Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Wonderfully wicked witches cast a spell over audiences
“Dip the apple in the brew, let the sleeping death seep through. Look upon the skin, the symbol of what lies within. Now turn red, tempt Snow White to make her hungrier for a bite” – the witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
It’s Halloween this Saturday –that creepy, magic time of year when children leave their homes disguised as witches, ghosts, and other spooky characters, calling on neighbours and hoping that their goody bags will be overflowing with treats.
My latest Advertiser column is a sneak peek at how witches and the traditional culture of Halloween has inspired many memorable, chilling, macabre, and often funny, moments in cinema.
The wicked witch in Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is a definitive screen villain – and a force to be reckoned with.
Audiences have always been fascinated by villains. Their behaviour is aberrant; they are seemingly more colourful than the average person and cause intense things to happen to others.
The villain acts and the victim or hero reacts; that becomes the story.
Animation is a visual medium and Walt
Disney thought in visual terms when developing and creating an animated character.
The witch in Snow White was a further development of the witch in the 1932 Silly Symphony Babes in the Wood.
A character’s voice plays an integral part in the total of any cartoon creation, and Disney was an expert at selecting the perfect voice characterisation.
Lucille La Verne, a veteran stage and screen actress, furnished the voice for both the queen and the witch in Snow White.
During a recording session for the voice for the witch, she overheard a conversation between
Disney director Bill Cottrell and storyman designer Joe Grant that while the actress sounded aged and crafty, with the right timbre to her voice, somehow it was too perfect and too smooth; the sound was just not rough enough for them.
Miss La Verne excused herself for a moment
then returned and the voice was perfect. When asked what happened here, she replied: “I just took my teeth out”.
The evil queen turned witch is a memorable and indelible character that one remembers long after viewing the film.
“Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat for Halloween when ghosts and goblins by the score ring your bell or pound your door you better not be stingy or your nightmares will come true.”
These catchy words are part of the lyrics in the tuneful melody sung in the 1952 vintage Donald Duck cartoon Trick Or Treat when the three nephews come to Donald’s house in their Halloween costumes.
But the greedy, selfish Donald plays tricks on them until a real witch joins up with the boys and, with her magic powers, teaches Donald a lesson.
Broomstick Bunny is a 1959 Warner Brothers cartoon starring one of Hollywood’s all-time favorite stars, Bugs Bunny.
When he is out trick or treating dressed as a witch, he visits a tumbledown old house occupied by Witch Hazel.
She then mixes a magic potion with pretty pills and handsome oil; after all, Bugs is uglier than she is.
Following a wild chase when Bugs reveals his true identity, he narrowly escapes from the clutches of the witch because he reminds her of her pet tarantula, Paul.
Snow White and the Three Stooges is an elaborate fantasy produced by 20th Century Fox in 1961.
It is a take on the classic Brothers Grimm story, substituting the Three Stooges for the Seven Dwarfs.
It starred Olympic gold medal figure skater Carol Heiss as Snow White and Patricia Medina delivered a brilliant performance as the queen, witch, and old gypsy Matilda.
The film has some fabulous skating sequences performed on one of the huge sound stages that Fox converted into a skating rink.
Shot on Cinemascope and with colour by Deluxe, the movie is a visual treat that admirably captures the world of the fairy tale.