Ezra Jackson (Keith Larsen) is a con man posing as a preacher. He travels around stealing from men and seducing women. Wandering around the shoreline on a donkey, Ezra comes upon a young couple on the beach. He cons the man into going fishing for an extra fish. While the man is fishing Ezra has sex with the girlfriend, steals their food and their car. He ends up pursued by a couple ‘Federales’.
In the meantime, Frank Evans (Ron Taft), who works for a real estate agent named Timothy Gruper (John Jones), is taking a client, Mr. Greenstreet (Leon Charles), to look at islands that are for sale. Greenstreet seems more interested in a seaside mansion along the Mexican shoreline. He tells Frank that the mansion houses some astrologists. Frank says he heard that they are witches headed by a woman, Cassandra (Kathryn Loder). They are currently renting the old governor’s mansion. Greenstreet is looking for a friend that he says went to visit the witches but has never been seen since.
Greenstreet has Frank drop him off on shore and return to the marina to pick up his car. He tells Frank to pick him up later at Cassandra’s house. The witches call Greenstreet Mr. Sagittarius. Cassandra has Sagittarius poisoned. While driving to Cassandra’s to get Greenstreet, Frank picks up Ezra, who has successfully evaded the Mexican police, and brings him along to the mansion. The witches enchant Frank so that he falls in love with Athena (Randy Stafford), one of the witches. While they are frolicking around and indoctrinate Frank into the coven, Ezra attempts to steal from Cassandra and the other witches. Ezra doesn’t get very far.
“Night of the Witches” was released in 1970 and was written and directed by Keith Larsen. Larsen also plays the preacher, Ezra Jackson. It is a low budget horror-esque film with camp and comedic undertones. The movie is very obscure so finding anything out about it is difficult. I believe it is an American and Canadian venture.
I’ve seen some really good reviews concerning the movie, which I was surprised at. I found it to be a little confusing at first but then there was a lot boring. There are a couple storylines that start out separate but eventually merge. Individually the stories are a bit dumb but together they smooth each other out a little which helps the movie move along a little bit.
I didn’t care for the characters and the story is sort of bland. If you’re looking for sex and nudity, then you will be disappointed. It is the kind of film that you would expect to see a lot of naked women and orgies. The usual exploitation devices give way to dancing and music. The film does have an ambitious music score. Some of it was rather silly but some of it was actually really good. The coven rituals and movements were reminiscent of a 60’s style of free love and psychedelic orgy, but without the orgy.
I don’t know if the movie has ever had a home release. The only copies I’ve ever seen of the film are really old television downloads. Its theatrical releases were on a double bill with “Flick” AKA “Dr. Frankenstein on Campus”. They made the drive-in circuit together for a while. Any nudity that may have made it into the film was surely cut for the television release.