BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (1971) ***1/2 Essential cinema that succeeds on more levels than I can notice. Promoted as a children's film, it also unquestionably contains references, and perhaps hints, of interest to esotericists. It's become common knowledge that one of the many factors that led to the eventual downfall of the Nazis was the preoccupation of Hitler and the SS leadership with some mutated perception of the Nordic occult (and thus their own invulnerability). It is less well known-but passed as truth in some circles-that some on the allies' side also weren't above resorting to what scientists would surely describe as sorcery. It seems like I even read somewhere that Churchill convinced Aleister Crowley and the witches to put a magical ring of protection around the isle and, you know, if someone wrote it maybe it's true, and if it isn't true it probably makes for a story that would entertain someone. I sincerely doubt that there's anything in here to amaze initiates, but I imagine it's enough to get the adrenaline pumping in midnight dilettantes. Maybe, but I'm more amused and impressed by Robert Stevenson's incredible sense of timing and story telling, and his uncanny ability to take his actors to the edge of their ability. It helps to have good guys and bad guys, and it's a boon to be able to present the ever-lovable Angela Lansbury as an apprentice (and so, not quite) witch. David Tomlinson reads beautifully as a most British variation on the tattered but elegant riverboat gambler, and you can't make a children's movie without the kids. Stevenson develops Cindy O'Callaghan and Ian Weighill rapidly and completely with early and effective definitive scenes, but Roy Snart just keeps picking up momentum every time they let him speak., to the point where you start laughing just because he's opening his mouth. So it's a lot of fun and there's something in it for everyone and they all seem to have learned their lessons in the end. The only elusive element that remains, it would seem, is that magical, mystical (tantric?) bed.
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