This movie stars Vincent Price, was directed by Michael Reeves, and came out in 1968.

This movie is based on a real-life English witchfinder named Matthew Hopkins. He rode around the English countryside during the time of the civil wars (the British ones) finding witches and hanging them. He was unpleasant. So unpleasant that this classic horror film was made about him. Starring Vincent Price as him, no less.Even in his day there were folks that thought that maybe he was a fake, that maybe there were really no witches, that maybe he was just doing it because it was fun. Not only that, he was paid well. Seems people would just accuse folks that they were tired of, and besides the hangings (and burnings and trials) were great public entertainment. They had no movies in those days, no radio or TV even. So he writes a rebuttal to those folks, his answers to their doubts, which you can actually find at Project Gutenberg. It starts off with a bang-up quote, and reads like a horror story, except it’s the real deal:

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. EXOD. 22.18.

Michael Reeves is the Jimi Hendrix of British film. He makes a classic movie (in ‘68, no less) and then dies young of a drug overdose straight away.

There’s a lot of horse riding. One guy says in the documentary that this is a Western except it’s in the British countryside, which must be a reference to all the galloping around. Not only that, there’s the crowd watching the public hanging. It’s a violent flick in a Peckinpah-ish way. Peckinpah made violent movies at around the same time, causing the same stir. Violence like this hadn’t been shown in film before- this film was censored in the United Kingdom. It’s the graphic depiction of violence that gives the movie a modern edge, even though it was filmed over thirty years ago.

A s regards my last post about accents, there’s the Vincent Price addendum. Vincent Price is the only American actor that can star in a film full of Brits and get away with it. He’s at his creepy best here. His accent isn’t British, but it’s not American either. It’s just the way Vincent talks, all slimy-like. Co-starring is Ian Oglivy, who I’d never heard of but from the DVD documentary I learned was close friends with the director. (Usually I can take or leave DVD documentaries, but this one was interesting.) Oglivy plays a “coronet” in Oliver’s Army. Cromwell is portrayed eating dinner in one scene. I’m interested in the British Civil War, and plan to see Crowmwell.

Oglivy had the presence of mind to live through the ’60’s without dying of a drug overdose, and according to IMDB was in one episode of Baywatch in 1999, one episode of Babylon 5 in 1998, and one episode of Dharma & Greg in 2000. I was never able to sit through an entire episode of Dharma & Greg, although I tried once. I don’t know which is worse- to have died in the ’60’s of a drug overdose, or to have lived to be in one episode of Dharma & Greg. Oglivy needs a new agent.