Everyone's favourite telekinetic alien siblings returned in 1978's Return from Witch Mountain. The kids are still innocent, wide eyed victims who can't act, and they're joined by an LA street gang of other kids who can't act. But, in the villain department, this film has the captivating duo of Bette Davis and Christopher Lee. They're delightful together and this is a genuinely good movie whenever they're onscreen.
We catch up with Tony (Ike Eisenmann) and Tia (Kim Richards) as they arrive in LA in a flying saucer. Their uncle Bene (Denver Pyle) tells them to avoid using their powers and then leaves them for some reason. Almost immediately, they get separated and lost and Tony is captured by a sinister man with a mind control device.
This is Dr. Gannon (Christopher Lee), whose lofty dreams of world domination are frustrated a little by the humbler avarice of his accomplice, Letha (Bette Davis). When Gannon turns Tony into his slave, all Letha wants is to make lots and lots of money.
The only scene in the movie that made me laugh is when Letha takes zombified Tony to a museum where a big stack of '49ers gold bars is being exhibited. After causing a distraction, she tells Tony to deliver the gold bars to her nephew outside. Tony follows her instructions and the nephew is nearly killed by the heavy flying bars and their car is crushed.
This isn't some kind of intentional foiling of the plan on Tony's part. It's actually a bit creepy how totally he's dominated by Gannon's device throughout the film. Even when Gannon is telling him to kill his sister, Tony doesn't flinch when trying to drop an elevator on her.
Really, it's Christopher Lee that makes this movie. He plays it to the hilt, regardless of the quality of the material and he's mesmerising.
Return from Witch Mountain is available on Disney+.
No comments:
Post a Comment