WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968)

 

DIRECTED BY Michael Reeves

SCREENPLAY BY Michael Reeves & Tom Baker (Not the Doctor Who one)

STARRING - Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins, Ian Ogilvy as Richard Marshall, Hilary Dwyer as Sara Lowes, Rupert Davies as John Lowes, Robert Russell as John Sterne, Patrick Wymark as Oliver Cromwell, Nicky Henson as Trooper Swallow, Wilfrid Brambell as Master Loach.

PLOT - It's the English Civil War and evil stalks the land...but it's not the evil of war. It's the evil of gossip and superstition. 

Innocent men and women in villages across the country are being accused of being witches and one man has been appointed Judge, jury and executioner - Matthew Hopkins...The Witchfinder General.

Hopkins and his right hand man John Sterne travel the length and breadth of the land torturing confessions out of the innocent and then putting them to death for the crime of witchcraft.

Hopkins is tasked with getting a confession out of a kindly priest John Lowes who has been accused. Lowes' niece Sara, in an attempt to save her uncle's life, offers sexual favours to Hopkins.

However Hopkins betrays Sara and Lowes is put to death regardless. Little does Hopkins know but Sara's fiance is a soldier called Richard Marshall. Finding out about Lowes' death and Sara's violation Richard swears revenge.

Hopkins had better look out, Richard is coming for vengeance...and woe betide ANYONE who stands in his way...

PERFORMANCES - Witchfinder General features what is probably one of Vincent Price's finest performances. He's absolutely perfect as Hopkins. A vain cruel man with delusions of grandeur. A brutal sadist and a total hypocrite who preaches God's law whilst at the same time abusing his position of power to satisfy his baser instincts.

When Sara offers herself in desperation you get the distinct impression that this definitely isn't the first time that Hopkins has found himself in similar situations. Basically, not only is he an actual predator that causes death wherever he goes in the pursuit of money, but he's also a sexual predator to boot. He's a monster. 

Price tones down the campiness that he's usually known for and brings a cold eyed menace to his portrayal of Hopkins. This is an extremely evil man we're dealing with here. There's one point that really stands out when we see Hopkins and Sterne ducking a load of "witches" into a river. One of the accused (an old lady) drowns pretty much straight away. Hopkins stares at her corpse and says "she was innocent" and he does this smug, beneficent smile as he says it. It's a chilling moment which goes to show just what a depraved and hypocritical bastard Hopkins really is.

Hopkins was (unfortunately) a real life person who by all accounts was every bit as bad as his movie counterpart. The film takes quite a bit of dramatic licence with documented history. The real life Hopkins was only in his twenties when he carried out his purges (Price is clearly much older). Hopkins died at the age of 27 from suspected Tuberculosis (in the film he's hacked to death with an axe), I suspect the entire country breathed a collective sigh of relief at his passing.

Hopkins is aided and abbetted by his henchman Sterne (Robert Russell) who's every bit as evil as Hopkins. Sterne is a sadistic bully who delights in torturing innocent people. He's also a drunken whore monger and a coward (as bullies generally tend to be). He's also quite (darkly) funny in parts, in one scene an old crone begs him to spare her life as she's "with child", Sterne retorts with "Who'd want to get you pregnant?" - it's harsh but it's a fair enough point I suppose.

Sterne and Hopkins also blatantly mistrust one another, Sterne frequently calls Hopkins out for his hypocrisy, whilst Hopkins has to put Sterne in his place by the use of veiled (and sometimes not so veiled) threats. The two only stick together because their partnership clearly works (Hopkins is the brains, Sterne is the brawn) and both of them are making a shed load of money out of the partnership. It's a marriage of convenience where both parties clearly hate each others guts, yet both of them are getting too much out of the deal to back out. Russell is great as Sterne - a character you just love to hate, in his way he's every bit as good as Price is.

Ian Ogilvy plays the vengeful hero Richard. When we first meet him Richard is a respected soldier in Cromwell's army. Earning some much needed leave he goes to meet his fiancée Sara (Hilary Dwyer) to ask her uncle John (Rupert Davies) for permission to marry her. At first we see Richard and Sara as a happy pair of young lovebirds, the Civil War is going well for Richard's side and he's confident that it will soon be all over. The future looks bright for the young couple.

However fate takes a bitter turn for them when John is accused and killed. Hilary Dwyer gets her best scenes in the film when Sara briefly becomes our point of view character and we get to see the horrible and degrading decisions she has to take in a vain attempt to save her beloved uncle's life. Dwyer does a good job in capturing Sara's sheer desperation here.

