The Woman Who Came Back (1945)

As hard as it might be to believe, prior to the Seventies horror movies rarely mentioned Halloween. In fact, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, comedies, such as The Boy Friend (1939), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), referenced Halloween more often than horror movies. One horror movie made during the Golden Age that referenced Halloween was The Woman Who Came Back (1945). Even though it was made in the mid-Forties, The Woman Who Came Back was one of the earliest horror movies to mention the holiday.

In The Woman Who Came Back Lorna Webster (Nancy Kelly) is returning to her home town of Eben Rock on the night of Halloween. She is descended from Judge Elijah Webster, a notorious witch-hunter who had several women burned at the stake for witchcraft. She is sleeping on the bus when an old woman boards it in the middle of nowhere. The old woman claims that she is one of the witches hanged by Elijah Webster. She further claims that she made a deal with the Devil so that when she dies her spirit will enter the body of a young woman over the course of 300 years. The bus on which Lorna is riding crashes and she is the only survivor. While recovering in Eben Rock she begins to suspect that the spirit of the old witch has entered her. Worse yet, after a series of strange incidents, the residents of Eben Rock tend to believe this too. Only the local minister, Reverend Jim Stevens (Otto Kruger) and her love interest, Dr. Matt Adams (John Loder), believe otherwise.

In the mid-Forties movies about witchcraft and diabolism became somewhat fashionable. In 1942 I Married a Witch took a humorous look at witchcraft. Val Lewton's The Seventh Victim (1943) centred on a Satanic cult. In the horror movie Weird Woman (1944) based on Fritz Leiber's novel Conjure Wife, a professor's wife is suspected of being a witch. Given the release of movies about witchcraft or diabolism, it should come as no surprise that Republic Pictures made The Woman Who Came Back.

Republic Pictures was not particularly known for the quality of its horror movies. Some examples of Republic's horror movies are The Lady and the Monster (1944) and The Catman of Paris (1946), neither of which are particularly respected. While Republic Pictures was not known for quality horror movies, The Woman Who Came Back is the exception. In fact, it could very nearly be a Val Lewton movie save for the fact that Val Lewton did not produce it. Like Mr. Lewton's movies, The Woman Who Came Back relies more upon the power of suggestion and the film's atmosphere than anything graphic. Like Val Lewton's films, The Woman Who Came Back has a deliberate pace that allows the suspense in the film to build and build. If the movie has one flaw, it is in its ending, which goes to a bit too much effort to explain everything. One has to suspect Val Lewton would have given it a more ambiguous ending.

The Woman Who Came Back benefits from a capable cast. Nancy Kelly, who would later play the mother of the title character in The Bad Seed (1956), is very convincing as Lorna as the character's hysteria gradually grows throughout the movie. Veteran character actor Otto Kruger is great as Reverend Stevens, the voice of reason in the small town of Eben Rock. John Loder is also quite good.

While Halloween does not play an overly large role in The Woman Who Came Back, given the era it is significant that the holiday is mentioned at all. Halloween certainly adds weight to the idea that Lorna may be a witch given the bus crash takes place on the holiday. When Lorna arrives at the tavern in town following the bus crash, there are children dressed in costumes. Given how rarely Halloween was mentioned in horror movies prior to the Seventies, even the small role Halloween plays in The Woman Who Came Back is notable.

I would recommend The Woman Who Came Back to anyone who enjoys 1940s horror movies, particularly those made by Val Lewton. It is a remarkable film put out by a studio not often known for the quality of its horror movies.