I am a trained psychotherapist and used to offer individual and group therapy. I mention this because I do have a legitimate basis for saying that "Bewitched" is filled with psychological mumbo-jumbo! In other words, whether it's an enjoyable film or not, it's nonsense and mixes up two DIFFERENT disorders--Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder (also called Dissociative Identity Disorder). Many therapists are not sure whether or not MPD is a real psychological disorder...though Schizophrenia IS and would account for the voices the protagonist hears in her head. Too bad the writers of the film didn't understand this difference.
Joan (Phyllis Thaxter) is a young woman with a SERIOUS problem. She hears her own voice, or rather, her own EVIL voice, and it's trying to control her and make her kill! And soon you learn that she does have two distinct personalities--one sweet and the other evil and impolite! The film chronicles her life and ultimate treatment.
Throughout the film, Thaxter's performance is unintentionally funny. Sometimes she just stars towards the camera and makes odd faces ('is she constipated?' was my first thought when she started doing this). Other times she just looked perplexed. At no point did she act as if she was a real honest to goodness person! I also loved when one of her attacks came on and the tiger in the cage instinctively KNEW she was evil and acted accordingly!! I think this movie would have been 100 times better if instead of Thaxter the film had starred Divine...and had deliberately been a camp classic! Instead, it's funny...but for none of the right reasons!
Joan (Phyllis Thaxter) is a young woman with a SERIOUS problem. She hears her own voice, or rather, her own EVIL voice, and it's trying to control her and make her kill! And soon you learn that she does have two distinct personalities--one sweet and the other evil and impolite! The film chronicles her life and ultimate treatment.
Throughout the film, Thaxter's performance is unintentionally funny. Sometimes she just stars towards the camera and makes odd faces ('is she constipated?' was my first thought when she started doing this). Other times she just looked perplexed. At no point did she act as if she was a real honest to goodness person! I also loved when one of her attacks came on and the tiger in the cage instinctively KNEW she was evil and acted accordingly!! I think this movie would have been 100 times better if instead of Thaxter the film had starred Divine...and had deliberately been a camp classic! Instead, it's funny...but for none of the right reasons!