H!TITDS - Mark of the Witch (1970)
I'm exhausted. I'm gonna make some coffee. Oh very well. You explain this to me. This coffee, what is it used for? This is coffee. It's a drink.
Everything is ready.
This sandwich tastes as dry as hell. Hello and welcome to Hello. This is the Doomed Show. I am Richard. Folks, I'm here. I'm all marked up. I got marked.
In fact, I'm so hyped about our movie today. I'm talking to Mark. Hello, Mark. Hello, Richard. And you can call you can refer to me as Mark of the Witch if you want, because that was actually my namesake. My mother saw the film and then gave me the name.
Okay, I'll remember that, but we're covering a movie called Mark of the Mark of the Wit.
From 1970, or just Mark of the Witch from 1970. Man, we are about to get our blue eyeshadow on and we're going to talk directly to the camera a lot. A lot.
But we're gonna look fabulous doing it. I'm decked out as close to Jan Brady as I could be without breaking copyright.
Mark of the Witch from director Tom Moore. Judging from the IMDB stuff, he was kind of uh in the same relative area as Charles B. Pierce.
In terms of uh Texas movie making. Mm-hmm. I certainly know his cinematographer was in that crew based on what he worked on, but we'll get to that when we get to that.
I mean he didn't direct a lot. He only did the three and two of the three I've seen, which Return to Boggy Creek. Yeah. You know, anyone clamoring for the Dano Plato film, there you go. Ooh.
But the things he produced on, some of those were pretty'cause Horror High, I don't know if you've ever seen Horror High. Oh, I have seen it. That's a weird one. Oh yeah. I caught that late night on TV as a child and it like totally changed my world. Nice
The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Magic. Absolute magic. And then did you ever see The Norseman, the one with Lee Majors? No, I just learned that movie existed today while I was looking at this.
Okay, so it's a Viking film, except you'll see airplanes flying by the background, or you might see a telephone line every now and then.
Oh, I need to see it now. Oh my god, I'm pretty cool. Color me intrigued. It's pretty interesting. I mean it's no mark of the bitch, get don't get me wrong. The the Vivitch. The Vivitch, mark of the Vivitch, yeah.
Here is the lovely trailer for this movie.
If the paint on your earphones starts melting off, folks, it's because of the frickin' wild synthesizer happening in this film. We'll talk about that when we talk about that. Here's the trailer.
A nice girl.
Tormented. Evil. Possessed by From the farthest pit in hell, thou await.
I have read. The thing that gets to me is that those that try to cast out witches suffer terribly themselves. You wouldn't believe that they're supposed to be the good guys.
and lovely body.
of witchcraft and a burning lights the man she loved three centuries ago.
Of time.
Get to the good part. What about sex?
Midnight Ritual.
A quiet college campus is terrorized by a depression.
evil woman three centuries dead.
Seen mark of the witch in color. Rated GP. All ages admitted. Parental discretion.
I have found on the internet system very appropriately called Lone Star Video VHS of Mark of the the the Witch and uh it proclaims on the cover On campus some burnt draft cards, others burnt witches.
So there's no mention about raw burning. They just skipped over that. So that's that's the tagline, but here is the plot of the movie according to the VHS.
On college campuses, students would experiment with anything that could bring them a thrill, but experiments can get out of hand.
An innocent seance leads to frightening death when an overzealous co ed takes the play acting too seriously. She then discovers that, in reality, she carries the mark of the wit.
Color eighty four minutes.
Distributed by Selecta Tape.
Uh I want that one. We have selected Mark of the Witch. I missed a tagline here. Innocent Coed or Bride of the Devil.
Mark, I think I have discovered my new voice for podcasting. I I was just gonna say I think you kind of need to stop that because uh there's something about that I'm really enjoying, like maybe a little bit too much. Mark.
Is this is this turning you on, Mark? When I speak like this
That's your answer right there. Does it sound anything like Donald Pleasants? What am I doing? Who is that?
I'm hoping that we have matching little uh almost like tapeworm emblems on our wrist now. So I know Oh, you stole my joke. You stole Oh, I'm sorry. It's okay. Folks, we got tapeworms.
Call the police. It's better than heartworm.
When you do that voice you're you're Richard Witchfinder gen.
Ooh, nice. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna free'em all. I'm the they're all ladies go. Just go, go, go. And I uh just burn the male witches. How about that?
Yeah. Do your thing, girls. That's right. You're gonna start a war on warlocks. When you said do your thing just now, all I could think of was the most hated line in the Texas Chainsaw fran franchise.
Do your thing, cuz. This was written by Mary Davis and Martha Peters. I love how this has all ladies.
on the screenplay. The cast. Uh we have a guy named Robert Elson. He plays Mac. M Mac Stewart, the the uh professor's gonna frickin' ruin everyone's lives by doing something really stupid.
Oh, you you need to be very specific when you say doing something really stupid because this professor did so many really stupid things. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about.
I think the only thing he does that is even remotely as intelligent is he resists uh the witch's uh attempts to seduce him. I think that or maybe that was the dumb that's a dumb thing he did.
Yeah, I think that kind of like set everything else in motion. Maybe he should have gone with it anyway. No, he's like a cool professor though,'cause he's like the kind of professor that like he'll pull the chair up and sit around sitting it backwards.
Oh yeah. He he buys the beer for the party, th that all the students come to his house. That's probably gonna lead to some bad things, as we see in this movie.
Uh so Coed in particular, our our main gal is named Jill, and she is played by the woefully underused by the film industry, Anitra Walt.
Um, Anitra Walsh is amazing in this frickin' movie. I am mad as hell that she only did two frickin' movies.
She was in something called Dealing or the Berkeley to Boston forty brick lost bag blues, which sounds like the worst hippy dippy crap movie ever.
But I do want the promotional baseball cap with all that on it. The entire title.