It's not long before Richard returns after hearing of John's death. He vows vengeance and from this point onwards Richard becomes an avenging angel, riding through the East Anglian wilderness dispensing justice wherever he goes. We see him get involved in chases, bar room brawls and gun battles in his quest for vengeance. At one point during the 70's Ogilvy was tipped to play James Bond, judging by his performance here I think he would have made a great Bond, he certainly carries off the gentlemanly action hero vibe to a Tee.

However as the story progresses Richard becomes utterly consumed by his quest. By the movie's end he has fatally injured Hopkins by maiming him with an axe. It falls to Richard's friend  Swallow (Nicky Henson) to finish Hopkins off with a well aimed bullet - effectively a mercy killing. An enraged (and now most probably utterly insane) Richard screams "You took him from me !!!!" while a traumatized Sara looks on. It's powerful stuff and Ogilvy is absolutely brilliant at coming over as completely unhinged. NOBODY comes out of this looking good. Hats off to all the various actors involved.

SFX - Not much (the story doesn't really call for it), just a bit of blood here and there (which looks more like bright red emulsion paint).

SEX & VIOLENCE - Firstly we get Sara seducing Hopkins.

Then things take an even more sinister turn for her when she is raped by Sterne (you get the impression he does this partly for his own satisfaction and partly to annoy Hopkins).

This film is not afraid to show the full horror of the tortures and indignities that Hopkins' victims were put through.

Sterne tortures confessions out of people by looking for "witches' teats" (i.e. perfectly ordinary moles) on thier bodies and gouging them with his knife.

Either that or Sterne simply beats a confession out of them.

We see a variety of public executions including hangings...

Drownings...

...and most memorably of all burnings.

After one mass witch burning we see a group of village children baking potatoes in the still glowing embers of a fire that has recently been used to burn three women alive. It just shows how desensitized these people have become to the violence going on around them.

We also see various shootings (due to the ongoing Civil War).

At the film's climax Richard gives Sterne his just desserts by literally stomping him to death.

After this he hacks at Hopkins with an axe. A quick little story related to this scene, a few years ago I was a member of a horror film group on Facebook. One day someone had started a post about Ian Ogilvy's various appearances in 60's and 70's British horror films. I posted a comment saying "Why does Ian Ogilvy always go insane with an axe in these films ?" (It's true, he does it several times, not only is there the attack on Hopkins in this film but he also smashes up a tomb with an axe in And Now The Screaming Starts and he also smashes up a possessed mirror with an axe in From Beyond The Grave). 

A few days later Ian Ogilvy himself answered my post with a comment saying "Yes, that did seem to happen to me quite a lot back then." I just thought it was cool that he'd not only bothered to respond but also had enough of a sense of humour to not take himself or his early movies too seriously. It was DEFINITELY him as I checked his Facebook profile and it was full of photos of him chilling out with his wife and grandkids and dogs at home. The sort of photo's that somebody pretending to be him wouldn't have had access to. 

Good old Ian Ogilvy - not only does he make a good axe weilding maniac (or a good potential James Bond) he also seems like a pretty nice bloke in real life too.

RATING -Witchfinder General is regarded as a horror classic and quite rightly so. The performances are all of a high quality, the script, direction and cinematography are all second to none. The film has an unflinching attitude to the real life historical horrors it portrays and there are many powerful moments that stay with you long after the credits have run.

In fact there's even a case to be made that this movie ISN'T fully a one hundred percent horror film despite it's grisly content.

Think about it - a lone wronged hero on horseback, riding through an empty wilderness, getting into gunfights and brawls with bad guys. All the while he's looking to take down a corrupt official and his violent henchman. Our hero rides into small towns searching for his nemesis, all the time slowly but surely getting closer to the final showdown. All set against a backdrop of simmering violence.

Swap out rural East Anglia for an American desert, Richard for the Man With No Name, Hopkins for a corrupt sheriff, Sterne for a drunken Mexican bandit, the English Civil War for the American Civil War and basically what you have is a Western. A Western set on the outskirts of Norwich for sure but Witchfinder General has all the familiar story tropes of the Western genre. I think this makes the film even more interesting and an even richer viewing experience. The whole thing is sheer class from start to finish. A classic tale of religious zealotry gone wrong and man's inhumanity to his fellow man.

5 miscarriages of justice out of 5.

As an amusing sidenote, my DVD copy of Witchfinder General has one of the most hilarious extras I think I've ever seen. It's a video of a song called Hopkins - Witchfinder General by a group called Cathedral. I've never heard of them before (or since) but they're a late 90's/early 00's heavy metal band who look stuck in the 80's. Just look at the lead singer...

Is this the most METAL man the world has ever seen ? Yes...I think he probably is.

All through the video he struts around making "devil horn" hand gestures accompanied by a leather clad dominatrix and a hot nun. It's one of the most cheesy, dated and outright fun things I've ever seen and I love it to bits.

METAL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ART -

BELOW - The cover of the novelisation.