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Night of the Eagle (1962) continued.

That night Tansy prepares a drink as Norman slumbers in front of the fire. She breathes a strange incantation, and gets her drowsy husband to share the drink. The next day she is gone, leaving behind a cryptic message which sends Norman racing off to their country cottage. Doubts are beginning to flash across Norman’s mind as we hear a voiceover of Tansy saying that she cannot be responsible if he forces her to give up her protections. When he finally catches up with her coach, driving alongside to try to get her attention, Norman narrowly misses a head-on collision with a truck and is forced off the road.

When he finally arrives at the cottage in a hired car, there is no sign of his wife. As he frantically searches for some clue, he stumbles across some books of spells and incantations. His eye is drawn to the formula for destroying a curse – this leads him to, “the house of the dead in the place of the dead,” the nearest churchyard. Norman finds himself in an open crypt; atop one of the boxes he places a photograph of Tansy, and surrounds it with four candles. He picks up a handful of dirt and sprinkles it over the picture. Suddenly he realises what he has been doing and scatters all of the elements. But it has worked; we see – framed in the doorway of the crypt – his wife.

Taylor takes Tansy back to their cottage and consults the local doctor, who recommends that she spend a spell in hospital. Tansy, who up to this point has appeared to be in a cataleptic trance, suddenly becomes insistent that she wants to go home. Against the doctor’s wishes, Norman takes her back. It is whilst he is resting that one veil of the mystery finally lifts. As Norman sleeps, Tansy takes a knife from the kitchen and lurches towards her husband. From the camera’s third party viewpoint we suddenly notice that Tansy is limping heavily. Fortunately Norman awakens just in time to subdue his would-be assassin, but – like the viewer – his suspicions are now aroused.

Unconcerned for the time of night, Norman makes rapid progress to the school and finds his way to Flora Carr’s office. Searching her desk, he finds a photograph of himself and Tansy, which has been carefully cut out in outline. He then realises that he is not alone. He douses the light and secretes himself behind the door just before the limping figure of Flora arrives. A confrontation ensues, and Norman plays her the tape of his lecture. We hear again the same sound effect that Norman seems oblivious to. It is obvious from Flora’s face that she does not share his disinterest as he asks, “Does it bother you?” The two then square up to each other properly. Flora asks Taylor why he refuses to believe in witchcraft, “After all, it is the oldest religion in the world.” He accuses her of trying to unbalance his wife – she wonders why he is so, “naïve.”

Flora then takes out a set of Tarot cards and begins to lay out a house of cards. When she gets to the roof she has already planted the seeds of fear in Norman’s mind – “And this of course is Tansy.” Outwardly Norman scoffs – but then Flora plays her ace, “How could I know about that accident with the truck?” He replies that, “The papers could have got hold of it.” With chilling confidence she answers, “They didn’t.” The war of nerves is almost at its peak – then Flora sets fire to the house of cards. She echoes his disbelief, “It’s just a silly woman setting fire to some cards.” The tension is almost unbearable – pressure and uncertainty deepen for the terrified Taylor, “Do you really believe that your house is burning? Is Tansy dying?”

Norman escapes the room, sweating and struggling for control. Back in her office Flora incants, “Burn witch, burn!” As Norman dashes for his home, we see Flora resume the tape, only this time she runs it through the school’s public address system. The signal has been given and we hear once more the noise that was outside the cottage. Only this time the source is revealed as a giant stone eagle which gains life and swoops from the entrance towards Taylor. Immediately, forced to contend with unbridled terror, Norman seeks the sanctuary of his own classroom but here he is cornered and the transition is complete. The final irony occurs as the tutor is cowering against his own blackboard, and his jacket rubs out the word ‘NOT’ from his opening assertion in the film’s beginning.

Back in Flora’s office her husband (Lindsay) arrives, attracted by the commotion over the P.A., and turns off the tape. Just as suddenly as the earlier incident in the cottage, normality returns. There is no eagle and both the shattered school door and Norman’s tattered clothing are intact. A dazed and bewildered Taylor makes his way home to discover that his wife is alright. She says, “The fireman said it was an oil stove.” As they embrace and exchange a look that speaks volumes.

In a final, classic, ‘B’ movie twist Flora, on being taken home by Lindsay is crushed to death by the huge stone eagle falling from its lintel perch...