Greetings gentle reader, welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a supernatural thriller, Necromancy, starring a corpulent Orson Welles.
Reviews:
Horror News says:
On the plus side Orson Welles is given some juicy monologues that offer a taste of his faded glory. Don’t forget, this was the man who terrified an entire nation with his War of the Worlds radio play and revolutionized filmmaking with Citizen Kane. His reward was having his reputation tarnished by a vengeful William Randolph Hearst (the real life Citizen Kane) and intense studio meddling on his later films. Welles was the Nicola Tesla of cinema— a man out of time, appreciated more after his death.
We also get a nice performance from Pamela Franklin. After her childhood debut in the classic ghost tale The Innocents (1961) Franklin became a horror film staple. Some of her genre highlights include And Soon the Darkness (1970) and The Legend of Hell House (1973). Necromancy includes her only onscreen nudity, so there’s some reason to endure the rest of the film. Franklin actually met her future husband Harvey Jason on this film, which according to her bio was “the only good that came from it.” But despite her dislike of Necromancy Franklin reunited with director Bert I. Gordon for his rampaging rodent romp Food of the Gods (1976).
Senseless Cinema says:
I must admit to an oversight here on Senseless Cinema, and that oversight is the lack of coverage of the truly excellent cinematic work of the famous director Bert I. Gordon. The oversight will now be corrected with a discussion of one of his finest works, 1972’s Necromancy (aka The Witching), starring Orson Welles.
As usual, not all of your universe’s critics recognize the quality of Mr. Gordon’s masterwork. For example, cfc_can writes that the director “seems to be deliberately trying to confuse the audience by using flashbacks and dream sequences.” Reviewer lucyskydiamonds writes, “This movie is so inherently awful it’s difficult to know what to criticise first.” And reviewer BaronBl00d writes, “This is not a good movie in any way under any name.” Needless to say, these three reviewers and countless others are misguided and incorrect, so let us proceed on a tour of the cinematic wonders of Bert I. Gordon’s Necromancy…
Letterboxd says:
I can say the stories not bad. I like it. It’s not the best story. It doesn’t even have the best acting in it. But with that said, I do think that the girlfriend is the most annoying character I’ve seen in a movie in quite some time. But then again I’ve seen so many ladies just like her. Aggressively annoying. Either way, I’m having one hell of a time just trying watching this. I put it on. That I feel myself wanting to go to sleep. I think iced tea has the reverse effect on me. Either way. I’ve had to get back several times and rewatch the same scene. Because I can’t remember how I got to the next one. I think this just scenes missing from this movie. Or there’s plot holes throughout the script. Like they went to the witches coven meeting. Then just went home I guess. So she could read the brimoire (sic). Then went to sleep. Woke up and saw the little boy. Then went looking for him and got locked out of the house. Where was the boyfriend? He wasn’t in the room while she was reading the book. He wasn’t in the bed with her while she was sleeping. Maybe they cut a scene where you said he had to go somewhere. Maybe this was all a dream. I don’t know. I’m having trouble following the flow of the story. I’m trying to watch this as just stuff happening. But I keep noticing random things like that. So apparently she’s supposed to sacrifice her life for Orson Welles’s son. Well that doesn’t really make any sense. As in his son been dead for a while. So you’re going to bring the rotting corpse of your son back to life? I could see if he just died. I don’t know.
My take:
A fun little movie if you don’t take it too seriously. It was horribly edited and jumps from scenario to scenario without warning. Orson Welles does a good job as the coven leader but his is the zenith of the acting you’ll find in it. It’s definitely not scary. I’m glad I watched it but that will be the only time I do.
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Writer: Bert I. Gordon, Gail March
Notable actors: Orson Welles, Pamela Franklin
Plot (Spoilers!):
Lori Brandon, trying to recover from a stillbirth, is preparing to move to California with her husband Frank. He has just landed a job at a toy factory there. On their way to the town of Lilith, they almost run head-on into an oncoming car that swerves away at the last second and runs off a cliff. Per standard movie protocol, the car explodes. Lori runs to the crash only to find a strange doll that has been flung from the car. They will learn later that the driver of the car was attempting to escape Lilith.
Driving off, they soon run out of gas and her husband has to walk to town for fuel. As she waits, she wanders to a hilltop where she has a vision of a strange funeral. Frank returns and they continue on their way.
When they get to Lilith, the pair have dinner with Frank’s new boss Mr. Cato (Welles). Mr. Cato explains that Frank will be working at his toy company. He also gives Lori a present, a witch’s grimoire.
Lori senses there is something strange about this town and her suspicions are soon confirmed when she learns that Mr. Cato and his employees, who are also the town’s inhabitants, are all witches. Mr. Cato explains to her that he seeks the power of necromancy in order to raise his dead son. She will play a crucial role in this.
The witches attempt to get Lori and Frank to join their coven. Lori refuses. She has also been seeing an apparition of a young boy around town and in her home. She is terrified and wants to get the hell out of Lilith.
One of the town’s women calls Lori and tells her she wants to leave Lilith with her. When Lori arrives at their rendezvous spot, she finds the woman dead in a creek. Then the hallucinations begin, culminating in her at the strange funeral being lowered into the grave in place of the revivified boy.
Suddenly Lori wakes up in her own bed, in the home they lived in before they moved to Lilith. She is screaming in fear. Frank comforts her but as they prepare to leave for Lilith a phone call makes her realize her nightmare is actually going to take place.
Pauline Kael’s long ago sixties essay on Welles.
https://newrepublic.com/article/89426/tnr-film-classics-falstaff-june-24-1967
It’s a bit of a gush and she would later have a falling out with Welles after her Citizen Kane Book made disputed claims about his contribution to Citizen Kane.
But surely she is right that some actors have the ability to command our attention almost effortlessly–unique and larger than life. One might also argue that the actors are the only thing that redeem many modern movies where the haphazard stories are uninspired. Not having see Necromancy I can’t speak to whether Orson does so there.
Both shlock director Bert I. Gordon and the great Welles were from Kenosha, Wisconsin. I’m thinking they must have at least bonded around that, and Welles had a heck of a sense of humor. I saw this in the 70s at a drive-in along with Food of the Gods, which actually had some scares, despite being generally awful. The 41 drive-in program director must have been a B-movie aficionado, because I don’t think anyone in that audience knew that both films had the same director.