Available on the BBC iPlayer if you can access it, this wartime tale of strange forces and stifled passions in a Caribbean island has worn well.
Canadian nurse Betsy (Frances Dee - her character has no surname) leaves a chilly Toronto to care for the wife of British sugar planter Tom Holland (Paul Conway). She finds that Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon) is in a kind of trance, and Holland's boozy American half-brother Wesley Rand blames Tom for this. A love triangle and voodoo shenanigans emerge in parallel as Betsy falls for Tom. There's some interesting stuff about the medical science of the day, including an attempt to cure Jessica with shock treatment involving of a diabetic coma. But in the end, it is the drums in the night that prevail...
Any film of this period with a large cast of black extras involved in the occult might be expected to have a lot of cringe-making moments. But in fact the script by Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray is almost 'woke' in its sympathy for the plight of the slave-descended islanders. Voodoo is not mocked or shown as inherently evil. The white characters are intelligent enough to grasp that people need beliefs and traditions, especially when they are up against terrible hardship.
With Val Lewton producing and Jacques Tourneur in the director's chair, it's not surprising that IWWaZ is a lot classier than its premise (or wartime budget) might imply. As in Cat People and Night of the Demon, the use of light and shadow is superb, and the pacing is excellent. At just over an hour, this is really a short feature that punches far above its weight. It's also interesting to note that, while the men make a big fuss about everything and are constantly point scoring, it's actually some assertive women - Betsy, Alma the servant, and Mrs. Rand - who make a real difference.
I was going to include the original trailer but it is so plonkingly at odds with this subtle, intelligent film that I decided against it.
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