Actor Andrew Prine had appeared in numerous films and television series, but 1971’s SIMON, KING OF THE WITCHES finally gave him a starring role, and he soon found himself top-billed in a string of horror and exploitation drive-in pictures. Directed by Bruce Kessler, who had just done THE GAY DECEIVERS also for Joe Solomon’s Fanfare Corporation, SIMON is not so much a horror film as its exploitative advertising implied, but rather an unusual occult piece with a very early 1970s mentality.

Simon (Andrew Prine) is a self-professed warlock and magician who lives in a storm drain (“When it rains most people go in, but I go out,” he explains to the camera). After being arrested for vagrancy, he befriends a young hustler type named Turk (George Paulsin) who introduces him to a number of wealthy socialites who are constantly having cocktail parties. Simon sells these phonies talismans and tells their fortunes, but when one of them stiffs him with a bounced check, he conjures upa hovering shiny globe which causes a heavy flower pot to fall on the guy’s head. Simon is also having a sexual relationship (which involves some kinky ceremonial antics) with Linda (Brenda Scott), the drug-addicted daughter of the strict DA (Norman Burton, PLANET OF THE APES, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER) who tries to intervene. With a narc attempting to frame Simon, his revenge schemes go so far as to turn city officials against each other and bring on the spell of a perpetual rainstorm.

A very trippy film experience, SIMON is actually full of black humor, and although the poster and ad mats probably had theatergoers thinking this was about some Svengali-like Manson clone, the lead character is hardly malevolent, but rather a peaceful recluse hurled into a society of greedy morons who cause his vengefulness. Bearded and often chomping on stogies, Prine carries the picture as Simon, and is well cast as the modern day warlock, an aging hippie who acts like a kid on Christmas when one of his spells succeeds. Prine is also subjected to some heavy-handed, sometimes nonsensical dialogue.

Some of the more humorous scenes include Simon witnessing and soon mocking the satanic ceremony of a coven of mostly naked witches (presided over by Warhol factory actress Ultra Violet holding a skull atop her head), Simon using a stereotypical homosexual character for an incantation that requires him not to be turned on by the opposite sex, and when Turk lets Simon work his magic to mend his persistent erection, albeit nervously. When Simon enters his mystical mirror towards the end of the film, we are treated to some very psychedelic optical effects which illustrate his journeu into another dimension. The suitable music score (at times, it’s almost Phibes-esque) is by Stu Phillips, who worked on “The Monkees” TV series, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and numerous biker films.

SIMON, KING OF THE WITCHES was released on VHS in the 1980s by several video companies, most notably from Unicorn, in dark muddy transfers which were only passable in those days. Dark Sky’s new DVD offers the film looking better than before, in a sharp transfer which presents SIMON in a nicely framed 1.78:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. For the most part, colors are quite bold and detail is excellent, with dark scenes now easy to make out. There is some speckling and circular cue marks on the source print, but these are sporadic and the overall image is quite clean. The mono English audio is fine and doesn’t have any noticeable background hiss or distortion, and optional English subtitles are included. Dark Sky’s DVD runs 99 minutes, longer than previous video tape releases.