A well-remembered borderline cult TV movie that is readily
available on-line but has never received a proper release at its full length; (though
there was a VHS version that cut the original four-hour running time in
half). It’s based on Tom Tryon’s popular
novel, and I wonder if there is any inspirational connection to Robin Hardy’s
film The Wicker Man (1973), which was
released the same year, (or possibly the 1967 book Ritual upon which that film is based), as they have similar themes and
plots. A family of haggard New Yorkers
flee the big city in favor of a quiet and isolated village in Connecticut that
seems to be frozen in time and its people very Amish-like in terms of their
disinterest in technology and modern ideas, especially when it comes to farming
their most precious staple; corn. David
Ackroyd plays the husband who is quickly suspicious of this secretive community
and startled at how quickly his wife and daughter buy into what are called “the
ways.” The leader of the community – its
only doctor as well as its governor and spiritual authority – is the Widow
Fortune, played by an arch Bette Davis in what has to be the greatest
performance of her later years. Full of
smiles and quaint homilies, the Widow nevertheless exudes a simmering
malevolence that only we and the hero seem to pick up on. It’s the time of year when a crucial propitiatory
ceremony called ‘Harvest Home’ is to take place, and if you know The Wicker Man at all you can probably
figure out where all of this is heading.
Several things differentiate it, admirably, from the Hardy film; such as
its complex accuracy in its presentation of pagan beliefs, and especially its
depiction of a matriarchal society. It
seems fitting that a community totally oriented towards fertility and reproduction
should be ruled by women and devoted to the worship of the great Mother
Goddess.
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