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Bewitched

1945, Movie, NR, 65 mins

Bewitched: Review

Intended as a low-budget B film, Arch Oboler's startling "Alter Ego" was his first directorial opus, and he turned it into a classy chiller, retitled BEWITCHED. (Obelor had for years been transfixing radio audiences with his scary "Lights Out.") Thaxter is the schizophrenic killer, a woman with a second, deadly personality, who is examined by psychiatrist Gwenn on the eve of her execution. She has murdered her boy friend. Under hypnosis, the crime is relived in flashback, and an evil personality called Karen (whose voice is wonderfully rendered by Totter) is chillingly shown to lurk inside the woman. Other flashbacks show how her devoted friend McNally saves her in court only to have the good personality erupt screaming, "I did kill him!" The struggle between the two personalities is absolutely fascinating as Thaxter gives the performance of her life. A terrific little chiller predating by a dozen years the multiple personality films THE THREE FACES OF EVE and LIZZIE. Kaper's eerie and arresting score is a cold hand at the back of the neck.