User Reviews

Bewitched is written and directed by Arch Oboler. It stars Phyllis Thaxter, Edmund Gwenn, Henry H. Daniels, Addison Richards, Horace McNally and Kathleen Lockhart. Music is by Bronislau Kaper and cinematography by Charles Salerno Jr.

One of the most interesting of splinters to come out of film noir was that which dealt with psychoanalysis. Be it mentally scarred war veterans, amnesia sufferers with locked in repression, or a victim being pushed to the mental abyss by an outside force, the state of mind factor was ripe for any sort of film noir sheen.

What was under represented were films that dealt with mental illness' like schizophrenia or multiple (split) personalities. History tells us that Hollywood took a long time to get to grips with such topics, very much resorting to guesswork (and sometimes laughable) solutions to mental health issues just to close out the movies with a happy outcome.

It would take until 1957 and Three Faces of Eve (and to a lesser extent Hugo Haas' Lizzie released the same year) for the personality disorder issue to break out of Hollywood and into the public conscious. But even then with "Eve", if you take out Joanne Woodward's spell binding performance you are left with some mumbo-jumbo and a daft resolution to the curing of the patient.

So where does this leave Bewitched in 1945? Transferred from radio to the big screen by Oboler, from his own story titled Alter Ego, Bewitched suffers from the same simplified problems of so many like minded sub-genre movies, in that the resolution ("cure") is just so hard to get on board with. However...

If allowing the film some grace for the time it was made, then there's a very good picture here. Clocking in at just over an hour, it certainly feels and plays like one of those extended episodes of The Twilight Zone from Season 4, but the atmospherics and lead performances of cast members ensure this is fascinating and suspenseful entertainment.

Plot essentially sees Thaxter as troubled Joan Alris Ellis, who after starting to hear a sinister voice in her head (voiced by noir darling Audrey Totter), flees to New York to start afresh, leaving behind family and her intended husband to be. After becoming involved in a warm relationship with Eric Russell (McNally), Joan finds that the voice, her alter ego, is not going to go away and urges Joan to commit murder.

Pic unfolds in a flashback structure, Joan is awaiting execution and we learn how she came to be in this situation. Oboler and Salerno film the piece through a film noir prism, ensuring that a disquiet mood is prevalent throughout. As the lens' mist up and shadows fall (99% of film is set in darkness or daylight as darkness), the visuals marry up nicely with poor Joan's befuddlement.

Oboler is guilty of letting the piece meander at times, as it often becomes over talky (the radio origins practically scream from the speakers!), but he has a very sharp eye for an evocative scene, and he's also capable of telling tech flourishes. Joan running down a street lit by bulbous lamps is straight out of noirville, distorted angles come and go, and clocks feature prominently, like Old Nick is right there counting down the seconds on every clock face.

Then it's that resolution. Simplified for sure, but not without eeriness personified as Joan's femme fatale alter ego arrives on the scene in a clear case of angel and demon perched on either side of the hapless patient. With Thaxter excelling with her haunted portrayal, Gwenn exuding assurance unbound, and Kaper (Gaslight) drifting a creeping menace like musical score over the proceedings, the impact garnered belies the "B" budget afforded the play. 7.5/10

Wholesome gal Phyllis Thaxter lives with her upper-middle-class parents and plans to wed soon. But she's beginning to cause some concern; she's prone to odd fainting spells – blackouts, really – and to wandering the deserted streets of her midwestern city at night. Scant wonder, because living inside her, and clawing to get out, is Audrey Totter! Totter, in fact, gives perhaps the most chilling voice-of-the-demon performance until Mercedes McCambridge gave us Pazuzu in The Exorcist.

Capitalizing on the heightened interest in abnormal psychology spurred by the return of shell-shocked veterans, Bewitched latches onto a tabloid-worthy subject – multiple personality disorder. It's noteworthy in doing so a dozen years before both Lizzie and The Three Faces of Eve, in which, respectively, Eleanor Parker and Joanne Woodward (who nabbed the Oscar) displayed similar symptoms. Footnotes in medical journals probably do not cite any of these movies, so facile is their treatment of a troubling and controversial syndrome.

Thaxter tries a geographical cure, fleeing to New York where she falls in love with a lawyer (Stephen McNally). But when her old fiancé tracks her down, Totter, who apparently wasn't left behind, emerges to kill him with a pair of scissors. Then comes a stylized courtroom fantasy lifted all but intact from Boris Ingster's Stranger On The Third Floor, followed by a real murder trial. Wise old psychiatrist Edmund Gwynne explains everything to us, along with the Governor and his wife, and then proceeds to exorcize Totter (who, by the way, calls herself Karen).

