Witches' Brew

This was a successful scary but funny flick for kids between 8 and 14 years of age. Teri Garr is an excellent actress. If there was ever a Bewitched character to replace Montgomery, Garr would have been perfect. This film is something to remember, is funny, and in its time, it was fun to watch. Today's movies, sure, somebody rents it and of course it's cheesy. Check out Rocky 1. Check out Star Wars 1. Great movies then, but today, they play like a radio on while you focus on fixing the car out in the garage or cutting the lawn. This movie is fun and I give it 6 out of 10. It is a classic to slapstick horror. The other characters in the movie are interesting.

Three modern-day housewives casually use witchcraft to further their husbands' careers. Only one of the couples, Teri Garr and Richard Benjamin, are nicely-matched (brightly-zonked Garr can make any screen-partner look good), but this sloppy comedic rendering of 1944's "Weird Woman" (and its popular remake, 1962's "Burn, Witch, Burn") had a troubled production that shows its seams on-screen. Poorly written, directed, photographed and edited, the film served as the final bow for actress Lana Turner (in a throwaway role as sort of a matriarch witch) and should be justly forgotten. NO STARS from ****

My review was written in January 1985 after watching the film on Showtime.

"Witches' Brew", a/k/a "Which Witch is Which?" is a comedy about witchcraft filmed in 1978, revamped years later by film doctor Herbert L. Strock and finally surfacing on pay-cable after having been shelved for theatrical release and subjected to litigation. Review here is for the record.

An impressive toplined cast is trapped in this amateurish production, revolving around the sitcom premise (in the vein of the "Bewitched" tv series) of housewife Margaret (Teri Garr) helping her college psychology prof hubby Joshua (Richard Benjamin) get ahead via witchcraft. His luck changes for the worse when she lifts all her benevolent spells, after Joshua marks her aid.

Key point of historical interest is that "Brew" relies upon exactly the same premise employed years later in Carl Reiner's Steve Martin hit "All of Me": wicked witch Vivian (Lana Turner) is ailing, but contrives to shift her soul into pupil Margaret's body having willed her fortune to "Margaret". Even the differing mirror image gimmick is trotted out here.

Garr and Benjamin make a comfortable team, but entire cast is hurt by poor sound recording, unfunny dialog ("Bat jowls" is frequently repeated for supposed sure-fire laughs) and terrible continuity.

I stumbled across this movie on cable and watched for a while, thinking with Benjamin and Garr it wouldn't be a complete waste of time. Wrong! To compound the disappointment of wooden performances, I eventually realized the plot was lifted right out of Fritz Leiber's "Conjure Wife" -- a wonderful horror tale set in academia. If you go for horror and/or "weird tales", find the book (and read Leiber's "Our Lady of Darkness" while you're at it -- it's better). But forget this movie. Closest video approximation to the tone of Leiber's work is the Night Gallery episode, "The Dead Man". A student of Lovecraft, Leiber is one of the true greats in weird fiction.

The only reasons I watched "Witches' Brew" is that it is Lana Turner's last film and it was free to watch on YouTube. It turned out to be a strange but watchable movie...but a really weird film for Turner (who is 59, though she appears to be about 70).

A group of women have a strange 'hobby'. They've been practicing witchcraft in order to help their husbands' careers at the nearby university. One of them learns about this and it's not surprising that Professor Lightman (Richard Benjamin) is upset at his wife's behaviors...especially since he's a psychology professor. So, his wife (Teri Garr) wants to teach him a lesson and she removes all her charms on him...and soon his life starts falling apart. But the problem is MUCH worse than either anticipate, as the leader of this coven (Turner) is intent on doing something very evil. What? Watch the film.

This is a decent time-passer, though I wish they'd either chosen to make it much more serious or more of a comedy. Instead, it's a bit of both and could have been better. The ending is also really, really cheesy. Still, it's a one of a kind sort of movie and if you're looking for something different, it is very, very different.