And all of the frickin' promotional materials looks like a bunch of long haired hippies. But it's got uh frickin' John Lithgow in it. And Barbara Hershey.
Before she was Barbara Hershey Seagull. Yeah.
Unfortunately, Anitra uh Walsh passed away very young but
According to IMDB, she died in uh nineteen eighty, at the age of thirty two. See, I always hate doing these things because you fight like in my mind these people should just live forever and look exactly like they did in that movie.
She absolutely lives forever in this movie because she is
the literal best. Next up we have Alan, her uh her sort of boyfriend. This is Daryl Wells. His claim to fame, so far as I can tell, is that um he's uncredited role in Valley of the Dolls.
We got Hack Gardner Hack Gardner as Harry.
uh shown my hand there. Uh Jack Gardner Yeah, I think so. Harry is
Totally an asshole. He never worked again, but he's very important to the story, as we'll see. Barbara Brownell, she plays Sharon. She's Harry's boyfriend. I mean, well, I guess girlfriend. She's a big time TV actress and all kinds of stuff. Work
And she's still doing stuff too. Yeah, I think she works and has worked more than everybody else in this cast. Wow. Oh, she's in an episode of Highway to Heaven.
And she did Caroline the City, so there's no more to read in. I mean that's you're you're done. That's the pinnacle. Yeah, the pinnacle of ad.
She wasn't in the Halloween episode of two.
Two Halloween episodes of Highway to Heaven, but I highly recommend them. They're great. Is that the one where Michael Andy becomes a werewolf? Yeah, they they do the whole uh I was a teenage werewolf bit. Yeah. Marie Santel plays the witch.
Her name I've written it down and I know I I'm mispronouncing this Marguerite of Jourdem. That doesn't sound right, but that's what I wrote down.
I'm pretty sure that's right.'Cause she says it again and again. Thank you. I really wish this actress had worked again as well. She is awesome in this. Wide eyed craziness, does a lot of crazy faces.
You can't be in league with the devil without making some crazy face.
And eyeshadow and mascara. Uh you know, probably the first witch ever to wear that. Yes, period specific. That's why the the Vivich was so wrong.
You didn't have enough uh eye makeup. Exactly.
Like where's her lip gloss? Where's her lip liner? Fake. I want my money back. Spoiler alert, if you haven't seen Mark of the Witch, you must see this. This is a showing my hand here, but I can't resist.
Uh y you have to frickin' see Mark of the Witch.
How easy is this film to get? To see it isn't too hard. It's on YouTube and other places. Blu-ray is out of print, so it kinda overpriced now. But it's on Prime as well, folks. Give it a whirl.
Uh let's but I will say no matter how much the Blu-ray probably costs, it's well worth it. Yeah, totally. One thousand percent. The movie starts. Uh this is a Presidio Productions.
All I could think of was Su Sue Sudio from from uh Genesis. So this is pre pre pre C Dio. I like to call this muddy foot fetish productions.
Cause these toes are getting dirty. Okay, so I'm gonna do this quite a bit with this movie. This actress could easily be Piper Lori Circa Carey.
Oh yes. Hey, we do see some dirty pillows later, so she's absolutely justified.
Mm-hmm. Uh this actress is so great. She keeps saying Lancashire. That's very cute. I like that. So Mark, tell me tell me more about this witch's curse. Like If you happen to be, you know, burning a witch or hanging a witch, be sure you give her plenty of time to finish her entire curse.
Right. Yes. Don't stop it. Don't pull that chain. You know, don't let her drop to her death. You want to hear every single word she's got to say to you. Um I shake my head. I just don't understand. It's like, has he never seen another horror movie? No.
Not back in you know, not three hundred years ago.
No she's gonna take him down and like all of his ancestors are gonna go with
Oh, I love it. I wrote down this is some wide-eyed awesomeness here. You will hear me now, you good men of Lancashire.
And you will remember my words till your dying day.
Yea, they will be pondered upon by your sons.
Sons of your sons, until the last star gut is from the sky.
They will ponder my words until they gibber in madness, and remember unto their unhollowed graves the curse I now lay upon the Stuarts.
This is also a Valpurgus knocked uh movie. So if you're keeping track like Lietta is, add this to your uh Valpurgis Noct playlist.
Um and then I go straight to hell because the the credits come in and someone starts singing a cappella.
Yeah, that song. Yeah, thank you. I'm glad you touched on it. Oh my god. I want to do the remix. I will happily sample all those vocals and just remix it, throw a beat on that. Because man, other than harmonica, which is uh the worst instrument ever created by human beings.
Um I strongly don't like a cappella songs. I appreciate good singing, but I prefer two or three singers harmonizing together if it's a cappella.
That's amazing. One person kind of like crackly voiced hippie doing what is more of a shitty poem than a song. Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? It's the only thing about this movie I don't like.
Because it's a seventies film, but it feels that to me feels like a carryover from the sixties. Yes. Uh oh, what was the song from uh
The Giallo, um your vice is a locked room and only I have the key. It's like mother, sister, woman, child na ba do ba do you know that one?
Yeah, I do. Yeah. You were I could tell you were tapping your toe to my rendition. I actually was. I was just hoping you would do it in your
Oh man, I didn't remember how to do that anymore. That was a long time ago.
All right. So we go to a book sale, which is oh I was literally at a book sale today. It was so much fun. I love book sales.
Uh but this is at the varsity bookstore. Uh we got some sexism from some off camera males complaining about girls being too weak or not working hard enough. We we put all these books in these barrels.
Mm which I don't know much about books other than having worked at a bookstore and have worked at a library for twenty years. You don't put a bunch of books in fucking barrels, you dumbasses.
Oh, I have an idea. Let's ruin the entire first three layers of books at the bottom by crushing them under the weight of the books on top of them. Fucking duh. I don't want to be contradictory, but I went to book fairs
And that's how they would do it. They would the the barrels were like uh like a really strong cardboard.
