The Happy Pancake Witch
For most of my life I had a vague memory fluttering in my head. A witch, serving pancakes in a breakfast restaurant, that when you eat them make you happy. The spell was shown by a freeze frame as colorful dots splashed across the screen.
In my teens, no one I ever mentioned this to had any idea what I was talking about. I began to think it was maybe just something I had dreamed. But in my early adult years, I found one person who shared the same vague memory. He used the term “happy dots” to describe the spell, so I coined the name “Happy Pancake Witch” to describe this shared memory.
On October 1, 1991, I made my first attempt to use the Internet to find the answer. But there were not enough people my age online yet, and no answer was found.
Over the next couple of years I found one or two more people with a similar memory who were able to give me a little more detail. I searched the Internet Movie Database (which at the time did not have a Web site as those did not exist yet — in the early days you uses shell scripts at the command line, then later you emailed in queries using a special syntax and eventually after it processed you’d get an email back with the results) with the new clues and still came up with nothing.
On June 17, 1994 I made another online plea, this time with a little more success. I got a few more details, but still no answer.
In early 1995 I created a web site called The Happy Pancake Witch that listed a compilation of all the clues I had received and asked people to email me if they had more information. Results began coming in and as more elements of the plot came together, I noticed that everyone I found with this shared memory was born between 1966 and 1972. And, finally, I got the clue that would solve the mystery. Someone thought that the title might contain the word “winter”.
I telneted in to the Library of Congress server (no web site back then) and queried for all publications containing the word “winter” in the title that had the word “witch” mentioned in the synopsis. Before long I had a potential candidate, a 1969 short film titled “Winter of the Witch.”
I telneted into the Kansas City Public Library server (again no web site yet) and did a search for this title. Not only did I find that they had a VHS copy avaialbe, it was located at the branch less than a mile from where I was sitting!
I ran to the library the next day and checked it out. I took it home, popped it into the VCR, and sat back to watch. Immediately the memories started pouring back. It wasn’t a mass hallucination, the Happy Pancacke Witch was real!
More details from The Mythical Movie Guide
Based upon th children’s book Old Black Witch by Wende and Harry Devlin, it tells the story of a mother and her son who move into a house that they got very cheap. They soon discover that the house is haunted by a 300-year-old witch who is depressed because since the modern world is such a scary place no one needs witches anymore. The mom agrees to let the witch stay and live in the attic. Eventually the witch finds a way to stay busy, whipping up batches of pancakes containing a potion that makes you happy. The mom opens a restaurant and people come from miles to eat these happy pancakes. Finally the witch reveals her plan: to make everyone in the world happy enough that it’s once again possible for them to be scared of witches.
Today the “Winter of the Witch” is not so hard to find online. It has a full entry at the Internet Movie Database and a homemade DVD is available. But nearly everwhere you go online you find the same things posted in the user comments: people around my age who have been haunted their entire lives by vague memories of a pancake-making witch and her “happy dots”, all expressing joy and relief at finally identifying what it was they were remembering.
UPDATE - July 17, 2008 - Nearly a year later this post continues to be one of my blog’s top traffic getters. It is amazing how many people out there have had the same experience with this video. So I thought you all might like to know I found an online version of it. It’s choppy — transferred from an old film print, but you can now see it happy dots and all. Enjoy!
It’s funny how you describe the “vague memory fluttering in my head”. I too remember this. In fact, my search “happy Pancakes” put your post first. I remember the movie back when we first got cable in the late ’70’s early 80’s. And yes, I fall in the age range you mention above. I don’t know why I thought of it recently–but I wanted to find it online or something so my kids could see it. Although, it wasn’t the best-made movie! Anyhow, thanx for the info. I’m going to keep looking for a video online. If I remember, I think I saw it on the old Nickelodeon channel. for some reason, the word calliope keeps coming to mind.
Oh my god! I’ve been searching for the answer to this for years! I can vaguely remember watching it in my elementary school’s cafeteria. I’ve asked several of my friends that also attended my elementary school and they all thought I hallucinated it. Thank you for helping me realize I’m not insane.
