Conjure Wife is Fritz Leiber's first novel. It tells the story of a relatively young college professor and his wife, who just so happens to be witch. She uses her spells and such to protect her chosen man and help him along in his career. When he discovers her little notions, he stupidly destroys them thinking them whims. Things immediately start to go bad in his life. It seems there are other witches in town, and they don't cotton to the new couple at all.
The short novel was first published in Unknown Worlds in 1943. We meet Norman Saylor who is a professor of Ethnology at Hempnell College, a small school rife with the politics of the kind which are all too common in such places. He's considered a candidate for the head of the Sociology Department. His wife is the lovely Tansy Saylor who is five years younger, she'd been a student of his when they fell in love. It seems that in this universe all women practice witchcraft more or less to different degrees. Men are oblivious to these practices, and sadly as man I can attest that makes too much sense. When Norman finds the various totems and trinkets Transy uses to protect them, he foolishly destroys them and almost immediately his life is turned upside down. There is a threat to his life, a charge is made against him which is untrue, and his chances for the chairmanship dwindle when he makes some strong statements about sexual politics in his class.
When Norman finds the various totems and trinkets Tansy uses to protect them, he foolishly destroys them and almost immediately his life is turned upside down. There is a threat to his life, a charge is made against him which is untrue, and his chances for the chairmanship dwindle when he makes some strong statements about sexual politics in his class.
Tansy and Norman fail to communicate, and his lack of belief causes him to constantly seek logical answers to the strange events which increasingly surround him. There are more and more intrusions into their lives as he begins to believe, but then realizes he's rendered himself an easy victim to whatever is moving against hm. When Tansy at last begins to take direct action, it becomes a potential tragedy.
This is a remarkable story, told by a master who keeps us inside Norman's experience and makes us feel his indecision and ultimate dread. At a critical moment he is called up on to act and the consequences of this actually made me gasp. That's what stories like this want to do, affect the reader, to draw us into the world the author fashions and makes us feel the same love, fear, or this instance terror that informs the characters. A zombie tale with a twist. Remarkable story.
The novel was adapted to film three times. Weird Woman from Universal is an entertaining if not particularly faithful adaptation in 1944 of the Fritz Leiber story and features Lon Chaney Jr, Anne Gwynne and Evelyn Ankers. The story is hurt by the glossy studio presentation of the rituals, which needed a rougher treatment in places. The girl that played the witch-wife was too white-bread to sell the exotic nature of the tale; the poster makes her seem way scarier than anything in the movie itself. There is some really fine acting in this one, especially by Elizabeth Russell in a part that could have been far less in other hands. Evelyn Ankers is a real stand out and gleefully evil as the scorned woman, and her ultimate scene is pretty offbeat and strange. One big drag on the movie is Lon Chaney Jr. who is woefully miscast, but he was the face that sold the tickets. The most idiotic guy you've even seen on screen is constantly called brilliant by other characters as he did one dumb or insensitive thing after another.
The story of Conjure Wife was adapted to the screen again in 1962 under the title of Burn Witch Burn, and is also known as Night of the Eagle. This minor classic features a screenplay Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont and stars Peter Wyngarde and Janet Blair. It's got a damn fine poster, that's for sure. The movie itself is crisp and like most all the British flicks I see, filled with excellent actors. Peter Wyngarde is great as the self-righteous husband who demands that his wife see the world as he does, with relentless logic. Janet Blair is outstanding as Tansy, a thoroughly modern woman who just so happens practices a little witchcraft when her busy and ambitious husband is away. This moody effort is easily the best of the adaptations, making changes necessary to keep a sharp ending. The use of an eagle as an avatar of evil didn't rally track with me and scenes featuring the creature are the weakest in the production. The use of a recording tape is used as a fetish, not unlike those elusive slips of paper in Night of the Demon.
There was an early television adaptation of the story on the defunct DuPont Network in 1960 under the title Conjure Wife. I've not seen it and I've found almost nothing online about it. I'd love to know more, and I welcome any corrections.
This is grand stuff for the Halloween season. I highly recommend the book and even the movies are well worth seeking out. You can read the novel here.
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