Okay. And they were like well as a little kid, they were like up to my neck. And you had to dig through the books. And yeah, I you were lucky if they had all the pages by the time you got to the ones at the bottom because people just pick them up by the page.
I disagree with that practice, but I believe that happened to you. Oh well yes. And I'm sorry f that happened. Oh I yeah. They would also display them on tables.
No matter the weather. So if the rain would pour in on the boats, you bought a saw
Oh, you have to bring it home and leave it out in the uh frickin' sun. That's terrible. I thought I had it bad at frickin' uh Walmart and digging through the movie bins.
Some random unwrapped candy bar. That better be chocolate. Wow man, if the chicks are gonna have a book drive, they ought to be big enough to push the barrels. Come on, you guys. We need those books. There's gonna be a party at the at the teacher's house.
And someone says, How about that? A spook seminar?
And this is where we meet Jill and she is so cute and adorable. I just wanna hug this person. I can't even process it. And her boyfriend Alan is the most clueless dork ever.
Um it's just it's just it's perfect. Uh but yes, they're invited to a party at Mac, the professor's house. Mark, tell me all about this frickin' party.
If anyone wants to know what the 70s looked like, his swinging bachelor professor pad has it all. Nice. And not only does it have shag carpeting and paneling.
but it also has a bunch of his own students. I mean of course they're college students but they're all like drinking and I think there's some like pot use and stuff. Um and they're all like doing different kinds of occult things.
Yeah. Uh it's very uh again, it feels like kind of like a overflow of the sixties into the seventies because when it all you know, like all the whole like mysticism and everything takes place.
But yeah, you get great mini skirts and headbands and uh misogyny. It's all there. See, I'm wondering if this was filmed earlier than the 1970 release date.
'Cause it it you're so right, it is straddling that frickin' late that late sixties, early seventies stuff, and it's there's there's not enough like
beards and really long hair. It's like all these college students that are figuring out, oh, I'm just not gonna cut my hair anymore. I want to look like the Beatles.
It's not like, Oh my God, the Beatles broke up and my hair's down to my ass now. Yeah. No, it really d like I'm not joking in my notes when I put down like she's Jan Brady like
It easily looks like either the Scooby and the Gang kids could be there or the Brady's could be there. Yes, yes. With the outfits because you've got the longer the
wasted dresses and things. I think they're called an empire dress. Just really weird, odd fashion. Lots of ponytails on women who are probably too old to be wearing them. Yeah. For the fashion alone. I recommend this film for the fashion alone. It is such
A snapshot. It is so perfect. And uh Lietta noticed a hairstyle she'd never seen before where there's a girl with pigtails.
What was it, Mary Ellen or whatever? Yeah. She's used her very long hair to create like a bubble effect on her head and then out of nowhere there's just two pigtails popping out on the side.
She must have a massive amount of hair. It was a bumpet. Like she had a bumpet with pigtails. Yep. Wild. She was great. But she but she also had on those like um they call them mom jeans now, but like the waist was super high and it had like three buttons.
It was like lime green and they were shorts that matched her. I think it was a vest. Mm-hmm. She could tell me my future any day of the week. Too cute. Too cute.
So yeah, this is the kookiest happenin' party. This is way out, man. I also love how there's the uh amongst all of this frickin' uh occult business, there's a sitar being played badly by somebody.
Of course there is. And I also feel he wasn't invited, he just showed up with the sitar. Yep. They don't even know his name. Like no idea who this guy is. No. So so it's it's really fun.
Jill has found in all of the books books this uh thick magic book that is um it's big red frickin' thing.
And she's brought it to the party. She's very excited. My favorite is when she says, rapid fire, and I'll play this clip of this audio because it's so adorable, talking about this book and trying to get all of her friends excited about it. But she she says.
I mean a book full of real magic with spells and curses and enchantments. Only they spell it in they call it enchantments. Well, they spell it funny, you know, like Chaucer.
Well, it's even got recipes with spiders and toads and fat splood. But it's all real. It's all written out in this spooky old script.
It must be a thousand years old. I have that in my notes. She's so excited. Oh man. Uh so they have a terrible idea of having a seance using the book. Uh Mark, what happens? Well, okay, so during the seance.
Unbeknownst to everyone else there, but we can tell this because her voice infliction changes just a little bit. But she actually summons the spirit, the ghost, the witch.
Yeah. Marguerite of Jordmain.
Thank you, because that was not a tip of my time. I don't even know what it is.
But I love how the actress does it because like she really does change. I mean I for the for this movie. But it's pretty impressive, like I think. Yeah, but no one else can see it. They just think she's like getting a little
Yeah. Yep. In my mind, if they couldn't have got her, they would have gotten Linda Blair. Yes.
Absolutely. And then her boyfriend Alan, I really wanted him to be Ted Bissell from Batgirl. And I'm going way, way back if you know what I'm talking about.
Donald. Donald. Or like a young Kurt Russell from his Disney films would be Alan perfectly.
He'd have to play real stupid though,'cause this guy's a dope. Right. But yeah, I love this. She's Alan. She gets possessed immediately and she gets fascinated by our modern world.
She she first falls in love with a sliding glass door. What a what a miracle. Yes. I love that. I love that much. McIntyre has to walk her through like
This is a coffee pot. And this you know, it's just It's the best. So yeah, so she she she she meets uh the professor's dog and uh she decides she it annoys her because this dog does not like the witch.
So she kills the dog off camera and And then um she goes.
is being taken home by Alan but just totally doesn't give a fuck. She does not want to deal. She doesn't even know to kiss him goodnight or anything. She's just like bye. And Alan takes this badly.
I found this funny. So there's a big to do later about her studying the layout of the campus.
Yes. But somehow the same night after the party is cleared and Professor Mack has to go around like um spraying for breeze on everything'cause of the stinky party or she just shows back up at his house to convince him like, yo, dude, not only am I the witch
You're the reincarnation of the guy who betrayed me and got me hung, and then they compare their their their ringworm scars.
