20 best film witches of all time
Flora and Tansy (Night of the Eagle)
This 1962 British-American horror film probably didn’t pop into your mind when you thought of “best movie witches”. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting entry and one worth at least a couple of minutes of your thought.
The film begins with psychology professor Norman Taylor. Norman, I’m sorry to report, is a bit of a grump, or at least when it comes to superstition. It’s all bunk, says Norman.
Quickly enough, though, he realizes that his own wife, Tansy (Janet Blair), is a practicing witch. Having grown up in Jamaica, Tansy has learned obeah, which the movie refers to as “conjure magic”. Norman goes all cranky-pants upon discovering this, though Tansy claims that her charms are responsible for his healthy academic career. Still unbelieving, Norman forces her to burn all of her magical paraphernalia.
Bad move, Norman. You see, it turns out your wife was right. Almost immediately, bad things begin to happen for Mr. Rational. A female student accuses him of assault, he’s threatened with violence, and someone tries to break into his own home.
Though Norman starts to think that maybe he should have accepted his wife’s practices, things don’t end here with a tearful reconciliation. Tansy, in a trance, tries to attack him with a knife. Norman overpowers her, but her temporary trance-induced limp points to the real culprit: Flora Carr.
Flora is a university secretary and the wife of Lindsay Carr, another professor whose career has stalled thanks to Norman’s meteoric rise. Rather than be cold to the Taylors at academic receptions, Flora has turned to witchcraft. She goes so far as to hypnotize Norman via loudspeaker, nearly convincing him that a large stone eagle has come to life with the desire to attack him. That same eagle, however, will have very different designs on Flora herself.