documentary format as an excuse to get away with showing attractive young buck naked folks performing initiation rites and dancing around a bonfire sans clothes under the moonlight. What prevents this doc from seeming like a cheap piece of lurid exploitation is the fact that it's actually sharply photographed in crisp black and white by Robert D. Webb, with lots of nicely atmospheric shots of the sun, the moon, and waves crashing on the shore. Moreover, this doc depicts everything from animal sacrifices to everyday superstitions to Christianity's similarities to Wiccan practices in a neat and straightforward manner. Best of all, it's narrated with exquisitely soothing sonority by furiously prolific British bit player Guy Standeven, who spent the bulk of his lengthy career popping up in numerous films and TV shows in often uncredited minor nonspeaking roles; it's a real treat to hear Standeven's mellifluous voice talking throughout with utmost sincerity on the strangest of stuff. Worth a look.

Legend of the Witches (1970) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Malcolm Leigh directed this rather interesting, if a bit slow, documentary about cults, Satanist and other such issues. The film tries to explore all aspects of witchcraft from its earliest days to the present time. LEGEND OF THE WITCHES is a pretty interesting movie on a number of levels but I must admit that I wish the narration was a tad bit better. It certainly sounds like a British film from the 1970s (which it is of course) but there's no question that it's a bit too try and a bit too much like a professor talking to himself. Still, this is just a minor issue because the rest of the film is actually quite good. We can start with the wonderful cinematography, which takes a very low-budget and makes it look like something more. I was really shocked to see how well the film looks and this includes the various lighting that was done to highlight certain things. There are are all sorts of Black Masses and strange rituals being done under the moonlight and they simply come across beautifully on the screen. Another major plus is that there's a nice atmosphere to many of the re-enactments. The film opens up with a terrific sequence showing some wildlife in the forest before moving to a group of naked people doing a ritual. This ritual includes a naked man having a blindfold put on him and his led through the dark having to trust the woman leading him. Another great sequence happens towards the end when a Satan-like creature comes into play. What's most shocking about this picture is how much full frontal nudity there is. Considering what type of films were being edited by the British censors, it's rather shocking that there's so much nudity on display here. That's certainly not a bad thing but it's just not something you'd expect to see. LEGEND OF THE WITCHES really deserves to be better known. With its atmosphere and visuals, this really does come off as one of the better British horror films from this period.