Right. Which you said tapeworm, but I said tape. Yeah, ring ringworm. Yeah, ringworm is more like it. Yeah, tape tapeworm scar would be really impressive though. But that's that's a bad tapeworm.
That's why everyone's so skinny and they fit in their suits because they've all got tapeworms. Now, did you notice Jill's apartment number? 31.
Happy Halloween, everybody. Happy Rob Zombie, everybody. Yeah, happy.
We were just totally. Mark of the Vivich. Yeah.
Yeah. When she reveals herself to him, she stays all night talking to him about this stuff and convinces him by um oh, I don't know, making his fucking bird explode.
Ha ha ha.
Now, if you watch the trailer for this movie, they don't show as good of a cut.
You see what looks like a firecracker going off and this poor bird jumping to get away from it, like what the fuck? And then later they show the bird dead, but I can't tell if they really killed the bird. They probably did. It's the only other thing.
I I'm I I'm guessing they didn't. Uh especially not if you see the hilarity of just them torturing this poor bird with a firecracker. Guys don't.
at school everyone who's all tight
Uh sh why we haven't even talked about Sharon and Harry yet. We'll get to them in a minute.
They notice that she's she didn't come back. She's late for school and also the professor's late for school, which is amazing. None of these dork ass people can put two and two together that maybe Since two people who are never absent are just not there at the same time, like hmm.
Funny. But I'll be honest, as a college student, I wouldn't have gone there because just like that.
I was super stoked because after ten minutes you get to leave. Yes, the uh that's true. They do do that. Um the the class is full of all kinds of kooky characters, but no one's so kooky as our pals Harry and Sharon.
or uh or sherry or heron, if you wanna combine them.
He's a latch and he's already flirted and failed miserably with Jill as possessed by the witch.
And Sharon, for some reason, wants to be with this hairy guy. He's so creepy. But she's also super flirtatious as well. They both are very flirtatious people.
Yeah, she's flirting with Alan pretty hard. Well just at the party, like they're dropping ice down her back. I don't know, they're both just very but did you notice when they all get up to leave in unison, the camera is at their crotch angle? Yes.
The only I think what happened was is they wanted to double that later'cause maybe they couldn't get a good sound set up for this
Exiting the classroom scene. I don't know. If you want to see seventies crotch and all the polyester, it's right there on display. It's why birth rates were down.
Right. What happens when Alan uh decides to go and check on uh the old professor? So he shows up and the professor Mac opens the door and there on the couch is Jill slash the Vic.
And so Harry uh not Harry, I'm sorry, so Alan starts to kind of clue in. Kind of, but we s we actually see his mental process. Like you can see the light bulb slowly, the dimmer going up really slow.
The saddest little like. And he's not quite buying it. And actually this is where the parakeet explained. Oh, okay. I mix it up. She's on the couch. She's on the couch and all of a sudden the bird goes. And then he's like, oh, she really is a witch.
My favorite thing is like th I think the the kicker was when he saw that she was still wearing her the same clothes from the night before.
But the one button on her little jacket was open. So as a witch you get cleavage. When she's Jill, you don't get cleavage. You're innocent. Yeah. You're innocent Jill.
Yes, yeah, but that button came undone and we got cleavage. She needs these two to help her do some magical shit and she will leave. That's that's what she's telling them. She's a fucking liar, asshole.
But that's what she's that's what she's saying. And Mac explains his dumbass reverse psychology dumb shit he did to get Jill to find the book.
Yeah, I'm like you're a stupid.
Oh my god, it's so stupid. So he through the power of suggestion he did a psychological experiment so she would find the book because he wanted to prove that all this
uh witchy stuff is total hokum and he did it the dumbest way possible. It was real dumb. Yeah. So he actually put on top of the barrel
Yep. Oh my god, it was so bad. Now really quick, did you know did you notice Alan's plaid pants in the scene? No, I did not. I will. You know I will. Yeah.
She gets the uh she gets to go back to the grove and do her little like witch party that she has by the fire. Yeah.
So so the Grove is where all the kids and the shortest mini skirt ever. Oh my god. Yeah. So so yeah, the Grove is where all the kids
Go to make out apparently. And she heads out there to conjure up and take a bunch of demons as lovers. Of course, these demons are not ever seen. This is all her acting.
Prince!
Circle here.
transformed into the mini skirt clad hussy of Satan. I wrote in my notes that she gives good conjure.
'Cause man she does, doesn't she? Oh my God, she is going for it, folks. Like this performance is so
Awesome. She just really, really gets into it. There's totally gratuitous nudity. That's so funny because she's wearing revealing clothing, but then they were like,
Yo, we gotta see the boobies. And so she does the blouse ripping thing, which yes
Wonderful, hooray. But it just did not need it because she's so hot just in in the way she's gr like grinding her hips for Satan. I didn't need the boobs at all.
Yeah. And my note I just have like the director of the side is like, oh wait a minute, we need boo.
Yes.'Cause it's like not even at the beginning, it's like towards the very end, like you said, like an afterthought. Yep. Yep. You know, bless her heart for for putting up with the bullshit and going for it. I love it. It's it's just a great frickin' moment.
So Alan and Matt.
are so laxadaisical in the way they're handling this whole witch thing. Yes. They're like at a bar talking about and everything. But yeah, then he shows up in her apartment, but for all intents and purposes, I thought she was playing the Atari when he arrived with the noises going on. Oh my
The soundtrack? So yeah, folks, synthesizer enthusiasts. This is a very key moment here for the for the soundtrack of this movie. It is clearly an a synthesizer enthusiast.
probably an early moog or maybe a bookla.
where the person is like so happy to get sound out of it because they are so complex that whatever sounds they got they used and one of them literally as Mark said sounds like video game sounds or like an early like cell phone alarm, like really obnoxious.
