The film takes place in the village of Salem, Massachusetts during the famous witch trials of 1692. I have just seen Bonita Granville in a comedy from 1937 ("It's love I'm After") in which she plays an annoying brat of a child. Here she goes a step further and turns evil! She starts the ball rolling as she accuses a black servant Madame Sul-Te-Wan (Tituba) of being a witch in revenge for having a book that she had stolen from her strict father about witchcraft confiscated. Hysteria takes over and so-called witches are hung. Set against this, we have a romance being played out between Claudette Colbert (Barbara) and Fred MacMurray (Roger) who puts on a dodgy Irish accent. We soon have the finger of accusation pointed at Colbert...
It is staggering that this situation was allowed to develop. And all because of religious intolerance. It is also mind-blowing to think that all of this is also partly down to adults believing children. Even today, children are given precedence over adults in everything we do - entertainment at fetes is usually centred around children's activities (nothing for adults to do), pubs put up bouncy castles so they can be child-friendly (how about having no children and being adult-friendly), schools no longer have any discipline over kids and are not allowed to hit them anymore and police can't do anything but soak it up if a kid taunts them. We need to develop a society that looks after its adults first. Then, when children grow up, they can have the respect due them.
We must avoid the path where society adopts a child's word as sacrosanct. We are already allowing laws whereby they can change their gender at a very young age. What a load of nonsense. We are only a step away from the Salem Witch Trials part 2. "Children should be seen not heard" - that was the oft used quote when I was younger. Quite right.
