Woman Who Came Back (1945)

Don't Believe the Hype

Brilliant and touching

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Great spooky visuals open this story of a small Massachussats town whose past comes back to haunt them in this supernatural thriller. Nancy Kelly is the descendant of the judge who sentenced a bunch of people to death on the suspicion of being witches. She is returning home after having run out on her fiancée (John Loder) and while on the bus, she is joined by a spooky looking old lady (the always wonderful Elspeth Dudgeon) who claims to be a witch from centuries before. The bus suddenly careens off a bridge into the river below and of the dozens killed, only Kelly survives. The town doesn't exactly welcome her back with open arms as her ex-fiancée's sister (Ruth Ford) is mysteriously stalked, Ford's daughter's fish are accidentally poisoned by Kelly (accidently picking up poison instead of fish food), and a mysterious doberman stalks Kelly everywhere she goes. After her nervous housekeeper (the prickly Almira Sessions) quits, rumors of her being a witch start to spread, and Kelly's own behavior begins to make Loder question whether or not this is true. Only the town's reverend (Otto Kruger) has any doubts of what's going on, and even his faith will be tested as well.There's so much potential in this Republic horror movie that is totally a let down with its Scooby Doo like ending. Certainly, there's enough evidence presented in the various character's research of their own town's wretched history to have given the opportunity for this to take on some maudlin twists rather than the let down which happens at the end. In fact, you can see that coming, and what is at first entrancing you with its mystery becomes more obvious towards the end. Elspeth Dudgeon had several similar roles years before in some Warner Brothers mystery that gave the opportunity to create a character for which she would be long remembered, but other than her spooky appearance at the beginning, she is only mentioned afterwords. Certain plot elements give way to the fact that this is going to end in a more satisfying angle, and had somebody like Val Lewton or Tod Browning been behind its creation, it certainly could have gone down that path.How would I have ended it? Certainly, the character that Nancy Kelly is playing seems to be under some sort of curse. Even if Dudgeon's character had not been a witch, her spirit could still have roamed the earth in search of revenge, and with the letter that claimed she would be around for a 300 year period until her death was avenged, it really seemed as if Kelly would be possessed by this bad seed that caused her to do witch-like things and arise the townspeople's suspicions. A "Frankenstein" chase at the end between the townspeople and Kelly under Lewton's camera eye would have ended with her falling over a cliff and when her corpse is discovered revealed to be Dudgeon's long-dead character instead. Like the same year's "The Body Snatcher", that would have given the viewers a thrill in addition to the chill, but what does happen at the end is a chilly reaction to how these writers chose to end a missed opportunity rather than making it into the classic it could have become.

"Woman Who Came Back" is an okay film made by one of the best 'poverty row' studios, Republic. It's a little better than average for one of their films but the ending just left me very cold and unsatisfied.The film begins with a weird old lady and her dog stopping a bus. The lady climbs aboard and begins regaling a young lady (Nancy Kelly) with stories about how she is the spirit of a centuries-old witch! Soon, the bus plunges over an embankment and everyone aboard, aside from the young lady, is killed. Soon, strange thing happen around town (such as the dog appearing to the lady and refusing to leave her side) and slowly the idiots in the town and the lady begin to wonder if she is the reincarnation of the witch who was burned so long ago.So far, the film is a bit silly but well done and entertaining. But the studio insisted on explaining away everything at the end--so much so that I felt it undermined the story. Still, it was mildly enjoyable and I always like seeing Otto Kruger in any film. Not great but a decent time-passer.