There's some cool like low drones for like uh atmosphere later, but a lot of this soundtrack when it's being witchy is just like irritating, harsh, high pitched.
Whales and shit. Oh man. I love this. You are selling this, Richard. Yeah, you're selling it. Dude, I love synthesizers. You know this. Yeah. Yeah.
Back in time. Jill? I had expected you before now. She talks about her first demon lover, which I thought for sure was gonna be Scott Valentine, but she didn't mention him.
I find it funny that he he resists her. Like I said earlier, I think he I think he should just gone for it. Especially with the way this movie ends. I think he should have just
You know what? I'm a cool teacher. Every every one of my students wants to hook up with me. Yeah, this is probably the one and only female student he has not done something with. I mean would you not agree? I mean he seems like such
I like I said, it's a slippery slope, man. As soon as you start having the frickin' you're you're buying the beer at the parties, it's just a matter of time before, you know, some stupid shit gets stupid.
Uh but yes hopefully he was able to uh withstand the power of her leopard print. Barely. Barely.
The whole way that they edited Mac and Alan plotting against her in the bar, where they're talking to us, the viewer.
It's so cute.
That's just full on close up, as close as you can get without being up someone's pores.
They're they're and they're just directly looking at each other. They're gazing into each other's eyes. It's amazing. Okay, so not plot or or pacing or anything, but the way it's it looks to me, it feels like an old soap opera.
Yeah. Like the camera angles and stuff and like the it's just like I don't know. It was very weird. There's some uncredited TV work from the uh the director here. Some local TV work.
Next up, she goes and at the bookstore.
uh uh at the un at the varsity bookstore she seduces or she uh suddenly acts like she's going to seduce good old Harry who's dumb as a bag of rock
Um and has been trying to get in her pants this whole time anyway. She's like, Take me to the grove tonight.
Or better yet, I'll meet you there at midnight. What happens?
It's a good old hairy. So she puts him under her spell and smears like paint, red paint, I guess, all over him from like a a finger painting gone bad. Um but he meets it he meets his uh his uh doom there at her hands in the grove.
Um, which I want to know though, once Harry's dead, who did he leave his Snoopy book collection to? Oh my god. Because I want it. Sharon really desperately wanted them. Oh my God, so cute. She has
great expectations for what like what she needs from a relationship is very admirable. She uses this um flask that's supposed to be booze, but it's uh it's a little um
formula that she's cooked up to put the whammy on Harry. Yeah, I love that. He's while she's uh got him under her spell, she makes him sell his soul to Satan, which I have found very funny where in all like the exorcism movies Where the devil's using these innocents to say all these horrific things?
to like make m you know, the people who witness it feel bad. Like it's useless. Like this isn't an innocent person corrupted.
in a real way. This is just the a puppet kind of a way. So she she's making Harry do something totally stupid. Like, yes
him falling in with this witch is bad and then her making him say these things is bad, but I don't think it's gonna stick in court, you know? Like in hell court.
Hell of course.
So are you eventually gonna get to the the big uh special effect that they were able to afford, the fire that she starts at his crotch? Oh please.
Talk about it. It's like almost a uh uh the same uh effects as the parakeet explosion. It's just the tiniest fire. Like if that was like Satan trying to oppress someone, like Harry would just peed it out.
But the good thing about Harry is he always underestimates the powerful woman. That's how he ended up in this predicament because he was just there to get some.
So yes, he's dead now. They find his body and they decide not to call the cops'cause what what would we do? Turn Jill in? She doesn't know what she's doing. I would run with that, Richard. Like if I had that, I would run with it.
I wouldn't re I wouldn't return library books.
It would every Wednesday would be pantsless Wednesday. I would just run with it, Richard. Fuck it.
Sharon may not be the brightest, but But she figures that something is up, that Jill has decided to steal her man.
So Sharon confronts Jill, and the saddest thing.
Shit ever. It's so sad.
She decides to treat Sharon the same way by slipping her a the the witchy Mickey uh mark, what happens here? Well, okay, and uh also like on top of that though, the way they were acting okay, so so Sharon already knows that Harry's dead.
Yes, they found the body. Yeah, but some of the conversation, because like Jill's telling her, she's like, oh no, we didn't go out there to do anything in the grove in the dark by ourselves. He just wanted to talk about how he should propose to you. Oh my god. And Sharon's like,
Really? And I'm like, that headband's too tight.
'Cause it's like affecting her. Oh my god.
It's it's the lead in her hair. They're using some kind of like uh carcinogenic thing that's eating away in her brain. Yeah, something, but like she's and then this it's like making her feel better, but I'm like, he's still dead.
Yes. Like whether or not he was gonna marry you, that's off the table because he's dead. It's kind of the best of both worlds though, because he's gonna be a terrible fucking husband.
Well, I don't think she'd be that great of a wife either. They would they you know what? They were the originators of the key party. How dare you? Don't ever speak ill of Sharon again.
And then my my last recast, I definitely want Tara Reed to share it. I want that world to share. You you and Tara Reed. Oh my God. I so want Tara Reed to be that headband girl. Dude, she's yours.
You go for it. I love it. Oh man. Yeah.
I love how she's making everyone drinks too. Like never accept a drink from Jill.
No. You're not gonna make it. While Jill is is making Sharon go through the same spiel and then killing Sharon out in the grove. Submit myself to him.
In body and soul.
And body and soul forever into eternity.
Forever.
Uh Alan and Mac are still they're they're pulling an all-nighter, trying to f read every single witchcraft book to get their plan to finally get their shit together and stop this crap. But not too quick.
No, not crazy. I thought they were actually at an Italian restaurant because like they have a
I'm like, they're actually eating in an Italian restaurant and just perusing over books on how to stop this witch from killing more and more people. Oh my god.
