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Night of the Eagle 1962 ***

Also known by one of its choicer lines of dialogue, Burn, Witch Burn, this is a working definition of a tight little B Movie.  Before self-parody was a glint in his eye, super-smoothie Peter Wyngarde plays a skeptical lecturer who finds out this his new wife (Janet Blair) leaves little dolls around the house. He confronts her, and refuses to believe that she is a witch, tossing the dolls out. But the forces of darkness are gathering, and Night of the Eagle lives up to its title when a giant bird pursues him around campus.  Very much a companion piece to Jacques Tourneur’s 1957 classic Night of the Demon in terms of creating tension from minimal situations, Sidney Hayers directs from Fritz Leiber’s novel.

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