THE WITCHES (1967)

The 1960s was a high time for foreign language anthology movies (Boccaccio '70, Spirits of the Dead, Black Sabbath), most of which featured short tales on a particular theme (love, horror). The title of this one might lead you to believe that these stories will involve the supernatural, but no, the only common thread here is the leading lady of each of the five short films, Silvana Mangano. (It could have been called The Bitches, as most of the tales involve bad behavior on the part of Mangano or other women; despite what Wikipedia says, the stories do not actually feature witches.) The first tale, The Witch Burned Alive, seems to be a commentary on vanity, lust and jealousy: Mangano is a reclusive movie star who shows up at a friend's ski chalet in the middle of a weekend party. The men want to sleep with her, and when she passes out, the women strip her and revel in the fact that her beauty is achieved by artificial means (make-up, skin tape, etc.). The second story, Civic Spirit, is a five-minute joke about a woman who appears to be a good Samaritan by offering to take a car accident victim out of a traffic jam and to a hospital, but her real motive is not so civic-minded. The Earth as Seen from the Moon, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, is a fun, slapstick, somewhat surreal tale of a man and his grown son searching for a woman to replace the man's recently deceased wife. They find her a beautiful deaf mute who cleans up their hovel of a home and joins their schemes to make money. The Sicilian Belle is another very short bit in which Mangano complains to her father about a suitor, leading to a killing spree.

The best is saved for last. An Evening Like the Others, directed by Vittorio De Sica, has Mangano and her husband (a young and handsome Clint Eastwood) going through the rituals of a typical boring evening as Mangano wants some excitement and Eastwood just wants to relax. Interspersed are her fantasy visions of what her life could be like, featuring costumed superheroes and Eastwood, mostly naked, flying through the air into bed with her. What this colorful segment has going for it are the elements of surprise and fun, even if ultimately the message, if there is one, is that life will never live up to our fantasies. Overall, I found this a fairly weak anthology film as the parts didn't hang together well. Mangano (pictured in the De Sica story) shows a nice acting range, from cold and unpleasant in the first film to subservient in the third film to a bored fantasizer in the last film. Eastwood is quite fun in this almost sit-com role, an outlier in his career. Italian comic Toto works well with Ninetto Davoli (at the time Pasolini's companion) in the Pasolini story. This and the De Sica segment both have a kind of fun comic-book look. The first story, directed by Luchino Visconti, uses light and color in interesting ways. I don't recommend this highly, but as this movie has been difficult to see for some time, check it out while you can. [Criterion Channel]