Oh my god, it's so funny. I love it. Um so yes, there Mac falls asleep at his desk.
And he's he's now by falling asleep, he's letting his reincarnational knowledge come through, and he's writing the spell and how to maybe defeat Jill and uh Alan's like You're like
Writing in your sleep, dude. And then Mac's like, this isn't time for silliness. And I'm like, why why would he make this up?
You now that you've seen your parakeet explode, silliness is gone a long time ago. Right. Why after all this, why would you writing in your sleep be the one thing that you're like, I can't swallow that?
Really? That's the that's what you're gonna hang your hat on. That one right there is too unplausible. Oh my god, it's awesome. So funny.
Uh so I want to point out there's a monotone newsman. So at where Sharon's body is out in the grove, um, I was very, very confused.
Like totally baffled by there's this monotone drone of a guy talking.
And I have no idea what's going on because you can't see who's talking, just going on and on and and it just turns out to be the news guy about to give his report to the to the the news.
But he's like getting all the facts of the case squared away first is very strange.
So that to me felt very much like the town that dreaded Sundown. Yeah. Now did you know that this is the actual movie that started the Satanic Panic? What? No, I'm lying.
I don't see why this was in circulation for a long time. I found on IMDb there were theatrical listings for this in eighty two.
Wow, that's amazing. Imagine how pissed off people in nineteen eighty-two would be at this movie. Not me. No, I know. I'm not talking about like normal people like us. I'm talking about weirdos who wouldn't appreciate this.
But like in the era of the slasher and the gore splatter, like like this like we're gonna talk about a film that this was paired with that I want to recreate one night. But can you imagine seeing this and like John Carpenter's The Thing the same night?
I was thinking this and the Exorcist. Yes. Oh this and Exorcist too.
Oh there you go.
And then they sneak in Abby they sneak Abbey in at the end so it's actually a triple feature they don't tell you about. Exactly. So so so Mark, how let's get to this showdown here. Let's let's frickin' Do this.
What happens when they finally when when Alan and Mac finally get their shit together to take on evil Jill? Well, they're the most nonchalant witch hunters ever. You may have to help me with this, Richard, because I still don't quite understand.
But they're going to use science to fight the witchcraft. And by science I mean electricity. Yeah. Yep. Okay.
So
Early on there was a throwaway comment about taking the crucifix down at the party. Yes. Well the crucifix comes back into play because they invite Jill over to to you know Max Pad and they're gonna do another like reenactment of the seance thing.
But they don't need everyone there, they just need tokens of the people.
Which is so weird to me. That's an interesting that's an interesting detail. Very strange. Yeah, she's like, Oh, a shoe will do or you know, I'm thinking
You know, are you going to go back to Mary, what Mary Beth or Mary Hart or Alan or whatever her name was to be like, can we just have your your uh Dr. Scholl slip on wooden clog for just a minute? We're just gonna perform a single. No, you don't have to be there. I just need that shoe.
It's actually better if you're not there. Right. Right. Right. And then of course Alan, you know, Mac is like, you don't even have to be there, Alan. He's like, oh no, I'm a boyfriend. I've got to be there. So I am in it to win it, bro. Yeah. So Alan's there with his sideburns.
Um but then they're doing the ritual and then now I thought this was kind of cool. Then all of a sudden, and I still don't quite know how this happens, the crucifix gets
Like the light is reflected off the crucifix right onto the center of Jill's face. So like the the horizontal arms go across her eyes and then vertical, you're like right down the middle of her face.
And then she starts doing that thing where it's back between her and then like um I can't say her name'cause I don't remember it, but you have it on on the tip of your tongue. Margere of Jordamain.
Uh now you're a sex worker with a cigarette when you say it like that. You're not the wish fighter anymore. But whatever. And then like they flash back and forth and then she gets pinned to the wall somehow by the force of this. Yes.
It makes no sense, Mark. It's crazy. Whoa, because I'm still trying to figure out the electricity part, which that's not working for me. I still don't understand that. Yeah, they just had a bunch of wire that he was gonna do some shenanigans with. I guess. Um
But then eventually I mean, do you want me to just keep going? Please. Let's hear it. Okay, because then eventually we go back in time.
And then we see Mac watching her and like he was in league with her. So he was gonna let her take the fall for all this, but he was just as much to blame for the whole witchiness as her.
He actually gets the noose around his neck and he is, you know, take off the mortal coil as well. Yep. So it's like a change in his.
So yeah. Time travel. Yes. Time travel. We get time travel. Right. Bonus.
Yeah. And that's the end of the movie. It just ends just so abruptly.
These are so does she stay Jill in the in the in the present time? Does Alan have to deal with it?
Did all of Mac's family vanish from the earth? Like is there a paradox now? Will they will they get yeah, will they get a grade for the course if their teacher no longer exists? Sure, sure, yeah. You get a you get a um a C plus.
I don't know. The whole ending is just so confusing. I'm so glad you had something because I was like, wires, crucifix.
Yeah. I wrote um Jill attacked by pretty lights. That's my entire Well and we also to me not that we're uh uh
Stupid audience. But like there was something to be said for Nancy, like the actually showing Nancy set everything up for the demise of Freddie Krueger.
But all we get is electricity, like science versus witchery. Yeah. And then all of this. We don't see anything set up. That's why I'm clueless on kind of how the whole like electricity thing came into play, other than maybe a light came on.
Um very weird.
Oh man.
So yeah, that's that's the whole movie. Um just a little bit of trivia about this thing. Um I found a poster from a oh not a poster. I found a newspaper ad where Mark of the Witch was playing.
with Hercules and the Haunted World. Mario Baba with Mark of the Witch. Can you imagine? Awesome. I want to recreate that so bad. That is so cool. This was filmed in Dallas, Texas.
The Southern Methodist University and the Texas Christian University, Fort Worth.
Which makes me wonder if this was like supposed to be what do they get money for it as a Christian scare film or something?
