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Night of the Eagle

Night of the Eagle

Sidney Hayers

  • 1962
  • Great-Britain
  • Fantasy / Terror
  • 1h27mn
  • Original version with French subtitles
  • Black and white
A very rational college teacher discovers his wife is a practitioner of magic, and forces her to destroy all her protective spells and charms. The resulting disruptions will gradually shake his certitudes.
Like his countrymen Roy Ward Baker or Peter Sasdy, labeling Sidney Hayers an honest genre craftsman would be perfectly unfair. Proof is this Fritz Leiber adaptation, a supernatural, jocose, fast-paced and elegant thriller, that comes close to equalling Jacques Tourneur. It inherits his mastery of dual interpretation, pushed to its utmost limits, the protagonist’s path towards belief blending with the viewer’s. Icing on the cake: the savory dismantling of the misogynist cliché that places men over women as the sole keepers of knowledge and self-control…

Stephen Sayadian

Made in 1962, I didn't catch Burn, Witch, Burn! (Night of the Eagle) until 2007. It slipped under my radar for years, and then, one late night while bingeing Turner Classic Movies, it immediately drew me in. What first caught my eye were the names in the credits: Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson. Both are legends in their own right, and their combined contributions to The Twilight Zone, a staggering 27 episodes, had long cemented my admiration.
Shot in rich B&W, this mini-masterpiece takes a page straight out of the Val Lewton playbook, emphasizing atmosphere, psychological suspense and a lingering foreboding until the final reel, when director Sidney Hayers opens the throttle and the film takes off like a Rocket 88. Not counting Rosemary's Baby, I can't think of a better film about witchcraft. It's elegant, unnerving, and far smarter than its title might suggest.

Screenings

09/09 • 19h30 • Screen 300
Session presented by Stephen Sayadian

Credits

  • With : Peter Wyngarde, Janet Blair, Margaret Johnston, Anthony Nicholls, Colin Gordon...
  • Screenplay : Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, George Baxt
  • Photography : Reginald Wyer
  • Editing : Ralph Sheldon
  • Music by : William Alwyn
  • Production : Albert Fennell, Julian Wintle, Leslie Parkyn, Nat Cohen