An Exercise In Nonsense

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Feeling uneasy with her surroundings and the community at large, Lorna Webster (Nancy Kelly) had fled her hometown of Eben Rock, Massachusetts years earlier with no explanation to anyone. On her trip back to town - presumably to be reunited with her former love Dr. Matt Adams (John Loder) - the bus she's riding on pulls over to pick up an old woman (Elspeth Dudgeon) dressed in black and walking a dog. The woman takes a seat next to Lorna and immediately begins acting strangely. She somehow knows her name and claims to have known Lorna's great great great grandfather who's been dead for hundreds of years. Suddenly the old lady cackles and the bus goes crashing over some railing into a lake. The driver and all of the passengers die; everyone except for Lorna, who makes her way to a local inn wet, confused and delirious. Seeing how no old woman's body is ever recovered from the accident site, no one believes her story. And then a series of strange and possibly supernatural events occur...Lorna has a fondness for the dark, envisions the face of the witch in a mirror, causes fresh flowers to wilt, accidentally feeds a little girl's pet goldfish rat poison, drives away her maid (Almira Sessions) with her screaming and has no clue why the dead bus driver's neck appears to have been chewed away by an animal. She is however fully aware that she's a descendant of witch-hunting fanatic Elijah Webster, who was responsible for condemning eighteen innocent women to death for witchcraft back in 1645. Among his victims was an old woman named Jezebel Trister, who vowed to get revenge on Elijah's descendants. Rumor has it, Jezebel also made a deal with the devil which will allow her to possess the body of a young woman after three centuries of rest. The citizens of Eben Rock are well-versed on these legends and begin to suspect that Lorna is evil and directly responsible for misfortunes that have recently been befalling their community.This is a good movie that could have been a great movie with just a few alterations to the script. Kelly does a wonderful job in the central role; effectively portraying the ever-increasing paranoia and desperation of her character. There are also fine supporting performances from Otto Kruger as a reverend who tries to discourage the townspeople from ganging up on Lorna, Ruth Ford as Matt's distrustful sister who blames Lorna when her little daughter comes down with a mysterious illness, Harry Tyler as a town gossip and others. In addition, this is well-photographed and there are nice visual touches that recall the subtle expressionism of concurrent Val Lewton productions; utilizing tranquil shots of the sky and the lake, shadows and other simple touches for eerie effect.Where the film falters a bit is with the screenplay. It presents an intelligent and thought-provoking central idea: contrasting the "narrow bigotry" of the olden days to our supposedly more civilized, enlightened times and showing how people are still easily prone to mob mentality and rushed judgment. That's a theme every bit as timely today as it was in 1945. Unfortunately, the explanation behind the events given during the last few minutes relies too heavily on sheer coincidence and is implausible at best, ridiculous at worst. Regardless, this still has enough positives to make it worth watching.WOMAN is also notable in another way. There were several dozen other horror films bankrolled by the likes of MGM, Fox, Universal, RKO, Monogram and Republic in 1945, but WOMAN was made by Walter Colmes Productions, which would make it the only truly independent genre film made apart from the established studios during its year (though it was later picked up and distributed by Republic). As a result, the film utilizes more outdoor filming and feels a bit less stagy than other films made during this time.

In the little-seen 1945 chiller "Woman Who Came Back" (not, strangely and irritatingly enough, "THE Woman Who Came Back"), we meet a very disturbed young lady, Lorna Webster (played by Nancy Kelly, perhaps known to most viewers for her role in 1956's "The Bad Seed," and here looking very much like Joan Crawford in "Mildred Pierce"). Returning to her hometown of Eben Rock, MA (a stand-in for Salem) for the first time in years, she meets an evil-looking old crone on the bus, who claims to be Jezebel Trister, a supposed witch who had been burnt at the stake by Lorna's ancestor 300 years before. Following a series of increasingly suspicious incidents involving a bus crash, some dead flowers, rat poison, a burning book, a canine "familiar" and a sickened young girl, Lorna comes to believe that she has been possessed by the old witch...and so does the rest of the town. But has she really? This short film (it all transpires in only 68 minutes) has been directed by Walter Colmes (I know...who?) in a pleasing, atmospheric manner. It is occasionally creepy and brooding, but sadly dissipates a terrific setup with a forced and mundane explanation for all the frissons that had come before. Still, the picture serves as a nice object lesson on the perils of superstition and paranoia. Had it been made just five years later, it would have been read as a biting commentary on McCarthyism, and the modern-day witch hunt that the Wisconsin senator would then be initiating. As it is, the film comes off like an ominous predictor of America's future. Kudos to the wonderful character actor Otto Kruger, here playing a levelheaded reverend, as well as to John Loder, in his role as Lorna's increasingly frustrated doctor fiancé. In all, this is a pleasing little film that will certainly disappoint many, but one that still offers up an important message. And it appears just fine, too, on this crisp-looking Image DVD.

THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK (1945)Kind of a seldom-seen movie. I saw it a long time ago and forgot how boring it was. An old hag of a witch who was burned at the stake 300 years earlier returns to take over the body of a young woman. The catch is, her great-something grandpa was actually the judge who condemned the witch!Too bad the movie crawls along at a snail's pace, because it's got a good premise and a strong opening. But unfortunately, this thing just gets hopelessly tedious as it trots along.* out of ****

The Woman Who Came Back is a largely unknown little forties horror film; but it's a rather good one also. The film focuses on witchcraft, and in particular the idea of a witch coming back to avenge her death. This idea would of course go on to be used in many, many films after 1945; but this is one of the earlier examples. The Woman Who Came Back is an eerie horror film that mostly relies on its atmosphere and inventiveness in order to deliver the chills, and this works quite effectively. The plot focuses on a young woman named Lorna Webster who catches a bus back home to Eben Rock. She finds herself sitting next to a cackling old woman, and before she knows it; the bus has been involved in an accident and Lorna is the only survivor. She then goes back to her old house and is reacquainted with her old lover; but she's haunted by the old woman on the bus who told Lorna of an old town legend regarding a witch that swore vengeance on her executioner. One thing leads to another, and Lorna comes to believe she is the reincarnation of that witch...The film is very short at just sixty eight minutes, but this time is used very well and the film doesn't feel rushed or underdone for most of the duration. The plot flows very well too and director Walter Colmes keeps his audience interested by constantly feeding us with new ideas and pieces of information. There isn't a great deal of films about witchcraft (compared to other subgenres) and that's a shame really because it certainly is very interesting. This film manages to get most of things that most people would associate with witchcraft into it; including spells and the witch's familiar, which helps to make the proceedings more interesting. The performances are all very strong; with Nancy Kelly giving a particularly convincing performance in the central role. It's the atmosphere that is the real star, however, and a sequence midway through with a storm is a real standout. The film is good for about the first hour but unfortunately it's let down more than just a little bit by the ending; which does wrap things up a bit too quickly. However, this is still a very good little film and one that I'm sure will please most people with a mind to see it.