Review of Winter of the Witch

"Winter of the Witch" is a 24-minute live action short film from 1969, so only two more years until this has its 50th anniversary. The director is Gerald Herman and he is also the writer who adapted the original book by the Devlins for the small screen here. The cast includes two big names, namely Oscar-nominee Burgess Meredith who narrates the tale and Golden-Globe winning actress Hermione Gingold who plays the title character and probably also the most significant character of the entire thing. She may be the reason why this felt like a very British movie despite being an American production. Anyway, this is the story of a witch who has apparently enough of her profession and with the help of a boy turns into a likable old lady. Or so it is supposed to be. I personally felt honestly that with all the focus on Gingold, the boy seemed completely insignificant and it never felt realistic that he would cause this change in her, even if times did as well. Kinda fitting that child actor Roger Morgan never appeared in another film and from what I saw here, I am not disappointed about that. There is a decent quote about enough bad people existing nowadays, so witches have nothing to do anymore. But that's pretty much the only good moment. Even with the makers trying to convince us in the very last scene, I never felt as if the witch would have been really evil at some point. Is she just some confused old lady dressed up as a witch? I don't know. IMDb does not list this film as a fantasy movie, so maybe it is actually true. But IMDb also lists this film with a rating at over 8, which is highly inaccurate as this wasn't a good watch at all. i give it a thumbs-down and don't recommend checking it out. The story wasn't good enough simply and I have a feeling that this is more because of the production values here and not because the book is as weak. I have never read it. Final note: This is a color film. Don't be fooled by the b&w shots here on the film's title page.