City of the Dead (1960)

  • Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
  • Written by George Baxt, Milton Subotsky
  • Stars Patricia Jessel, Dennis Lotis, Christopher Lee
  • Run Time: 1 Hour, 16 Mnutes
  • Link: City of the Dead (1960)(https://amzn.to/3lIsQGP)

Synopsis

In 1692, the angry mob of pilgrims demand they bring out Elizabeth Selwyn. She’s a witch, and they demand to burn her. Jethrow Keane says he doesn’t know her, so they burn her to death as a witch. Jethrow calls on Lucifer to help her, and the sky gets dark. She laughs.

We fast forward to today, where Alan Driscoll tells the story about the Salem witch trials and burnings. Student Nan Barlow plans to go to New England to research the subject more thoroughly for her term paper. Driscoll tells her exactly where to go; to stay with Mrs. Newless. Her brother Richard argues with Driscoll over the reality of witchcraft. Nan’s boyfriend Bill thinks it’s all drivel too, and neither of them like Driscoll. Nan is dead-set on going, and she leaves for Whitewood.

She talks to an old man who warns her off from going to the town. She stops to give a ride to… Jethrow Keane, looking as young as ever. He vanishes once they get to the inn. She meets Lottie, the mute servant and Mrs. Newless, the proprietor. Newless looks exactly like Elizabeth Selwyn. Nan almost immediately discovers a secret passage in her room.

Newless and Keane discuss the upcoming festivities, and that the others have arrived. They clearly have some Satanic ritual in mind and Nan is going to be the guest of honor. The town seems to have Perma-Fog(tm) and numerous silent people wandering the town. Nan introduces herself to Reverend Russell who gives her a ridiculously vague and cryptic warning when he could have just explained everything.

Later that night, she hears people singing under her room through the trap door. Mrs. Newless says the basement was filled in decades ago. Lottie tries to warn Nan, but she gets run off by Newless. Nan reads all about a human sacrifice from back in 1692, not realizing that the others plan the same thing for her.

Around midnight, she sees thirteen black-hooded figures chanting in the cemetery. She goes down into the trapdoor into the darkness and then acts surprised when the hooded figures grab her and tie her down to an altar. Driscoll is one of them, and Newless/Selwyn stabs Nan.

We cut back to civilization, where someone asks Richard where Nan is. Bill comes looking for Nan as well; he hasn’t heard from her in two weeks. The police say Nan checked out two weeks ago. Richard goes to see Driscoll, who is in the middle of a bird sacrifice. Driscoll says she’s probably fine, she can take care of herself. Patricia, the bookseller from Whitewood (and granddaughter of the old priest), comes to town to talk to Richard about Nan.

On her way back, Patricia sees Jethrow on the road as well. “To see me is a special privilege,” he explains humbly. Richard finally sets off to Whitewood, but Bill follows in his own car. Bill, unfortunately, is run off the road by witches and staggers into the woods.

Richard talks to the old priest, who explains that the witches must sacrifice two young girls each year, and the second will be tonight. They will be coming for Patricia soon. She phones Richard, but it’s too late.

Richard hears the singing and goes down into the trap door as well. He encounters the witches and shoots them, but it doesn’t slow them down. The witches grab him, but he yells to Bill, who isn’t quite dead. Bill brings a cross from a grave closer to them, which starts shooting fire, which does burn the witches. Bill falls down dead, but Richard and Patricia get away. They run back to the inn to see that Mrs. Newless has died and looks pretty bad.

Commentary

They didn’t actually burn any witches in Salem, that all happened in England.

The first half of the film, with Nan, was pretty by-the-book, but in the second half, with Richard, things really grind to a halt. First, we see that witchcraft is real and the situation with Nan, then we have to go through Richard being convinced and going through the same things as well, which is… tedious.