Apart from Thaxter's nocturnal excursion, there's little original or striking about the movie. That we see the good girl but only hear the bad one is a big part of the problem. The extra energy that might have come from seeing Karen in action – for that matter, from casting Totter on-screen – gets thrown away. They picked the wrong personality.

No need to repeat the plot. The force behind the movie is Arch Oboler, an established radio heavyweight at the time. From his credits, it looks like he kept searching for a handle in Hollywood but never quite found it. Certainly, it wasn't from lack of imagination—his 1951 film "Five" dealt with nuclear post-apocalypse in a resourceful and compelling way at a time when no studio would touch the subject. That same bold imagination is evident in this movie as well. The professionals dismiss the film as "heavy-handed", which it is. However, there are compensations that are too easily overlooked.

Aside from Thaxter's fine performance, the movie contains several profoundly imaginative touches. Catch that moody dollying shot down the deserted city street that finally fixes on a cringing Thaxter hiding behind an open doorway. Not only is it great atmosphere, but it also sort of sums up Thaxter's predicament. She's afraid to come out into the world for risk of immediate exposure, so she clings fearfully to a hidden world where only she exists. It's a well-conceived and artfully executed passage. Then there's that darn-near sublime set-up with Thaxter huddled in a concert hallway while we see a long-shot of a vocalist pinpointed by a thin beam of light. The woman intones a mournful version of My Old Kentucky Home, like the proverbial voice in the darkened wilderness. It may be the only glimpse we get of Thaxter's true inner self, summed up poetically.

But the overly literal side does unfortunately predominate, and I wish someone had more confidence in audience imagination. For one thing, that would have eliminated the two hokey doppelgangers in the exorcism scene. Also, the conventional happy ending is much too pat for the problem being dealt with, but is indicative of the time. And if I'm not mistaken, there's a quick reference from Gwenn to Thaxter's problem as being genetic, as if a multiple personality trait can be passed along in the genes. I'm no clinical psychologist, but I doubt seriously this is the prevailing view. Anyway, it's too bad Oboler couldn't get a better handle on Hollywood. I think his credits showed genuine promise. This movie may be unfortunately flawed (perhaps because of studio dictates), but the very real compensations should not be overlooked.

Or, if you prefer, Mrs. Jekyll & Hyde without the serum. Many offbeat, inventive touches in this eerie, unusual (for its time) paranormal thriller (including what must be the only close-up of new paper being inserted into a typewriter I've ever seen in a movie) ; not entirely successful (for one thing, we don't see enough of the "wild" Karen), but a most worthy effort. **1/2 out of 4.

Average yet enteraining story about a young girl being plagued with a voice inside telling her what to do. The girl breaks down and listens to the voice, moving across country leaving her family and fiancée behind to make a new start. The film then has a new man come into the girl's life when old wounds are re-opened and tragedy strikes. While nothing particularly inventive takes place, I rather liked the mood created throughout the film. The film opens with the female protagonist in jail for a crime she didn't yet did commit. Phyllis Thaxter as Joan, the troubled young lady with multiple personalities living inside her, gives a more than competent portrayal of this tortured woman, yet the film's story is rather weak and completely falls apart in the last third when some ridiculous scientific explanation is given for her aberrant behaviour. Edmund Gwenn plays a psychiatrist/family friend and gives the film a bit of credibility with his performance. The rest of the cast is adequate and the film is mildly entertaining. Hypnosis, the gas chamber, and playing with scissors are all explored.

A woman on death row is discovered to have a split personality in "Bewitched," a 1945 film starring Phyllis Thaxter, Edmund Gwenn, and Stephen McNally. Thaxter is a young, soon to be wed woman who has blackouts, walks around at night, and hears voices. She runs away from her parents' home and her husband to be and goes to New York, gets a job, and meets an attorney (McNally) who falls for her. Her fiancé finds her, and, under orders from her other personality (voiced by Audrey Totter), she kills him.

Now we're brought back to death row where Edmund Gwenn suspects her problem and wants to hypnotize her.

Boring film with a good cast nonetheless, psychiatric disorders being a fashionable subject during and after World War II. What made Three Faces of Eve interesting was that the main character was a woman with a dull affect, but her personalities had lots of spark. Just hearing the voice of Totter here isn't enough. If Thaxter had actually been taken over by her alternate personality and, say, lived as her in New York, the film would have been a lot more interesting.

