{"id":2922,"date":"2012-06-13T11:00:49","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2922"},"modified":"2012-06-13T11:00:49","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T11:00:49","slug":"witch-without-a-broom-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/reviews\/witch-without-a-broom-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Witch Without a Broom – Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Witch<\/a>
Witch Without a Broom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aka Una bruja sin escoba
\n1967
\nSpain \/ USA
\nProduced by Sidney Pink for A Lacy Internacional Films, SA (Spain) and Cinemagic (USA) production
\nDirector: Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Elorrieta
\nStory & screenplay: Jos\u00e9 Luis Elorrieta, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Navarro
\nCinematography: Alfonso Nieva
\nMusic: Fernando Garc\u00eda Morcillo
\nEditor : Juan Mar\u00eda Pis\u00f3n (Spanish version), John Horvath (US version)
\nSpanish release date: 12\/02\/68 (Valencia)
\nCast: Jeffrey Hunter (Carver Logan<\/em>), Maria Perschy (Marianna<\/em>), Gustavo Rojo (Caius<\/em>), Perla Cristal (Octavio<\/em>), Reginald Gillam (Don Ignacio<\/em>), Al Muloc [Al Mulock] (Wurlitz the Wizard<\/em>), Carl Rapp (the slave merchant<\/em>), John Clark (a chariot master<\/em>), Gillian Simpson, May Johnson, Lewis [Luis] Gordon, Susan Talbot,\u00a0Marisol Ayuso, Frank Bra\u00f1a (Don Ignacio\u2019s man<\/em>), Paloma Cela, H\u00e9rculs Cort\u00e9s (a caveman<\/em>), F\u00e9lix Dafauce (Necio<\/em>), Alfonso de la Vega (a Roman legionary<\/em>), Laura Gimeno, Doris Kent, Pilar Laguna, \u00c1ngel Men\u00e9ndez (Dr. Martinez<\/em>), Jos\u00e9 Moralez, Cristina Mu\u00f1oz, Julio P\u00e9rez Tabernero, Esperanza Roy (Valeria<\/em>), Elena Rub\u00ed<\/p>\n

This was one of several films made in Spain by the charismatic producer Sidney Pink.\u00a0 Intended for showing on US television rather than domestically on\u00a0the big screen, they all featured a US \/ British leading man, a familiar cast of Spanish character actors (Gustavo Rojo, Angel Men\u00e9ndez) and lightweight, generally forgettable scripts.\u00a0 In this case, the director was Jos\u00e9 Maria Elorietta, a workaday filmmaker who dabbled in a variety of genres, often using the pseudonym Joe Lacey.\u00a0 He also worked with Pink on the crime thriller Candidate for a Killing<\/strong> (Un sudario a la medida, 69<\/em>) and medieval adventure Sharaz<\/strong> (La esclava del para\u00edso, 68<\/em>)<\/p>\n

History professor Garver Logan (Jeffrey Hunter) is distracted by a beautiful girl making eyes at him during a lecture.\u00a0 A beautiful girl who nobody else can see.\u00a0 It turns out that she\u2019s actually Marianna (Maria Perschy), a wannabe witch from the middle ages who\u2019s playing around with her wizard father\u2019s equipment (and who has a penchant for Coca-Cola).\u00a0 While taking a quick trip to the twentieth century, she\u2019s fallen for the Professor and tries to bring him back into her own time.<\/p>\n

After a short distraction \u2013 a temporary stopover in 1549 where he\u2019s arrested for robbing the dead and threatened with painful execution \u2013 he arrives at her castle, understandably peeved about the whole thing.\u00a0 And he doesn\u2019t get any happier when she uses her magic cauldron to show him his girlfriend dancing with another man.\u00a0 An attempt to return him to the swinging sixties goes dreadfully wrong and Marianna and Garver are transported to assorted periods throughout history.<\/p>\n

First stop is the prehistoric age, where they come up against a bunch of cannibalistic cavemen (who somehow manage to play sixties-era psychedelic music on their stone instruments).\u00a0 In Roman times Garver is sold as a slave and forced to take part in a chariot race.\u00a0 Finally, he ends up in 2019, when the whole human race has been wiped out apart from seven female astronauts.\u00a0 They\u2019re rather excited to come face to face with their first authentic man.<\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/a>
Maria Perschy and Jeffrey Hunter in Witch Without a Broom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An amalgamation of Bewitched <\/strong>(64), I Dream of Jeannie <\/strong>(65) <\/strong>and The Time Tunnel <\/strong>(66), Witch Without a Broom <\/strong>is a mildly entertaining piece of nonsense that uses it\u2019s time-travel scenario to reference assorted popular films of the time, most particularly One Million Years BC <\/strong>(66) and Ben Hur<\/strong> (59).\u00a0 The effects are rudimentary (red smoke, mostly), but there\u2019s a large cast and the costumes – some of which must have been recycled from the aforementioned Sharaz –\u00a0<\/strong>aren\u2019t noticeably threadbare.\u00a0 It\u2019s also mercifully short at a meager 79 odd-minutes and doesn\u2019t have the slightest chance of outliving its welcome.<\/p>\n

Despite unquestionably being a children\u2019s movie it also has a few racier elements as well.\u00a0 The story is basically the same, whatever the historical backdrop, with the men wanting to rip off Marianna\u2019s clothes and women trying to tempt Garver into their \u2018bedchambers\u2019.\u00a0 This could have been used as the launch-pad for all kinds of saucy shenanigans, but although there is a good deal of humor it\u2019s all played in such a chaste manner that it\u2019s more suited to a Saturday morning rather than late night broadcast.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Hunter, best known for his much derided performance in the even more derided King of Kings <\/strong>(61), is good value here.\u00a0 He seems to be enjoying himself as the thoroughly bemused lead who continually tries \u2013 without any success whatsoever \u2013 to talk himself out of all kinds of trouble.\u00a0\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t his only attempt to break into European cinema; he also appeared in Giuliano Carnimeo\u2019s above average Spaghetti Western Find a Place to Die <\/strong>(Joe\u2026 cercati un posto per morire!, 68) <\/em>and another Pink escapade, The Christmas Kid <\/strong>(Joe Navidad, 67<\/em>).\u00a0 Maria Perschy is very attractive as the titular witch, and puts on a spirited show even when being pawed by one of the fattest, ugliest cavemen you could imagine.\u00a0 Her father is played by Al Mulock, the striking looking Canadian who popped up in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly <\/strong>(Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, 66<\/em>) – <\/strong>as a one armed bounty hunter – and Once Upon a Time in the West <\/strong>(C\u2019era una volt ail West, 68<\/em>), during the filming of which he committed suicide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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