Starring Pamela Duncan, Richard Garland, Allison Hayes, Val Dufour, Mel Welles
Directed by Roger Corman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A psychic researcher brazenly tries to regress a streetwalker to one of her past lives, and succeeds, taking her back to medieval times, where a young maiden faces execution, accused of witchcraft.
One of Corman's most unique films of the fifties, combining science fiction and fantasy elements with the medieval setting, involving witches who can change their form, and a personification of the devil. Though Duncan is the lead, as both the modern streetwalker and accused maiden, Hayes steals the show as a voluptuously costumed witch, who's responsible for Garland's predicament, and pines for her beau played by Garland. Hayes' screen presence is off the charts, especially for any smitten young men in the audience of which I confess to being one. Although Corman's budget only allows for limited settings, plenty of colorful characters speaking in medieval English help transport the viewer with Billy Barty as Hayes' imp companion, Welles as a friendly gravedigger, and Richard Devon as the pitchfork wielding Devil, all standouts. Composer Ronald Stein adds a flavorful score, and as my friend Mark Holmes pointed out, Mark Hanna and Charles B. Griffith's screenplay ignores the temptation to lead up to a predictable climax for something far different.
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