Night of the Eagle (released in the United States as Burn, Witch, Burn) is a 1962 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers and starring Peter Wyngarde and Janet Blair. The script by Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson and George Baxt was based upon the 1943 Fritz Leiber novel Conjure Wife.
Norman Taylor is a professor of psychology at the small, prestigious British university of Hempnell. There he lives peacefully with his wife Tansy, enjoying a comfortable position and notable academic prestige: his students adore him and his classmates admire (and envy) him. One weekend, Norman discovers that his wife performs small magical rituals and makes amulets with which she intends to protect their home and her husband's career from external threats. Rationalist and skeptical, Norman forces her to abandon these activities and reject any type of superstition. However, from that moment on, the tranquility disappears and their lives take on tragic overtones.
Tropes
- Adaptational Location Change: Despite the film having two American screenwriters who usually worked in Hollywood, the plot of Fritz Leiber's novel Conjure Wife is moved from a small, conservative American college to a small, prestigious British university.
- Antagonist Title: The title refers to the Living Statue of a giant eagle Flora sends to kill Norman.
- Brutal Bird of Prey: Using a form of auditory hypnosis over a loudspeaker system, Flora convinces Norman that a giant stone eagle perching at the top of the university chapel has come to life to attack him.
- Burn the Witch!: Flora uses witchcraft to set fire to the Taylor home with Tansy trapped inside. She even says the words "burn, witch, burn" as she ignites the tarot cards to cast the spell.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Upon suspecting that Norman Taylor is having an affair with his girlfriend Margaret Abbott, Fred Jennings turns up in Norman's office with a gun and tries to murder him.
- Dead-Hand Shot: After Flora is crushed to death by the falling statue, the film ends with with a close-up of her lifeless hand extending out from under the statue and the tape reel she dropped as she died.
- Death by Looking Up: As Flora and Lindsay leave the campus, Lindsay sees the chapel's heavy doors are ajar (left thus by Norman in his "escape" from the eagle), and insists on securing them despite Flora's protests. As she waits for him, she hears a noise and looks up and the eagle statue falls from the roof and kills her.
- Dramatic Thunder: It is already raining outside when Norman arrives home and finds the letter Flora sent him. However, when he plays the tape from the envelope and triggers the spell Flora has placed upon it, the rainstorm suddenly turns into a thunderstorm, complete with dramatic thunder and lightning. The thunderstorm grows in intensity until the eagle arrives on the doorstep, which is when Tansy manages to pull the plug and cancel the spell, and the storm goes back to being an ordinary rainstorm.
- False Rape Accusation: Margaret Abbott has an obsessive crush on her psychology professor Norman Taylor. After Norman destroys all of the magical protections his wife Tansy had placed over him, Margaret attempts to seduce him. When that fails, she then accuses him of rape, but is ultimately forced to admit is was a lie.
- Impairment Shot: When Norman carries the near-comatose Tansy to the doctor, shots from her POV are blurry and out-of-focus.
- Living Statue: Using a form of auditory hypnosis over a loudspeaker system, Flora convinces Norman that a giant stone eagle perching at the top of the university chapel has come to life to attack him.
- Market-Based Title: American International Pictures insisted on playing up the horror-occult themes of the film when marketing it. As part of this, the film's original title was changed to the more ominous Burn, Witch, Burn - a line that Margaret Johnston speaks in the film. Also, the voice-over opening where a spell is cast upon the audience was added for setting the tone.
- Setting Update: Moves the events of Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife from the early 1940s (contemporary to when the novel was written) to the early 1960s (contemporary to when the film was made). It also under undergoes a Adaptational Location Change from America to England.
- Stalker with a Crush: Margaret Abbott has an obsessive crush on her psychology professor Norman Taylor. After Norman destroys all of the magical protections his wife Tansy had placed over him, Margaret attempts to seduce him. When that fails, she then accuses him of rape, but is ultimately forced to admit is was a lie.
- Student/Teacher Romance: Margaret Abbott has an obsessive crush on her psychology professor Norman Taylor. After Norman destroys all of the magical protections his wife Tansy had placed over him, Margaret attempts to seduce him. When that fails, she then accuses him of rape, but is ultimately forced to admit is was a lie.
- Suicide by Sea: Tansy, willing to sacrifice her life for her husband's safety, almost drowns herself by walking into the sea and is only saved at the last minute by Norman giving in to the practices he despises.
- Voodoo Doll: Flora is shown using a poppet to compel Tansay to stab Norman with a kitchen knife.
- You Got Murder: Norman receives a tape of one of his lectures. Because the accompanying note is on official stationary, he assumes it has come from the university. However, when he plays it, a series of strange events rock the cottage; culminating in he stone eagle attempting to break through the front. It is later revealed that Flora sent him the tape; having enchanted it in an attempt to kill him.