Not very good.

Prototype Film-Noir from Stylist Arch Oboler who made His Name on the Radio with His Ultra-Popular "Lights Out" Program. Here He Adopts His Own Story "Alter-Ego" and brings it to the Screen for MGM.

This is One of the Few MGM Noirs of the First Wave. It would Take Years before the Haughty Studio would lend its Name Seriously to a Style so Dark.

Phyllis Thaxter gives a Good Performance in a Soul-Baring Role. Steve McNally is Miscast but manages to look Desperate and Edmund Gwenn as the Psychiatrist trying to Exorcise Thaxter's other Personality, the Evil One, is a Good Try.

With its Roots in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the only Reference Point at this Point for Multiple Personalities On Screen, Oboler delivers and Ultra-Stylish Descent into Schizophrenia.

The Film is Guilty of way too Much Verbiage, a Radio Drama influence, but it Balances it with Film Flourishes that are Atmospheric and Stunning.

The Movie Grips the Audience as it tries to Explain and Expose Psychiatric Methods and Procedures. But the Truth is that Not Much was Known at the Time and the Little that was Known was constantly Up for Debate in the Medical Community.

So it was No Easy Task Transferring this to the Movies. For Years Hollywood gave it a go with Extremely Inconsistent Results. It Was a Staple in Film-Noir and the Horror of Val Lewton but Main Stream and "A" Pictures were Reluctant to take it on for quite Some Time.

Overall, this is a Great Early Effort and a Striking Example of Film-Noir and the Psychological Pictures that Started a Run After the War and Never Stopped, and actually becoming a Genre of its own (The Psychological Thriller).

A psychological melodrama about a woman suffering from split personality. There's a hint of the noir style here, resulting in some of the film's few good moments, but overall it's just too silly to enjoy on any level besides camp. Any movie of this era that attempts to tackle psychiatry invariably simplifies it far too much, both the condition and the cure. A lot of the plot is just too convenient and/or unexplained (how the hell did Bob find her?) and there's not very much dramatic tension. Phyllis Thaxter does a fairly good job in the lead, no one is very satisfying, including Audrey Totter as the alter ego's voice-over. Movies like this are nice reminders that not all classic cinema is gold.

Bewitched (1945)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Joan Alris Ellis (Phyllis Thaxter) is your typical young woman. She's happy, healthy and looking forward to her upcoming marriage but then she begins to hear voices. Soon these voices are taking over her life so she runs away from her fiancé and family hoping to find some peace but soon she murders a man. Was it her or the voices?

BEWITCHED is a pretty interesting film that has a lot of creative moments and it's certainly a film that's ahead of its time. It certainly fits in quite well with the film noir from this era but there are plenty of horror elements and you could really argue that it touched on some similar subjects that Alfred Hitchcock would do fifteen years later in PSYCHO. Sadly, not all of the elements come together as well as they should but there's no question that the film is worth watching.

The best thing working for the film is Arch Oboler's direction because he keeps the film moving at a rather nice pace and he also handles the various elements quite nicely. I thought the psychological aspect of the film was the highlight because there are several scenes where the lead character battles with herself and these are extremely effective. I also thought the noir aspect with the cinematography was good. I think the film loses some of its power during the finale, which I won't spoil but it was a tad bit too sappy for me.

Thaxter is good in the lead and performs both characters very well. Edmund Gwenn, Henry H. Daniels, Jr. and Addison Richards are also good in their parts. BEWITCHED was certainly ahead of its time and deserves a lot of credit for the subject matter.

I am a trained psychotherapist and used to offer individual and group therapy. I mention this because I do have a legitimate basis for saying that "Bewitched" is filled with psychological mumbo-jumbo! In other words, whether it's an enjoyable film or not, it's nonsense and mixes up two DIFFERENT disorders--Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder (also called Dissociative Identity Disorder). Many therapists are not sure whether or not MPD is a real psychological disorder...though Schizophrenia IS and would account for the voices the protagonist hears in her head. Too bad the writers of the film didn't understand this difference.

Joan (Phyllis Thaxter) is a young woman with a SERIOUS problem. She hears her own voice, or rather, her own EVIL voice, and it's trying to control her and make her kill! And soon you learn that she does have two distinct personalities--one sweet and the other evil and impolite! The film chronicles her life and ultimate treatment.

