Witchfinder General

Last night I was watching the 1968 movie Witchfinder General, directed by Michael Reeves, which starred Vincent Price as the historical figure Matthew Hopkins, who during the English Civil War went around the countryside and, calling himself "The Witchfinder General", was paid by villagers to basically torture and execute anyone accused of witchcraft. The film, which is set in 1645, involves a Parliamentarian soldier on a mission of vengeance after Hopkins attacks his fiance and kills her father. The film is not particularly accurate, historically, but it is very good. The movie is really gruesome, particularly by the standards of the time. When it was released in America it was re-named The Conqueror Worm to tie it in with the Roger Corman movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Although this movie has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Poe.

After that I saw a 1962 Ingmar Bergman film called Through a Glass Darkly. It is about a family living on a small Swedish island, the daughter of which is slowly growing insane, the father is guilty about the fact that he is more curious than anything to see how his daughter's condition progresses, and her husband and brother look on powerless to do anything. The film is really bleak and very powerful.

I went to the shops today and bought a CD of That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Series Four and the CD of the recent radio drama of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Then I went along to the travel agent to get more details about my holiday.

On my way home I stopped off at the supermarket for my groceries for the week and got an issue of Uncut magazine which was running a special feature about the band Joy Division.