The Witches (1990)

by Ted Davis

Directed by: Nicolas Roeg

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Miss Eva Ernst (Anjelica Huston), the formidable and emphatically accented Grand High Witch of England, and her loathsome coven of evil witches plot to use a magic potion to change all the children in England to mice, but are countered by the unlikely twosome of Luke Eveshim (Jasen Fisher), a brave young boy (and even braver young mouse), and his indomitable granny Helga Eveshim (Mai Zetterling), who has battled these destructive creatures before, and to her cost.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): During a flashback sequence related by Helga, an old Norwegian witch (Grete Nordra) targets little Erica (Elsie Eide) as a victim and spies on the child from her bedroom window while holding her truculent shaggy black cat, so truculent in fact that she dares to take a nip at the witch’s nose (in fact the witch makes as if to bite the cat as well!)

The Witches - Grete Nordra holding longhair black cat

The Witches - longhair black cat nipping at nose of Grete Nordra animated gif

The red-wigged hag captures Erica as the little girl returns home from the grocers with a tin of milk. Just before she is snatched, Erica is distracted by the evil witch’s black cat, which screeches in triumph after the foul deed is accomplished.

The Witches - longhair black cat approaching Erica Elsie Eide

The Witches - longhair black cat scurrying away

Later in the film, Luke in mouse form slips into Miss Ernst’s suite to steal a vial of the magic potion, but is detected by her perpetually angry black cat, known as Liebchen, who chases the panicked rodent up a nearby trellis and out to a sapling branch.

The Witches - black cat Liebchen looking around couch

The Witches - black cat Liebchen growling

The Witches - black cat Liebchen looking around couch to spot mouse Luke animated gif

The Witches - black cat Liebchen extreme close up

The Witches - black cat Liebchen in potted plant

The Witches - black cat Liebchen chasing mouse Luke in potted plant animated gif

Luke cries to his grandmother for help, and she calls to the cat from the floor above and distracts the terrifying Liebchen with a long lure made up of her knitting.

The Witches - black cat Liebchen on balcony

The Witches - black cat Liebchen distracted from chasing mouse Luke with knitted sock dangled by Helga Mai Zetterling animated gif

Luke is able to secure a vial of the potion while the snarling cat is wrestling with the knitted boot, but Miss Ernst returns to her rooms before the talking mouse can escape, accompanied by her exploited assistant Miss Susan Irvine (Jane Horrocks), and calls immediately for her cat.

The Witches - black cat Liebchen playing with knitted sock

She finds Liebchen on the terrace, and picks up the cat, at the same instant noticing her enemy Helga on the above floor. The quick thinking grandmother covers her exposure with a weak if plausible story about dropping her knitting and looking for her grandson, and the two antagonists endure a very brief deceptively polite conversation before Miss Ernst enters her bedroom and places the bloodthirsty cat on her bed.

The Witches - black cat Liebchen held by Eva Ernst Anjelica Huston on balcony

As she greets members of her coven, Luke takes the opportunity to scurry from under the bed to the dresser, and Liebchen leaps for the kill, but is intercepted in mid air by Miss Ernst, who doesn’t see the mouse and admonishes, “You bad cat, Liebchen.” She sets the growling, obviously frustrated feline firmly back on the bed, while Luke escapes to the hall.