Me,My Brother, and Sister have been on a quest to discover the pancake witch. They showed it in school every year in elementary school. I remember it as a black and white film strip type movie. Memories tend to take liberties I’ve noticed. I will find it and watch it again.
I too have been looking for this movie title forever. We also saw it in elementary school as a child. Nobody could remember it but me. Im so glad its real!!
I am so happy to have found this site. I have looked for years on and off. The only things I remembered were “Happy pancakes”, “witch”, and “restaurant”. Not really enough to go on. But today, I got lucky. I remember this from grade school but I was born in 1963. A little earlier than the rest of you. I saw it at Sprague school in Waterbury, CT Thanks for the site. I will purchase it.
I dont know why but I too have had this movie in my head. I described it to my wife and she had no idea what I was talking about and we both grew up in Brooklyn N.Y. in the 70’s. I never met anyone who knew about this. It is nice to know others can recall this pretty cool movie. I have to get a copy and see the whole thing. I remember the mother, kid, witch, happy pancakes, the multiple fireplaces and the aluminum tray T.V. dinners they ate. thanks for narrowing down my search. Franco
Thank God for YOU!!!!
Ive been going nuts trying to find someone who knew what I remembered from grade school rainy day movies in the cafeteria!
I could have been the author of this post. This has troubled me for decades. I honestly believed that I dreamed the whole thing up, until my new brother in law admitted a fleeting memory too. where can I find the darn thing?
Wow! That movie did something to us when we were all children. I too have had the same memories about the pancakes, the happy witch, laughing people, and colorful dots. It was a wonderful movie, but I wonder why our teachers showed us the movie. When I tell my friends about the movie that ask if I went to a “hippie” school. I went to a regular elementary school, but we watched it all the time. Wow!
I finally found it!! I have been looking for this for half my life, for whatever reason I keep re-thinking of this movie, maybe we’re all like suposed to keep in our mind for some weird plan -LOL!
I missed this film when I was in elementary school. However, now I’m a library media specialist and I have a copy of this film in my collection. It was provided by the school district.
What I would like to see is a better print of it. The copy I have came from a 16mm print. Was this filmed in 35mm. Where is that print?
The 16mm suffers from washed out colors and poor contrast.
Has anyone contacted Anna Strasberg who plays the mom? Maybe she knows where to strat looking.
I was so excited to find this site. I just e-mailed the link to my sister. I thought she was the only other person that knew about this movie. Thanks for bringing back some happy memories.
Another person popping in who’s sitting here waxing nostalgia of my old memories and searching out a few. I googled “witch making pancakes” and this came up LOL! Thanks!
I’m pretty sure I saw this either at school or the Children’s Film Festival on CBS.
I don’t know what possessed me to search for this movie online again, but this is the most info I have found in years! I didn’t remember a witch. I thought it was called “Happy Pancakes.” I also remembered “The Red Balloon” which I have checked out from the library and shown my kids. Just a note on my age… I’m a 69 model, so yes, I fall in the age range as well. Thanks for your work!
Man, everyone I know thought I was crazy but here it is! I’m also a ‘69 kid so it all makes sense now!!! YAY! [goes to make pancakes]
OMG!!! Thank you! i can’t believe that there are others out there that have seen this movie. I loved it as a kid and have been trying to remember the title for years. Thank you soooo much!!!!!!
i found the film. the title is Winter of the Witch. if you go to google.video.com and search for Winter of the Witch it’s the first link that comes up. you can watch it in full on your computer. thanks again for bringing back old memories.
This is hilarious. As a child of the 70s, I remember the “Happy Pancakes” movie and while making pancakes this evening I Googled “happy pancakes” and here I am. Thanks for the detective work. I seem to remember a few of these types of movies, always seemed to play on a Saturday or Sunday. I recall another film around the same time about a kid who started a pizza delivery business in the winter using his sled! He attached a box to the sled which kept the pizzas warm.
I know I’m not hallucinating that one!
