| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Vincent Price | ... | ||
| Ian Ogilvy | ... |
Richard Marshall
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Rupert Davies | ... |
John Lowes
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Hilary Heath | ... |
Sara
(as Hilary Dwyer)
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Robert Russell | ... |
John Stearne
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Nicky Henson | ... |
Swallow
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Tony Selby | ... |
Salter
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| Bernard Kay | ... |
Fisherman
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Godfrey James | ... |
Webb
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Michael Beint | ... |
Captain Gordon
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John Trenaman | ... |
Harcourt
(as John Treneman)
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Bill Maxwell | ... |
Gifford
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Paul Ferris | ... |
Paul
(as Morris Jar)
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Maggie Kimberly | ... |
Elizabeth
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Peter Haigh | ... |
Lavenham Magistrate
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England is torn in civil strife as the Royalists battle the Parliamentary Party for control. This conflict distracts people from rational thought and allows unscrupulous men to gain local power by exploiting village superstitions. One of these men is Matthew Hopkins, who tours the land offering his services as a persecutor of witches. Aided by his sadistic accomplice John Stearne, he travels from city to city and wrenches confessions from "witches" in order to line his pockets and gain sexual favors. When Hopkins persecutes a priest, he incurs the wrath of Richard Marshall, who is engaged to the priest's niece. Risking treason by leaving his military duties, Marshall relentlessly pursues the evil Hopkins and his minion Stearne. Written by Ed Sutton <[email protected]>
This supreme 60's movie is of a type that the U.K.could probably not make any more,obsessed as it is with making contemporary movies about drug addicts and similar social misfits.Matthew Hopkins was a misfit too but his story is a compelling one and is based on historical fact.There was a Matthew Hopkins and he was the Witchfinder General in the time of Oliver Cromwell.This movie is not horror but it is genuinely horrifying,it is not an action/adventure yet it has great action throughout.It is not a love story yet it has some of the most lyrical lovemaking scenes ever filmed.It is not a Western though it has much in common with the story structure of one. "WITCHFINDER GENERAL" is unique and the work of a young director who even had he not died shortly after may never have equalled his work here.The cast is uniformly excellent with Ian Ogilvy as dashing a hero as Price is a dastardly villain.For soundtrack lovers it has an evocative and effective score as well.Seek this one out and wonder if there was another Witchfinder General of more recent times who exorcised the British of the ability to make good,universally appealing movies.