Or did they even know what they were doing? Like afterwards we see this and be like, Oh, holy cow. Yeah, we w do not tell people you filmed this year. The release dates are interesting. Uh so this was, you know, in theaters in in the seventies.
And then it was also uh reappearing in the early eighties, just brilliant, how cheap
drive in and grindhouse theater people were. They just re release anything.
I love it. The cinematographer is Richard Bethard, and we talked a little bit how he shot Return to Boggy Creek and the Norsemen, Play Dead, some other things.
Texas, Texas, Texas movies. I love it. Uh the soundtrack, the guy who did not know how synthesizers work, was Whitey Thomas.
Yeah.
Whitey Thomas's um his claim to fame after this was he did the music for the rape tastic nail gun massacre. Oh my gosh, the nail gun massacre. Wow.
Uh I haven't thought about that in
It's one of those movies I want to love because it's so insane, but it's just a little too effective with the rape scene. It's like, oh, it's a little very unpleasant to behold. Well, I didn't even realize that's what I was going to get. Exactly.
Like when I I didn't realize it was a revenge flick when I start spoiler alert, when I started it. Um so one of the screenwriters was also a producer, which is why I was getting confused.
And that was uh Mary Davis. She actually wrote the screenplay for S. F. Brownright.
Scum of the Earth AKA poor white trash two. Folks, if you're interested, one of my all time favorite doomed show episodes is me and Brad doing the SF Brown Ruggs super show.
Check it out folks. In the in the archives and on the YouTube the the onthe Doomed Movie Th on YouTube you can listen to that whole episode. It's great. I very proud of that show.
Yeah, Hello Cheese. This was released on a it had a DVD release as uh exploitation cinema double feature. And the other one that it was released with on the DVD is Devil Times Five, which I love that movie.
I've always said this, I'm gonna keep saying this. I want to love that movie.
If we could release the non slow mo version And take about twelve minutes off that movie'cause I've always
been frustrated by that frickin' slow mo. They overuse it in that movie.
And it's like, oh, we're doing this again. No. It's so weird. And L Lathe Garrett. I mean, how many besides like what is a cheerleader camp? How many Lathe Garrett like uh horror films do we get?
Well you know I love me some frickin' cheerleader camp. What a masterpiece. W that needs to see Blu ray. No joke, man. That my DVD is actually very valuable.
So Richard, I found a DVD. I ordered it from Amazon. Waited an uh extra long time for it to arrive and the thing skipped.
What? Yep. I'm sorry. That's up.
Yeah, so I had to send it back. I was so sad. Damn. Yeah, that was your only chance too. Right right. Hi, I'm Raquel Welch, and you're watching me on Quasar Two Color TV. Quasar two by Motorola.
It has the improved picture tube for sharper, clearer color. The works in a drawer help keep it that way. And Motorola's suggested list price optional with dealer is the lowest price ever for their Works in a Drawer Color TV.
Quasar 2 in consoles and compacts. I hope you'll watch my April special with Bob Hope and Tom Jones. Co-sponsored by Motorola. So, uh Mark, how do you feel about Mark of the Wit?
Even though it's your I mean, not just that it's your namesake. How do you feel about it? I love the thing. Um if if you
at all claim to be a a fan of like witchcraft films or 70s horror and you've not seen this, I don't know what you're thinking. You need this in your life. It's amazing.
I I do feel sorry for for for people who can't appreciate older films. Yeah. It's it's not like this fast moving thing whatsoever, but you get So much more by just like taking the time to watch.
Like if you're unfamiliar with the 70s, this is a crash course in 70s fashion.
kind of 70s like films in a lot of way because like even the ending to me was very 70s. Sure, sure. This is something to behold. And I think you would really be uh doing yourself a disservice, I think, as a fan of horror not to see things.
Yeah. It's the dialogue too. All the dialogue.
So fine.
It's pretty awesome. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I agree with you. But yeah, this has an infectious energy to it. Uh it's cheap and cheesy, but clearly made with love because of those little details.
As corny as things can seem, The little weird stuff and the the the mechanics of the witchcraft and the wi the rituals and all that.
really were well thought out by somebody. I don't know how accurate they were in terms of capital W witchcraft, but it's just such a force to be reckoned with. Um, I absolutely recommend this. Maybe pair it with um Um what is that movie?
The Velvet Vampire?
Oh, interesting. Okay. That's a good one. Oh I think that'd be really fun to pair that that with this.
I can't believe how vibrant the print on this is. They must have used some miraculous film stock. This just eats up these colors and just blasts you with them. Well that's the witchcraft.
I wrote in my notes that the fashions are marktastic. They certainly are. I see a lot of opportunities for your cosplaying here.
Honestly, I gotta say it again, Anitra uh stole my heart. Jill is like I just I can't process how cute she is as Jill, and then I I just love her turn as the witch so much.
She really brought this and I I honestly really wish she'd worked more in some other movies. It's shocking. Um, I'm glad that Sharon ended up having the big career.
Good on her. Yeah. She was and still working to this day. That's that's crazy stuff. You did mention you weren't sure how accurate it was, but you know Anton Levee was on set every day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's he has a wig on. He's like the the big fake sideburns. He's one of the guests. He was Alan. Yeah.
Anton LeBay as Allen. Yes, the two screenwriters were witches.
And he was a good boy before they seduced him and turned him into the Church of Satan guy. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. We know how that goes.
So before I let you ski daddle and get back to your party with your uh your palm reading and your Ouija board and your phrenology, whatever else, your sitar.
Mark, what is a recently seen and loved movie could be a first time watch or an old favorite? What do you got?
So I actually this is one of my favorite like subgenres. Like I love witch films. Yeah. So I kind of went back and I thought what would be cool to watch with this particular film.