Me again. I found the wintertime pizza delivery movie I mentioned earlier. It’s from Quebec, 1972, entitled “Cold Pizza”. It was listed along with the Winter of the Witch movie on a CBS Children’s Film Festival page (http://kukla.tv/cbs.html). Wouldn’t it be great if all of these children’s short films were released on a DVD compilation. Good golly, remember “Paddle To The Sea”?
I too grew up in Kansas City…and have been haunted by this film. After killing a moment or two at work by googling “Happy Pancakes” I found your site. It’s nice to see other people were affected by the short film, too! Another one we used to watch was the one about the little kid and his red balloon.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!! For 20 years I have thought I am CRAZY. Not one single person I have ever met knew this movie!!!!! I LOVE the internet!!!!!!!!!!
OMG!!! For years I have been trying to figure out if I dreamt this movie or if it was real. I remember the happy dots and the pancakes but when I ask my friends who I went to grade school with, they say I must have imagined it. But i totally remember watching this movie at school and I can even picture the witch coming down the stairs when the mom gets home. I remember She lived upstairs. WOW, Thank you for proving I am not CRAZY!!!
I love this site! I saw this movie/show in the 1st grade at school. I have been thinking about it ever since. Thank you so much.
Our third grade teacher showed us this movie in 1978 or 79 and it had a strange impact on all of us. Weird and very memorable. I was looking for it but couldn’t remember the title! Found your discussion here by googling the words “pancakes” “witch” and “drugs.” Thanks!
Our third grade teacher showed us this movie in 1978 or 79 and it had a strange impact on all of us. Weird and very memorable. I was looking for it but couldn’t remember the title! Found your discussion here by googling the words “pancakes” “witch” and “drugs.” Thanks!
Thanks. I too have had memories of such a witch and pancakes. This movie inspired me to present day to create a program called the Breakfast Club. Every Friday morning myself and 6 other volunteers make Pancakes for the Swinomish Indian Reservation children. Our hope is to share some happiness and the good word with Native American children who could use some happiness. Amazing what one film can do to one’s life. By any chance, anyone remember a movie about a apple tree that a man wanted to protect so he built a wall around the tree and continued to build the wall until the apple tree eventially almost died. He then picked the last apple’s and put them on a small raft and pushed them accross a small water to a lady on the otherside. She came back at the end with an apple pie. I am of course shortening the film and not giving justice to a great film. I would love to see that film again. Any ideas? Thanks again.
It’s so crazy that everyone seems to have the same experience when it comes to this film. I saw it back in 1977 when I was in kindergarten. For years this film stayed with me. A while back I Googled Witch who makes pancakes, but found nothing. Tonight I Googled it and found the info I needed at IMDB.com, and even found the film at Google Video. I have no idea why this film stays with people the way it does, but it’s really neat that we all share similiar experiences.
We used to watch this film in the gym on rainy days. When I spoke of it to people, they acted as if I were insane. But it’s real! Today I typed in nicky happy pancake witch and found your website! What a relief. Now if I can get my hands on a copy I will be complete. My sister managed to track down a copy of “chicken fat” which I have misplaced. I imagine anyone reading this also exercised to chicken fat!!
I have another cloudy memory of a film about a goldfish swimming around in a large martini glass while being watched by a large hungry looking cat - anyone? and of course the red balloon. born in ‘66 watched this at southwest school in montclair, nj
OMG! for years I remembered watching (at least I was pretty sure I had “seen”) a movie about a happy pancake factory house. was not sure if it had a witch in the story or not. I did not remember dots, but I did remember lots of color. I am so glad I finally stumbled on this site and can finally confirm THIS IS FOR REAL and not some childhood fantasy!!! thanks for your research!!!
OMG! for years I remembered watching (at least I was pretty sure I had “seen”) a movie about a happy pancake factory house. was not sure if it had a witch in the story or not. I did not remember dots, but I did remember lots of color. I am so glad I finally stumbled on this site and can finally confirm THIS IS FOR REAL and not some childhood fantasy!!! thanks for your research!!!
