The Search for Bridey Murphy

The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956)

This isn't quite a normal narrative movie but a re-enactment of some true events surrounding hypnosis and supposed past life regression. And it's quite fascinating on some level, for the facts and the possibilities, and it's quite dull on another level, filled with narration and some repetitive scenes and a slow pace. In fact, as good as it is in some ways, it might have made a brilliant half hour short.

Not to take away from the singular performance of Teresa Wright. She's the subject and object all at once, and she makes a lot out of nothing (lying down on the couch most of the time). She makes the subtleties of "reading" have meaning, with slight differences of accent, and a tone of voice that is really convincing. The rest of the cast? Serviceable. There wasn't a huge effort put into making this movie, or making it interesting.

The one inventive aspect is some slightly cheesy cloudy scenes that are meant to be transporting the viewer through the subject's thoughts. It works fine. When it gets to the cosmos (stars), you do wish there had been some attempt to keep up with the audience. It's a congenial movie, and everyone has a terrific upper middle class attitude, which is pleasant.

Some research after the book was published and after the movie as well, has shown some problems with the facts, and some alternate reasons why the subject would be able to invent (or recall) in great detail (including the dance). A better movie might have layered some of the doubts into the apparent wonder and marvel of the actual hypnotic events.

So, actually, this isn't really recommended as a movie experience, but as a way to learn about the subject. It's certainly clear and plain speaking.

The Search For Bridey Murphy was a best selling book and sparked a lot of interest in reincarnation when it came out in the middle 50s of the last century. As for Bridey Murphy herself whether she was real or something out of the mind of Ruth Simmons the questions still remain.

Louis Hayward plays Morry Bernstein and narrates the film as well. I'm having a bit of trouble believing that one could teach one self the art of hypnosis. Still Hayward becomes interested in the art and devours all he could on the subject.

His neighbor Kenneth Tobey's wife Teresa Wright seems to be an apt pupil for hypnosis. As Ruth Simmons regresses she goes beyond her childhood back into the lives of others. But the one she constantly refers to is that of Bridey Murphy whom she says lived on earth from 1798 to 1864 in a few places in Ireland.

In real life a lot of investigation is done and some parts of the Bridey Murphy for which Ruth Simmons seem to have a particular attachment for that life. Some things were proved, some were not, her case remains open to speculation. Bernstein made a fortune off the book, Simmons wanted to fade into obscurity, she didn't like celebrity focus and eventually she got it.

The characters here are your average middle Americans of the Eisenhower era and besides those mentioned Nancy Gates does well as Mrs. Bernstein.

Watch the film and read up on Bridey Murphy and come to your own conclusions.

Odd structured film has Louis Hayward start out talking to the viewing audience as though he's introducing a TV play, but then he walks onto the set of the story, a cocktail party in 1956 Pueblo, Colorado.

Morey Bernstein (Hayward) is at a boring party where a visiting blowhard is doing parlor tricks by hypnotizing guests. Bernstein thinks it's stupid but his interest in piqued and he investigates hypnosis after being told the stories about Edgar Cayce.

He learns how to do it and starts investigating the phenomenon of hypnosis. One night Ruth Simmons (Teresa Wright) is at a party and lets him put her under. The room is stunned when Ruth seems to regress to a past life where she was the young Bridey Murphy in 1800s Ireland.

Bernstein tapes the session as Wright tells stories full of specific detail about places she's never been to. In a series of taped sessions, Wrights elaborates on the story of Bridey and even talks about her life after death, spooking everyone.

The film uses transcripts of the actual tapes from the real-life sessions Bernstein taped with the real-life Ruth (Virginia Tighe) in Pueblo. His resulting book was a sensation although it was condemned by several churches as it seemed to "prove" the ideas of reincarnation and post-death experiences.

The film basically presents the facts of the sessions and lets the viewer draw his own conclusions.

Wright gives a superb performance, but Hayward is very hammy and rather obnoxious. Co-stars include Nancy Gates as the wife, Kenneth Tobey as the husband, Richard Anderson as a doctor, and in the regression scenes, silent stars James Kirkwood, Hallene Hill, and Anne Cornwall.

Very interesting.

Even though the movie "The search for Bridey Murphy" has been noted back in the 1950's and up to now to be a story about reincarnation and if it is or is not a fact the film is really about hypnotism and hypnotherapy.

Mostly the movie is about a Pueblo Colorado housewife Ruth Simmons, Teresa White, being regressed in time by hypnotist Morey Bernstein, Louis Hayward. At first to where Ruth was a little girl to where she's regressed back to the life that she lead before she was born as Ruth Simmons in 1923 as a Irish Protestant woman named Bridey Murphy who lived from 1798 to 1864 in Cork County and later, when she was married, in Belfast Ireland.

The film makers didn't really seem to know how to handle the story and in the end opted out for the use of hypnosis in curing illnesses that are beyond the reach of modern medicine and seemed to have completely forgot about the facts or follies of reincarnation. It seems to me that the subject was a little too hot for those who made the movie to handle at that time and dropped it altogether by the end of the film.

What really frustrated me about "The search for Bridey Murphy" was that the film had Morey Bernstein get information out of Ruth Simmons while she was under hypnosis about her life back in Ireland in the 19th century. This was to see if she was truthful about what she told him since there was no why she could have known about her life as Bridey Murphy back then unless what she said was true. Still we never knew if any of that information that he got from Ruth ever checked out or not thus proving or disproving, at least in the movie, if reincarnation is a reality or just another old wives tale.

Another thing that the film "The search for Bridey Murphy" did was introduce many people to the life and works of the late "Sleeping Prophet" Edgar Cayce. Cayce was noted for his belief in reincarnation and was said to have cured, by putting himself under hypnosis, over 2,000 people by finding out what was ailing them through the illnesses that they had in their past lives. Which Cayce in his sleeping state could interpret.

Still the movie is interesting and with hundreds of books written about past-life regression and reincarnation over the last fifty or so years since the movie and book "The search for Bridey Murphy" was released. Which shows that the subject of re-birth is more then ever on the minds of millions of people here in the US and in Europe. As well as in the Orient India and many other cultures in the world where it's, reincarnation, considered by many millions of people to be an irrefutable fact of life as well as death.

I saw this film once late at night (or early in the morning) on television when I was in High School. One thing that struck me about this film that was different to so many others was its ability to captivate me even at that hour, which is generally the type of braindead time usually reserved only for the watching of 'Beavis and Butthead Do America' or 'Dude Where's My Car?'. The fact that at two in the morning ANY film could have a riveting story line absolutely amazed me.

While 'The Search for Bridey Murphy' is largely a fantasy, it is a very interesting one and the end leaves you wanting more. I urge anybody and everybody to search for 'The Search for Bridey Murphy' at all their local video stores. It is definitely worth a watch.