I can see why some people compare this to Val Lewton's inexpensive productions over at RKO. This was released the year of Lewton's last picture there. And here we have a psychological horror movie with a dog instead of a panther, the possibility of supernatural intervention in everyday lives, and a woman walking alone at night down a deserted street with something mysterious following her.But it's a bit of a sloppy lash up. Expectations of explanations go unfulfilled. Why, for instance, does the old lady's dog take a shine to the disturbed heroine, Nancy Kelly? Why does the dog decide suddenly and without reason to attack Otto Kruger, the innocent preacher? Why does the dog chew up the doll and nothing else? Why did Nancy Kelly leave the town doctor flat at the altar? (Man, is THAT one hard to believe!) Why does Gregor Samsa turn into a beetle? It all seems a great big puzzle. We would do well to remember that this was written by a man named Kafka.Nancy Kelly returns to the Massachusetts town of Eben Rock, which has a history of burning witches. When she arrives, followed by that German shepherd for some reason, bad things begin to happen. There is a disastrous bus accident. A little girl gets sick. And it doesn't take long for the good citizens of Eben Rock to suspect Nancy Kelly of being a witch. When I say "it doesn't take long," I mean it REALLY doesn't take long.The bus on which Kelly is returning after an absence of some years plunges into a lake and she is the only survivor. It's one of the first scenes in the movie, and here is a rough exchange between the sheriff and the preacher.Sheriff: You know, it's mighty peculiar that the minute she shows up in town there's a bad accident.Preacher: Are you suggesting -- Sheriff: I'm not suggesting anything. It's just peculiar, that's all.I won't go into the plot much because it's kind of complicated, except to say that at the end all suspicions of the supernatural are dispelled. Nancy Kelly is adequate in the part of the lady who comes to believe she's possessed by the spirit of a woman burned at the stake in 1645. I kind of like John Loder. His face has the magnetic attraction of a hard-boiled egg but he has a splendid English accent. He was one of the older sons of Donald Crisp in the Welsh village of "How Green Was My Valley." I've always enjoyed Otto Kruger too. What a reliable guy. Here, he has some tough material to chew on.The direction is pedestrian but Walter Comes and his editors have given us one sensitive scene of an approaching thunderstorm, the thunderstorm during which all climaxes must take place. Nancy Kelly is leaving a lake that looks like Walden Pond and she flings a pebble into the water, leaving slight ripples. There is a barely noticeable dissolve and we see the surface of the lake corrugated with many such ripples. Another slight dissolve and the wind has now churned the surface into coarse chop, spattered with rain.On the whole it's pretty routine but mildly diverting. It's not nearly as disturbing -- as SCARY -- as Val Lewton's best, or as unnerving as "Carnival of Souls."

The Woman Who Came Back is a largely unknown little forties horror film; but it's a rather good one also. The film focuses on witchcraft, and in particular the idea of a witch coming back to avenge her death. This idea would of course go on to be used in many, many films after 1945; but this is one of the earlier examples. The Woman Who Came Back is an eerie horror film that mostly relies on its atmosphere and inventiveness in order to deliver the chills, and this works quite effectively. The plot focuses on a young woman named Lorna Webster who catches a bus back home to Eben Rock. She finds herself sitting next to a cackling old woman, and before she knows it; the bus has been involved in an accident and Lorna is the only survivor. She then goes back to her old house and is reacquainted with her old lover; but she's haunted by the old woman on the bus who told Lorna of an old town legend regarding a witch that swore vengeance on her executioner. One thing leads to another, and Lorna comes to believe she is the reincarnation of that witch...The film is very short at just sixty eight minutes, but this time is used very well and the film doesn't feel rushed or underdone for most of the duration. The plot flows very well too and director Walter Colmes keeps his audience interested by constantly feeding us with new ideas and pieces of information. There isn't a great deal of films about witchcraft (compared to other subgenres) and that's a shame really because it certainly is very interesting. This film manages to get most of things that most people would associate with witchcraft into it; including spells and the witch's familiar, which helps to make the proceedings more interesting. The performances are all very strong; with Nancy Kelly giving a particularly convincing performance in the central role. It's the atmosphere that is the real star, however, and a sequence midway through with a storm is a real standout. The film is good for about the first hour but unfortunately it's let down more than just a little bit by the ending; which does wrap things up a bit too quickly. However, this is still a very good little film and one that I'm sure will please most people with a mind to see it.