''Witches' Brew'', also known as ''Which Witch Is Which?'', is a 1980 American

comedy horror film Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...

co-written and directed by Richard Shorr, and starring

Richard Benjamin Richard Samuel Benjamin (born May 22, 1938) is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of well-known film productions, including ''Goodbye, Columbus'' (1969), based on the novella by Philip Roth; ''Catch-22'' (1970), fro ...

Teri Garr Teri Ann Garr (born December 11, 1944) is an American former actress, dancer, and comedian. She frequently appeared in comedic roles throughout her career, which spans four decades and includes over 140 credits in film and television. Her accola ...

, and

Lana Turner Lana Turner ( ; born Julia Jean Turner; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized pe ...

. It was based (though without any screen credit) on Fritz Leiber Jr.'s horror-fantasy novel ''

Conjure Wife ''Conjure Wife'' (1943) is a supernatural horror novel by American writer Fritz Leiber. Its premise is that witchcraft flourishes as an open secret among women. The story is told from the point of view of a small-town college professor who disco ...

''.

Herbert L. Strock Herbert L. Strock (January 13, 1918 – November 30, 2005) was an American television producer and director, and a B-movie director of titles such as '' I Was a Teenage Frankenstein'' (1957), '' How to Make a Monster'' (1958), and ''The Crawlin ...

directed additional sequences for the film.

Plot

As in earlier film versions of Leiber's story such as ''

Weird Woman ''Weird Woman'' is a 1944 Inner Sanctum film noir mystery and horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Lon Chaney Jr., Anne Gwynne, and Evelyn Ankers. The "Inner Sanctum" franchise originated with a popular radio series and all ...

'' (1944) and '' Night of the Eagle'' (1962), the story is set around a college campus where rivalries for various chairmanships of faculties take place. While the script's touch is notably lighter than in earlier film versions, verging on comedic in places, the story is basically the same. Several of the wives practice witchcraft in order to advance their husbands' careers. Joshua Lightman (Richard Benjamin) does not believe that his wife Margaret's spells and hocus-pocus have been helping her, and makes her cease practising witchcraft. Immediately things begin to go wrong for Lightman. He cuts himself shaving; he is accused by a male student of having accosted him (which loses him the chairmanship of the psychology department); and a disgruntled female student tries to kill him by sniping with a rifle from the college rooftop. Meanwhile, Vivian Cross (Lana Turner) is controlling several of the other wives via a sculpture of an egg (modeled on a demonic witches' egg they find in a book on witchcraft) in which a being is hatched. This winged creatures whose eyes shoot green flames chases Joshua's car and nearly kills him before Vivian destroys it via her magic. Vivian, who is close to death, then hatches a plot to trade bodies with Margaret. Margaret is sent driving off a pier in her car; but Joshua uses magic to save her. Vivian succeeds in swapping souls with Margaret, but the tables are turned on her; Vivian is destroyed and Margaret is returned to her own body and starts practicing witchcraft again to help Joshua.

Cast

as Margaret Lightman *

as Joshua Lightman *

as Vivian Cross *James Winkler as Linus Cross *

Kathryn Leigh Scott Kathryn Leigh Scott (born Marlene Kringstad;Biography:Kathryn Leigh Scott". Retrieved on September 28, 2010 January 26, 1943) is an American television and film actress and writer who is best remembered for playing several roles on ''Dark Shadows ...

as Susan Carey *Bill Sorrells as Nick Carey * Kelly Jean Peters as Linda Reynolds *

Jordan Charney Jordan Charney (born April 1, 1937) is an American character actor. Many of his earliest roles were on daytime television, with appearances in numerous soaps. Jordan created the role of creepy Julian Dark in the early to mid-1960s on the CBS so ...

as Charlie Reynolds *Nathan Roth as Ben Cohn * Barbara Minkus as Saleswoman *Bonnie Gondel as Marcia Groton *

Angus Scrimm Angus Scrimm (born Lawrence Rory Guy; August 19, 1926 – January 9, 2016) was an American actor, author, and journalist, known for his portrayal of the Tall Man in the 1979 horror film '' Phantasm'' and its sequels. Early life Scrimm was born ...

as Carl Groton

Other versions

Filmed in 1944 as ''

'' starring

Lon Chaney Jr. Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film '' The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dra ...

; and as the 1962 film '' Night of the Eagle'' (also known as ''Burn Witch Burn!'') starring

Peter Wyngarde Peter Paul Wyngarde (born Cyril Goldbert, 23 August 1927 – 15 January 2018) was a British television, stage and film actor from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s. He was best known for portraying the character Jason King, a bestselling novelist ...

and

Janet Blair Janet Blair (born Martha Janet Lafferty; April 23, 1921 – February 19, 2007) was an American big-band singer who later became a popular film and television actress. Early years Janet Blair was born Martha Janet Lafferty on April 23, 1921, in ...

External links

* * * 1980 films Films based on American novels 1980 horror films 1980s comedy horror films American comedy horror films Films about witchcraft United Artists films 1980 comedy films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{comedy-horror-film-stub