Return from Witch Mountain (1978)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

John Hough

Writers:

Malcolm Marmorstein (written by)
Alexander Key (characters)

Release Date:

10 March 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Fantasy

Tagline:

Sinister forces from this world against two young space travellers from another.

Plot:

Tia and her brother Tony have supernatural powers, can communicate and move things with the power of their mind alone...

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Supernatural Power | Child Abuse | Psychic Power | Nuclear Holocaust

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Letha
Christopher Lee	...	Victor
Kim Richards	...	Tia
Ike Eisenmann	...	Tony
Jack Soo	...	Mr. Yokomoto
Anthony James	...	Sickle
Richard Bakalyan	...	Eddie (as Dick Bakalyan)
Ward Costello	...	Mr. Clearcole
Christian Juttner	...	Dazzler
Brad Savage	...	Muscles
Poindexter Yothers	...	Crusher (as Poindexter)
Jeffrey Jacquet	...	Rocky
Stu Gilliam	...	Dolan
William Bassett	...	Operations Officer (as William H. Bassett)
Tom Scott	...	Monitor

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone Sound Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Canada:G (video rating) | Australia:G | UK:U | USA:G | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

Director John Hough was instrumental in casting character actor Anthony James as Sickle.

Quotes:

Dr. Victor Gannon: Where you from?
Tony: Witch Mountain.
Sickle: Sounds like some hick town to me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Family Guy: Dammit Janet (#2.15)" (2000)

Mad Scientists Use Alien Kids

This is a fine sequel to one of Walt Disney's better family projects Escape from Witch Mountain. The adult stars are Bette Davis and Christopher Lee as an old dowager financing a mad scientist in some nefarious experiments.

These two happen on the alien kids from Witch Mountain, Kim Richards and Ike Eisenman, when the kids are on holiday to Earth once again. They kidnap Ike after seeing an example of his powers of levitation and seek to use him and fit him with a mind control device that Lee's been perfecting.

Lee's dreaming some big dreams and Davis has some more mundane schemes like a trip to some gambling house or racetrack. Both of them looking like they are having one grand old time hamming it up for the cameras.

Of course the film wouldn't work at all if it were not for the winning personalities of Richards and Eisenman. Both come across as real kids, not sure of the extent of their own powers rather than Hollywood juvenile actors.

The whole of the film is Richards pursuing and trying to rescue her brother and in the process she recruits a gang of juveniles escaping from a truant officer played by the ever deadpan funny Jack Soo. Eventually Soo joins forces with the kids and proves of some help.

Both Escape to Witch Mountain and this sequel are fine family entertainment, some of the best that Disney studio produced.