Night Of The Eagle (1962)

Another overlooked and largely unheralded classic and an early directing effort from Sidney Hayers. The movie itself is adapted from a Fritz Leiber novel entitled 'Conjure Wife' and first made as a movie as Weird Woman (1944). NotE, known in the US as Burn, Witch Burn, begins in a picture postcard English village with college Professor Norman Taylor and his Tansy (Peter Wyngarde and Janet Blair) enjoying a successful phase of life, particularly as Norman seems to be making rapid headway up the ladder at the college . We first see Taylor lecturing to his class about disspelling the supernatural with the words I Do NOT Believe completely unaware that his wife is a practicing Witch herself, using  protection to keep she and her husband free from dark forces.

Upon discovering these charms placed around the house, Norman insists on Tansy removing them to which she protests that she wont be held responsible for what happens if she does. Naturally, he dismisses this and has Tansy find and burn all of them from which point everything starts to turn against them. He is accused of sexually assaulting one of his pupils, nearly hit by a van and it becomes apparent that someone else in the village is a mirror image of Tansy and using black magic to destroy both she and her husband. Norman is more and more drawn into supernatural belief as the movie reaches it's climax, almost completely when he uses magic to save his wife from an early grave.

His wavering scepticism is finally broken upon confronting their envy-filled nemesis, the identity of whom is not hard to guess nor supposed to be a close guarded secret. With his last desperate attempt to dispell the supernatural with disbelief shattered, he flees knowing his wife is in genuine danger and rushes to her rescue.

NotE scores points all round, it's pacing very good of it's time with a particularly good performance from Janet Blair whose belief in the supernatural as strong as her husbands disbelief. Richard Matheson, one of 4 co-writers including Leiber, tended to always be involved in excellent screen writing and does here again. Tension throughout is built brilliantly and the film as a whole lush to look at. My own favourite shot from the film is a picture of the couple in happier times whilst in the backdrop a silhouette of Norman and Tansy as she tries to stab him.

Although a totally different type of film, if you enjoyed Night of the Demon (1957) you will probably enjoy this one too. The public doesn't need another vastly poor remake of King Kong or Planet of the Apes and then exiting the cinema thinking, yeah cost a lot but what shite eh?. It needs films which they already missed being more available which were high on (witch)craft lower on budget. Many of you here probably weren't old enough to remember this first time round, thankfully neither was I, but find it and check it out.