Thank you! I too was grateful to find your site and now the wonderful movie I watched in kindergarten in 1971 in Groton, CT. Now if I could just find my favorite BOOK too. It was about an octopus whose crate of oranges (or clementines? or tangerines?) broke and she had to carry them home to her house by the sea by rolling home. Anybody know what I am talking about???
the funny thing i remember seeing this movie in kindergarten class… just like the movie “RED BALLOON” how bout that one .. just seen it on youtube. i’m about to watch this one .. yae!!! i have always had that same response towards the movie .. people never recall these movies.. i even laugh now cause that would have been a great acid trip… what were these producers on ..lol…. i’m 32 at this time … i think people that are about 30 years old might have seen as well… n e ways .. thanks for the title and info… the way i found this was by googling a question ? movie about a witch making pancakes …lol
Thank you so much! I have been looking for this movie for my kids every Halloween. It brings happy childhood memories to me.
Thank you so much! I have been looking for this movie for my kids every Halloween. It brings happy childhood memories to me.
Thank you! This has been bugging me for years also. I was sick with pneumonia when I saw this, and was certain the dots must have been some hallucination.
What a relief to know my
vague memories of this were very real!
This is just too funny. My sister and I (born 1978 and 1980) remember watching this every halloween at church school. I’m watching it now to try and figure out how witches and drug-filled pancakes were a good film for church kids… THANKS!!!
I have thought about this movie on and off for the last 35 years! I also saw it it the grade school lunch room. thanks for solving the mystery for me
Yes!!! I googled “witch” + “pancakes” and found this site. I remember this movie terrifying me in elementary school. My brother remembered it too…But only that a witch made pancakes. I googled it years ago but nothing came up. Thank you thank you!
I am so Excited & Happy I cant explain it! I think about this film all the time and this mourning I thought of it again. I have searched for this film but gave up & today I thought I would try again and BINGO! I remember the witch, pancakes and colorful dots…Thanks Again…
Thank you
Hi - I am soooo glad I finally found your website. I have been searching for information about this movie for years. In the early 1980’s I went to A.T. Morrow Elementary School in Central Islip, New York - and we always watched this movie if we couldn’t go out for recess. We watched the filmstrip version. I moved to a different area of New York as a teenager, and would ask my friends if they too watched this movie in school, and they thought I was nuts!!! I can’t wait to show this website to my husband, so he will believe this movie does exist. Thanks again!!!!
I saw this film in second grade in 1978! I couldn’t forget it and am thrilled that my internet search with the words “witch” and “pancakes” brought up your site! THANK YOU!
Seems like this film almost created of cult of us who were haunted (in a good way) by this film! I was born in 1969, probably saw this at Round Meadow Elementary School near Calabasas, CA in the mid-’70s, and finally mentioned it to a friend in 1990 who said he had also saw it too (he was from Vermont). We talked about how the film almost had pyschedlic/drug overtones to it, and the film’s message wasn’t really clear to us as kids, but we liked it although it kind of spooked us too. Even now watching it, there is something pleasantly off about the whole thing, like you are watching an underground experimental film. The dots must have done something to our child minds!!
By the way, the Youtube link to the film is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykNYDgedb4w&feature=related
Someone needs to open a Magic Pancake chain of restaurants for sure!!
Man, I’m freaking out over here. One parson above said they were “haunted” by this movie, and another said it seemed “a little off. Like an experimental film.” That’s the allure of this thing. It’s like a dream state. I occasionally have “blasts from the past”, but this one surfaced tonight for the first time since 1973(?) when I was 7 (?). How can the human mind bury something for 34 entire years and just have it resurface from being buried DEEEEP in the subconscious?!! When I laid eyes on those 2 still shots above, my eyes hadn’t ever seen something so personally haunting! Totally miffed and disorientated and loving it. Btw, it IS on You Tube. Thanks for the link to a long forgotten instance from the cherished timeline of precious, precious early life. BLOWN AWAY.
