Night Of The Eagle (1962) – Film Review
Director: Sidney Hayers
Cast: Peter Wyngarde, Janet Blair, Margaret Johnston
Certificate: 12
By Sarah Morgan
Take a couple of well-respected horror and sci-fi authors, give them a classic novel by one of their heroes, and what do you get?
A brilliant adaptation of Fritz Leiber’s 1943 novel Conjure Wife from friends Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont, that’s what (George Baxt was brought in later to provide a polish by Albert Fennell, which explains why he also receives a credit).
The duo had wanted to work on something together, and decided that Leiber’s novel, which had already been filmed in 1944 as Weird Woman and would go on to provide the basis for 1980’s Witches’ Brew, would provide the ideal project.
“Life-changing lesson”
Peter Wyngarde, in a role originally intended for Peter Cushing, plays Norman Taylor, a university lecturer who, during a talk on superstition, writes ‘I Do Not Believe’ across his blackboard – from that moment, you know he’s the one who is going to learn a life-changing lesson during the course of the film.
Norman is happily married to Tansy; they’re an upwardly mobile couple, but what Norman doesn’t realise is that much of his career success – and even his life – is down to the fact that Tansy is a witch, having picked up the practice while they were living in the Caribbean.
When he does find out and destroys all her ‘protections’, things start to go horribly wrong…
Night of the Eagle was one of the first films to depict witchcraft in a suburban, domestic setting, something that would become common on TV and in cinema over the next decade or so.
As a lifelong fan, I would have loved to have seen Cushing take the role played by Wyngarde, who is charming, if a bit oily, as Norman, whose smug, self-confident outlook is about to be shattered.
“A decent fist of it”
US star Janet Blair, then best known for her Broadway musical roles, was imported to play Tansy and makes a decent fist of it. However, it’s Margaret Johnston who steals the show as another professor’s wife, who uses the occult to further her mild-mannered husband’s flagging career.
Producers Albert Fennell and Julian Wintle must have been impressed with director Sidney Hayers and Wyngarde’s work here, because they later hired them both for various episodes of their most famous production, The Avengers.
Not to be mistaken with the equally as impressive and similarly titled Night of the Demon, Night of the Eagle is a classic of the horror genre, and not to be missed under any circumstances. Okay, so some of the special effects leave a lot to be desired, but the acting, directing and plot more than make up for that.
If you’re still not convinced, maybe the special features, which include a fantastic archive interview with Wyngarde, in which he regales viewers with amazing anecdotes, might do the trick.