Throughout the film, Thaxter's performance is unintentionally funny. Sometimes she just stars towards the camera and makes odd faces ('is she constipated?' was my first thought when she started doing this). Other times she just looked perplexed. At no point did she act as if she was a real honest to goodness person! I also loved when one of her attacks came on and the tiger in the cage instinctively KNEW she was evil and acted accordingly!! I think this movie would have been 100 times better if instead of Thaxter the film had starred Divine...and had deliberately been a camp classic! Instead, it's funny...but for none of the right reasons!

A diagnostic category of Multiple Personality still exists in the bible of psychiatry, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, but with a new, "scientific" sounding title: Dissociative Identity Disorder. Unlike any other category in that ponderous tome, the category has two pages of commentary attached to it, essentially saying that it is nonsense.

The idea of a dual personality became rife in Hollywood plots around the time that this movie came out. It was an easy plot gimmick until it was done to death. The idea of multiple personalities became popular forty years later, in entertainment vehicles as well as some outlier areas of psychiatry. A considerable amount of harm was done as naive therapists took this idea seriously.

The movie itself is a minor vehicle with a simplistic plot. It is likely to be entertaining only to those who have not seen the multitude of better dual personality films which followed it. The voice of the evil personality is by Audrey Totter , who always did the bad, bad girl very well. Too bad she doesn't appear in the flesh to add a sultry, dark tone to this movie. It would have helped.

This is a bold film for its time because it tackles mental illness head on - in this case multiple personality syndrome. Thaxter is quite good as the sweet young girl occasionally taken over by the evil Karin (voiced brilliantly by Audrey Totter). Unfortunately the director takes it all far too seriously, and his constant cut-aways to grim or shocked reaction shots becomes comical. You really feel for the actors. Thank God for the wonderful Edmund Gwenn, who is the only actor who makes the material almost believable. And what a great psychiatrist he is - he can cure multiple personality syndrome in a matter of seconds, just by talking sternly to the evil side! Some nice visual moments and the uniqueness of the material make this film worth a look.

The writers of this movie get psychological disorders mixed up. Multiple personality or Disassociative Identity Disorder is completely separate and different from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a thoroughly well-documented, scientific disorder. The majority of psychiatrists and psychologists do not believe that there is anything substantive or scientific about multiple personality disorder -- it sounds and looks "sexy" to the non-professional, but in every case has been shown to be mimicked by a person under the control of someone who tells them they suffer from this purported malady. Movies like this do a disservice to the public by providing inaccurate scientific advice concerning important psychological disorders.

If you're in the mood for one of those very short, old, B-pictures to have on in the background while you're making dinner or finishing up some paperwork, you can try out the obscure Bewitched. No, it has nothing to do with the Frank Sinatra standard. Instead, it's a thriller starring Phyllis Thaxter as a woman who hears voices. She starts off as a happy fiancé to Henry Daniels Jr., but there's an evil voice in her head tormenting her. As the voices get worse and worse, she runs away and tries to start fresh. But will her new romance with Stephen McNally be enough to cure her mental problems?

Easily imaginable as a short magazine article or a thin paperback novel with an outrageous drawing on the cover, the film could have been titled "The Voice In My Head" or "She Made Me Do It!" It's very melodramatic, and while you could feel sorry for the actors who were assigned to it by the studio, you could also just take it for what it is: an hour-long B-picture that was most likely a double feature. It won't harm anyone, but it's also not really worth anyone's time.

"A story that dares to look into the dark corners of a girl's mind." LOL You know its going to be good.

Well for a 1945 early American film noir thriller, given a low budget (inexplicable considering it was released by MGM), the film succeeds on every level. Great performances, great direction, with much of its success thanks to the directors success with radio productions.

Is the film based to some degree on schizophrenia, equipped with the latest on research on mental disease?? Of course not. It's a fast-paced, clocks in just over an hour leaving your wanting more, psychological thriller that is simply fun. I compare it to Kenneth Branagh's "DEAD AGAIN" to give you an idea.

When I saw this excellent little B thriller, I could not prevent me to think of THREE FACES OF EVE, the Nunnaly Johnson's masterpiece. Very close plot, topic, but this one is unfortunately unknown, underrated, except maybe for the die hard moviegoers. It is a Metro Goldwyn Mayer's movie - at least for the release - and the lead character played by Phillis Thaxter is absolutely perfect in this very difficult role of this young woman suffering of a multiple personality disorder. But both features are quite different though, this one is more eerie and less complex in the psychological, psychoanalytic than the movie starring Joanne Woodward. Arch Oboler leaves here his trade mark, making something different, offbeat. A cute little gem.