Oh my god! I am SO excited that you did all the legwork and found the name of this movie!! While camping in upstate NY as a child, the park would show movies on certain nights. To this day, my brother and I still recollect the strange Happy Pancake movie with the flashing colorful dots. He will be just as excited when I tell him! Another classic I recall from camping…The Electric Grandmother.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I have been on the same quest as you for YEARS now! I remember this movie being played at Girl Scout overnights at the YMCA. I KNOW I saw it more than once, but everyone I mentioned it to as an adult looked at me like I was crazy. I tried searching the web so many times….not sure what I put in the search engine today, but I found YOU! I LOVED this movie. I didn’t remember the colorful dots until you mentioned them. I remember a mother and son living in a castle (or something), and they had a really mean lady living upstairs. But the PANCAKES made her happy. So at the end, they opened a pancake restaurant, which made all who ate there happy! What a fantastic movie! Thank you for your help solving this mystery! I too thought perhaps I had dreamed it!!!
Thank you so much! I have been looking for this movie forever! I saw it as a child in school, but never got to see the ending (the bell rang). I have asked around about the movie, no one could remember or heard about it. I could remember the boy and mom cleaning up the house and the witch making the happy pancakes, but I was alone with my memories.
I so needed to see the ending! Tonight I decided to search for it on the net and after a few tries I found your website. I am complete now! THANKS!!!!
I remember see that movie as a kid in school (K-6) It remains a happy memory of my childhood. I have asked people if they saw it or have heard of it, they have no idea. I am so glad to have found other people who enjoyed as much as I did and maybe still will enjoy.
OMG!!! I have been searching for this movie for over 6 hours! We had a discussion in my office this morning about witches and I said “Remember that movie with the witch that made pancakes that made everyone in town happy?” “We used to watch it in school on rainy days.” Well noone new what I was talking about, so I started the internet search - and tried every combination of searches I could think of until I put in “The Pancake Witch” and this site came up. I just read your story to my business partner who is cracking up at me because you said word for word what I was saying all day as I was trying to find this movie! Thanks for validating me! By the way I attended Westerville schools in Ohio if anyone else did too. Maybe it is a midwest thing. I live in Texas now and noone here knows what it is. Toooo Funnnnnyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, too funny. Was having pancakes this morning and thought of this movie. Typed “movie with [meant witch] pancakes happy” and this was the first result. Born in ‘69 myself and yeah, it was a staple at our school in upstate New York.
I’m sure 2 years later this blog entry is pretty popular. ;-)
Thank you.
Unearthing a piece of your childhood like this brings such an exquisite mix of happiness and wistfulness. I remember posting similar questions to usenet groups in the mid-90s looking for this movie, or any info on it. THANK YOU so much for recovering a lost piece of my (our!) past.
Isn’t the internet AMAZING!!! I must admit, I haven’t been haunted by memories of the happy pancake witch for decades, as it seems many were. However, last night, as my little girl shared with me the plans she has for her future- which include opening up a restaurant that serves happy pancakes- visions of a mother and son serving up pancakes to a room of deadpan faces that instantly turn joyful flooded over me!!! I was probably in the third grade (1976) the last time I saw this film, and may not have given it a moment’s consideration in 33 years! What a thrill to type in a couple of words and instantly have chunks of youthful memories restored! Thanks so much for your diligent research. After school, my kids and I will sit down with some popcorn, and we will enjoy a corny bit of my childhood together!
(By the way, I lived in the high desert in Southern California, so it’s not just a Midwest thing)
Oh, and it’s totally not just a midwest thing. I grew up on Long Island.
Jeez. I can’t believe this. Born in 73… started school in 78 and been wondering about this for decades. I remember sooo much from my elementary days at Jordan Elementary School in Whittier CA. This whole witch pancake thing has been driving me crazy. I married a teacher and I had her ask all her co-workers who are old school and taught in the 70s and 80s….none of these teachers knew about the pancake makin witch. They thought my poor wife married a weirdo. Maybe she did… but one thing for sure is that that dang witch made some good pancakes. Jeez wait till I tell my wife.
Finally…..I’ve had such vague memories of this movie….was it a dream…was it real….who was this witch and boy did those pancakes look good. Something made me google “movie witch and pancakes” today and here I am. Part of a (large) group of individuals from all over with the same vague memories. Born in 68 and I believe I saw the movie in elementary school in Long Island. Can’t wait to view it again. Thanks!!
