Last night, Monsieur and I finally got a chance to kick back, relax, and watch "Maid Of Salem." Girls, I am telling you, you have GOT to see it--what a hoot!!!!!!!!!!! This 1937 Salem witchcraft drama, which is like a blueprint for Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," has everyone in it trying to out act the other.
Let us start with Bonita Granville as Ann Goode. She is SO nasty--snarling at one of the neighbors, stealing a book on witchcraft, which she malevolently reads aloud to the more impressionable village children, and, of course, her big set piece, where she pretends to have been "bewitched" by one of the witches in her village, and screams and writhes in hysteria!!!!!!!!! She is ahead of her time, girls; the whole thing plays like she is auditioning for the role of Regan in "The Exorcist," which had not even been written yet. Who knows; maybe Linda Blair used this as a blueprint in testing for the role????? I am telling you, if Bonita had been around, in the 70's, there is no doubt she would have been cast as Regan.
Oh, and you gotta see the scene, near the end, where Bonita kneels before her father, and repents. The way it is filmed, I am not sure if she was asking Daddy for forgiveness, or was going to give him head!!!!!!!!!! I hardly think the latter, but come on, girls, do any of you out there, who know a thing or two, believe that Bonita (at least her film persona) would ever repent???????? Come on!!!!!!!!!!!!
But you know, I just love Bonita, lambs!!!!!!! Ever since "These Three," she has been my role model!!!!!!! How can I forget the time my friend Doug and I were acting out, for my mother, in my living room, the big hysterical scene that ends Act Two of Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour?????????" I threw myself into it so passionately, my mother got hysterical herself, calling my father up on the phone, at work, asking him to come home saying, "I don't know what's going on; he's trying to be Bonita Granville, or something."
Oh, my poor mother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But there is more than Bonita. How about Virginia Weidler, as Nabby Goode, her younger sister, and wait till you get a load of Babs Nelson (sounds like the name of someone in a women's prison movie!!!!!!) as Baby Mercy Cheeves. Then there is Madame Sul-Te-Wan as Tituba--oh, my God!!!!!!!!! You want to tell some stories, darlings??????? Some of what I have on here would outdo Tituba!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The REAL witches, besides Bonita, are Beulah Bondi, as her mother, Abagail, and Gale Sondergaard (another natural) as Martha Harding, wife of the town doctor, who turns on poor Claudette Colbert, as Barbara Clark!!!!!!!!!!! But, then, Claudette causes quite a stir in the town, what with being the most cosmetically made up Puritan in the cast to start, wearing a flowery and provocative bonnet to Sunday service, and carrying on in the woods with a hot looking Fred MacMurray, a good three decades before he played Steve Douglas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait till you see Claudette, looking haggard in court, with long, flowing hair, and wait till you see her, when she faints, while about to be hanged at Gallows Tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With all this clamoring for dramatic attention, it is amazing how the director, Frank Lloyd, could keep his story in focus. But, then, he excelled at period drama, directing two Best Pictures--1935's "Mutiny On The Bounty," and 1933's "Cavalcade," which also featured Bonita Granville!!!!!!!!!!!!
How about Benny Bartlett, as Timothy Clark?????? What a nasty piece of work he is!!!!!!!!!!!! As bad as Bonita!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But you have to see the scene, where Beulah Bondi, (this was her big year, darlings, the year of "Make Way For Tomorrow!!!!!") as Abigail Goode, wife of Elder Goode, and mother of Bonita, tells Tituba she wants to be a witch!!!!!!!! She is tired of living this unfulfilled Puritan life, and she wants happiness!!!!!!!!! The scene where she sits in a rocking chair by the moonlight, and drinks herself into an alcoholic stupor is priceless!!!!!!!!!!!! Between Claudette and Bonita looking a bit glamorous, and Beulah drinking, there is no doubt they would not have lasted long in the Puritan community, anyway. Salem Witch scare, or not, their days were numbered among this group!!!!!!!!!!!
With the exception of (again) Bonita, Gale Sondergaard, Claudette, Fred MacMurray and Harvey Stephens as Doctor John Harding, this film features more homely actors than any film I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait till you see Donald Meek as Ezra Cheeves. SAG must have put out the call for every ugly person out there; how come the Kemble sisters were not cast? Just as "Gone With The Wind" gave the opportunity for many Black actors to work, this film gave the less physically endowed a chance, because you needed ugly people to portray the Purtians!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't blink, or you may miss Sterling Holloway as Miles Corbin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Maid Of Salem" is a scream from start to finish. Despite it being a slow moving 86 minutes, it has some real juice, once the actors get going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know that book in "Rosemary's Baby," called "All Of Them Witches???????" This film could have gone by that very title!!!!!!!!!!!
And, just 31 years later, Paramount would make Ira Levin's witch classic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, for a fun filled evening, you can't beat "Maid Of Salem!!!!!!!!!"
It will make you feel just like Bonita Granville!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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