And I wholly love George A. Romero's Season of the Witch. Oh, great movie. Great. 1972. Takes it a little bit more seriously, I think. Oh, absolutely. But it would still go well with this.
But then on the flip side, for those people who are wanting a male witch movie.
I also came up with from 1971. It's uh King of the Witches.
Stars Andrew Pryme. For any like Andrew Pryne fans out there, there's a Playgirl that you might want to check out with Andrew Pry. You'll have a totally different look at Andrew Pryne if you know what I'm saying. The pride of Andrew Pryne.
Yeah, he was a big man on campus if you know what I'm saying. Um but yeah, I love Simon King of the Witches. If have you seen that one?
Uh let me refresh my memory. It's kind of a lot like this, except he's like a you know, a bad witch is a warlock. If I'm not mistaken, he lives like in a
a basement apartment. So it's kind of got like a weird Laverne and Shirley feel to it.
Just in the setting, not like the the movie itself. He's a real big sleaze. Like I I would really recommend like this one. Maybe do all three. But you know, this one and and uh the mark of the witch might be a kind of a fun pairing because you get the the female and the male version.
Nice. But yeah, Andrew Pryan is fine as he's rocking the like uh like the grown-out Mike Brady perm uh with the beard. It's pretty awesome.
I will watch it. I will absolutely watch that. For my pick, um, I've watched something with my pals and movie party crew. Um every month we have our little doomed movie thon discord server.
And we uh we we pick a movie and we just chat about it while it's playing and uh we watch surf two.
From 1983. Surf two is a parody. Uh and and the the full title is uh Surf Two, the End of the Trilogy. It is a a goofy, zany, prop, heavy comedy sight gag.
And it's real stupid. Real stupid.
Now what so it's eighty three? Yep, and it's got uh eighty three, it's got Eddie Dezine, Eddie D Zen, is it oh sorry, Eddie D Zen, and it's got a young, I mean young, Eric Stoltz.
Wow. But it's got Lyle Wagner. Love I love Lyle Wagner. I love it It'd be weird if you did.
Love him. Cleavon Little is in it, and Ruth Buzzy is in it too. Oh my god. Tom Villard. Yes.
Yes. I love Tom. I love Tom. I mean it's got an actress I never knew I had a crush on until this movie. Her name is Lucy Lee Flippin. She's a very strange uh bird-like actress.
who was in a bunch of TV stuff and a bunch of movies, but it was this movie that I I was so excited to see her. I didn't realize she was in it that I I unearthed.
This like memories of my childhood having a crush on her. Really? I love Lucy Lee Flippin, she's awesome.
Um but that's what I'm into. But yeah, Surf Two. Uh I we watched the director's cut. Vinegar Syndrome has the director's cut. It's too long. The a comedy like this needs less breathing room.
It it needs uh
for the sequence where the whole movie comes to a complete stop to be cut out and I assume that's what happened in the theatrical version, which I'm gonna check out next time. But yeah, my only my only issue with it was it was too long in that director's cut, but
It might be a new favorite. I there are parts of that movie I wanted to live inside'cause it's so frickin' awesome.
Huh, interesting. Recommended. Real quick, and I'm losing the name of it, there's a Lyle Wagner movie where I'm pretty sure he just signed on to it without reading about it or he just needed the paycheck.
But he's married to a woman who's a necrophilia.
Oh.
Is it Love Me Deadly? It's Love Me Deadly, yes. Love Me Deadly seventy two. Holy shit.
That is the weirdest movie and it's so strange. Oh, I do too. But I don't know how he ended up in this film. Because it's not it's so on Lyle Wagner, uh you can't even imagine.
Like that's not the Lyle Wagner from the Carol Burnett show. It's not even the same universe.
No, not at all. Not at all. No. That's a strange one too. I love that one. My favorite, my favorite Lyle Wagner moment, um, aside from Murder Weapon with uh Linnea Quigley.
Oh yes. Is his cameo in Golden Girls where he plays himself
He and Sonny of Sonny and Cher fame are trying to s uh fight over Dorothy. He bursts in and goes, That's right, it's me, Lyle Wagner.
Amazing.
Now do you know that it was supposed to be between him and Adam West for Batman? No, I did not know that. Yeah, the T V show. Yeah. How different would that have been? I wonder if he were if he was mad about that. Makes you wonder.
See to me looks wise Lau Wagner looks more like what I pictured uh Bert Ward to look like. And he could do comic bookie too, but it would have been so different.
It would have because I don't think he's got the comedic timing that um Adam West had. Having seen him on the Carol Burnett show a lot, I kind of
Really? See,'cause I grew up on the Carolinette show. He always seems so kind of wooden I don't know. I think I just love it. Well yeah, that okay, you got me there. He is the pretty boy. So I was just gonna say he was hired as the pretty boy, who was kind of like the straight guy.
Him dressed as Dracula that one time was very funny. Yeah, no, I grew up on Carabinette. Yeah. Yeah, we it's all it's all on Tubi now. We watch it all the time. Oh I love Carolette.
Well folks, thank you for listening. Mark, thank you for l letting us watch the documentary about your life. You know what? It Mark and Mark and the mascara. Bye folks. Au revoir.
Folks, thanks so much for listening to this episode.
If you'd like to write into the show, Send an email to DoomedMovieThon at gmail, or hit us up at DoomedMovieton on Instagram or at DoomedMovieTon on Twitter, or at doomedmoviethon at Discord, or go to Hello This is the Doom show on Facebook.
And message us there.
Yeah. Doomedmovie
button for the archive or go to YouTube and look up Doomed Movie Thon and you'll find the classic episodes of Hello This is the Doomed Show. And if that's still not enough, um I have written some Movies over on Amazon.
Uh just look up Richard Glenn Schmidt and you'll see.
Cinema some name.
Or Movie Thon. Hello, this is the Doomed Show as a proud member of the Legion Podcasts Network.
LegionPodcasts.com
Yeah.