Thanx for your site! Born in 66 i got “the itch” today and searched “magic witch pancakes” and found the page here, and followed directions to google video and got to see “winter of the witch” for the first time in years. Credits say the witch’s name is Hermione (where have we heard that before!) Gingold, a British actress
Wow, I can’t believe it! Did every grade school in the country show this in the mid-to-late ’70s? I don’t remember exactly when I saw it, but I was born in 1972 and I don’t think it was any later than 1980 or so that I last saw this. Strangely, though it was filmed in 1969, memories of it seem to belong strictly to the micro-generation of us who grew up more or less in the combination of the late ’70s and early ’80s. A bit cornier (and shorter) than I remember, but at least now I finally know that I haven’t been imagining the witch pancake film all these years. Try buying that house for $400 today!
I have thought of this on and off over the years. What great memories it brought back of my school days in central NJ. I just remembered the witch, pancakes, fireplaces, and of course the dots! Many thanks for a trip down memory lane.
THANK YOU for clearing my head of this (what seemed to be a) hallucination. I have found no one who remembers this either and am certainly relieved that the memory is real. I found tonight The Red Balloon and Clown. It has brought me back to some happier times. I was born in 1968 and grew up in Arlington Heights IL. Thank you again!
I remember this movie from kindergarten..around 1972…the funny thing is my old teacher “Mrs. Fanny” looked just like the witch in the movie…This movie scared the heck out of me..and i’d tell my Mom about it and she’d say…ah..you’re imagining it..you didint watch any such movie”…I always hoped to find this movie..and now thanks to your website i can watch it and know that I’m not insane.
Such a weird little movie..and what makes it even more strange is how many little kids were subjected to it at a young age..by their teachers no less “very,very odd to me”.
Anyhow..its great knowing that I’m not alone and that so many other people had seen this as kids and tried to find it like me…makes me feel a little more normal heheheehe..
thx
kevin,
southern ca.
The internet is great for this kind of thing. All I did was to put in my Facebook status, “Do you remember the film they’d show where the mother made pancakes for her son and when people ate the pancakes they went all happy and they saw colourful spots? What was it called? We used to love it when they showed us that film!” I got seven replies pretty much instantly and one guy came up trumps with the link to the google video showing the whole film. Seeing it again is like entering a time machine taking me back 32 years in the wink of an eye!
Nice to see that others have searched for this film. Oh, and I’m from Canada so it’s not just in the US where this film was shown.
Like you and so many others,I too saw this film in second or third grade in 1972,but only once.The only reason I remembered this Winter of the witch film was the mother and son was very much like my situation at home.A single parent raising her child and wanting a home of our own too. The other thing I remembered was wanting some of those happy pancakes,for it being the(solution to the unhappiness problem.)In 2009,I was sitting in the dark one night,thinking about
the once seen film that I thought was titled,(Summer of the winter witch,)so,I jumped up,switched on a light and began to search the web
for the film.Westen Woods was a dead end,so I tried with just a title
on google.It was then my past came to call again from 37 years ago.
Isnt it amazing what the human mind can recall?
YEAH!!!! I am not crazy. I have been trying to figure this one out for years….no one around me could even think that there was ever a movie like this. I was born 1964….saw it in elementary school in Garland, TX. My daughter was bragging about a website that she knew of listing all movies - even current ones. I told here I had one to stump her, but did not know the name. She quickly googled all my memories and came to this site. Guess what…I won - her site did not have it either. While in elementary school this was a yearly classic along with Old Yeller, Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka. I can’t thank you enough!
lol….born in ‘77 but i remember a movie we used to watch in grade school in the about “blueberry pancakes”–completely blocked the part about the witch altogether until i just watched the movie online…..
I saw this movie at school in New York City when I was in the 4th-5th grade in the mid-70’s(1976 I think). Just thinking about this and wonder if anyone else remembered it. I recall being mesmerize by the story, which seem rather odd. The “dots” which flew around people as they ate the Witch’s pancakes is still in my mind.
Glad to know others also of my contemparies remember this very charming story. I am definitly going to find a copy and see it again, and relive those memories
Dude, my friend and I talk about that all the time. I was born in 1974 and remember watching the film with our guidance counselor (who happened to be a hippy. Definitely one of the best memories of gradeschool. Other short films that were watched by children of this generation were the “Uncle Smiley” tapes. Thanks.
Hillarious! I also thought of this movie many times and when I figured out how to obtain a copy, I nearly hyperventilated! Amazon is selling it for $60 but you can get it for far less on eBay. Great times…. Scoot, you may remember the scary made-for-tv movie from the early 80’s about the retarded scarecrow named “Bubba”?? LOVED IT!!!! We were so impressionable back then. Modern day technology has taken the fun out of life. Just my opinion!
OMG! My wife and I, who met in high school and attended different elementary schools in Long Island, NY, have been going crazy for years and years trying to figure out the name of this movie (which we both remembered seeing in elementary schools!). We were convinced that it must have been a movie sending a subliminal message to say no to drugs or something! Most people never heard of it, but every once in a while we’d discuss it with someone around our age who would vaguely recall seeing the same movie in elementary school! Thank you, thank you, thank you for solving this mystery from our childhoods! Now I feel like making pancakes! :)
WINTER OF THE WITCH was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid.
Another movie that I am looking for (I cannot remember the name) is about:
A young boy who asked Santa for a stuffed bear for Christmas, and Santa brought him the wrong color bear (I can’t remember if he wanted a brown bear and got a white bear, or the other way around). The boy took the bear all the way to the north pole, met with Santa, and when Santa asked if he really wanted to trade, the boy kept the original bear.
Does anyone recognize this film and know the title? Please post if you do. Thank you!
Ha! I love that someone (apparently MANY other people) actually had a quest to find this film. I saw it twice in the school cafeteria which doubled as an auditorium in my elementary school, sometime between 1973 and 1976. It was a rainy day and we occasionally had these movies on rainy days to keep us all from going out and playing in the puddles.
I knew that the actress that played the witch was Hermione Gingold, whom I recognized when (years later) I saw “Around the World in Eighty Days”. I did not remember the name of the movie “Winter of the Witch” until a few years ago I located it after a similar but less difficult quest on the internet, found it on eBay and bought a crappy VHS version of the film.
I have the Devlin book but never knew of the connection with the movie.
Three other movies from the same time period that “haunt my psyche” are “Chico the Rainmaker” about some British kids who get a talking shrunken head (just his head’s alive), a Russian, Polish or maybe Czech movie about a boy and a pelican he has as a pet (named Pelka?) and a Russian-made Japanese character stop-motion animation of “the Fairy Crane” , a traditional Japanese fairy tale. All of these were MAGICAL for me when I was between 5 and 8 years old.
Thank you for sharing your trail to the treasure of “Winter of the Witch”!
I’m amazed so many people have been “haunted” by this film! I also looked up “Pancakes and Witch” to find your site and watched the film. I was born in 1970 and think I saw this a few times in school around 3rd-4th grade. Funny how magical it seemed back then… and that it would stick with us for all these years.
Now I’m off to looks up the nutritional filmstrip where they sang “4, 4, 3, 2…” about the food groups…. another one that’s been stuck in my head for 30 years!
just like you i looked before. so happy to have found it again. it takes me back to cool autumn days as a child, i can just taste what it feels like to be sitting there enthralled by this movie and then thinking about it later in the day out playing. thank you!
oh and another movie i found again is “bermuda depths”…the girl with the glowing eyes and sea turtle.
I am flabergasted! (sp)… ha.. I shared the same inspiration by that film and I’m in the creative media field now. I wonder how many people here loved the movie or remembered it vividly and entered very creative areas of work or are an artist? I think that would be incredibly interesting to poll. Thanks for this site. This movie was piped into my junior high in the 1980s, early 80s… like 1980 and 81. I remember it and the Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, vividly. Thanks for posting this link and title. I’ve been searching it too.
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