Pajiba

You're not going to count Hermione as a glamour witch?

Also, don't forget Susan Sarandon in Enchanted--another good glamour witch.

While I do like Disney's adaptation of the Little Mermaid, I do find it amusing that they villainized the Sea Witch, who in the original was pretty much just the voice of reason to the naive girl who'd never been in love before.

"He doesn't love you just because you love him and this isn't going to end well for you but if you absolutely insist on going through with it, well, what the hell."

I'm not surprised beauty shows up so often in these stories - it's something by definition transitory that nearly everyone desperately wants, to the tune of god knows how many millions if not billions of dollars globally every year.

I don't think it's necessarily 'empowering' but it is honest.

I was also one of the only people who didn't have a problem with Angelina Joile as Grendel's mom in fuck-me pumps.

The strategy seemed to work out pretty easily/well for her.

Think back to the Grimm fairy tales and the Hans Andersen tales. The traditional fairy tale structure followed a young hero/heroine who is put in peril when their mother (traditionally) passed away and a new woman entered their family upon the father's new marriage. Hansel & Gretel are left out in the woods to die because the new mom didn't want them. The Witch in Snow White is her stepmom -- she marries the King, who later dies. Cinderella's sisters were stepsisters and it was her stepmom who forbade her from going to the ball (In this case, however, the witch i.e. her fairy godmother is an agent of good, not evil).

In a way, these roles highlighted a common occurrence in Medieval life -- the death of mothers at a young age; primarily from childbirth complications. Men were expected to remarry because the role of caretaker of the home fell on a woman's lap and, without one, there was no one to feed, clothe or tend to the children. The witch, in a way, was an acknowledgement of the power of women in these male-dominated societies.

Susan Sarandon as Queen Narcissa in "Enchanted." Yum. (And yeah, what an awful movie otherwise.)

May I just point out that, apparently, the horribly ugly crone witch version of Monica Bellucci looks like...Monica Bellucci with a cold.

I don't know that her drinking the blood of twelve maidens is a commentary on beauty or health care.

Hermione Granger - Glamour Witch in Training.

No Nymphadora Tonks or Narcissa Malfoy mention?! Total Glamour Witches. McGonagall alone is a fierce Glamour/Crone (unless "Crone" is a connotative title only) hybrid.

Hmm.
Why didn't I think of this before.
Mid career Eddie Izzard = Ursula. Or vice versa.

p.s. I'm posting here something a friend of mine wrote me on the subject even though it makes me look woefully inarticulate in contrast:

The threatening female power that goes beyond sex and youth to something much more fundamental and interesting in some ways is harder to present nowadays without seeming more overtly sexist i guess

and I think it's interesting that so many of the crones you mentioned have the power to transform into something else - something more attractive. I'm not sure hollywood has ever been really comfortable with the power that the crone could represent ;) films representing raw female power without the necessary trappings of sexiness have seemingly always been few and far between

that said, i only ever knew Mim through a 45 record, and she scared the pants off me. i played that record over and over and it never got less scary

Where's the pic of sexy Mim?? When I was little girl, I totally wanted to be sexy Mim.

Alas, my adult shape more closely resembles the Mim pictured above. Sigh.

Helena Bonham Carter is "glamour"? I'd rather take down the Wizard of Oz witch.

i also really loved the "Witches Night Out" animated special from 1978, which was not sexualized, and it redeemed the evil witch in the end.

What about The Witches with Anjelica Huston? Man I loved that movie as a kid and she was bad ASS

Okay. I'll admit it. I've always found Margaret Hamilton, even as the Wicked Witch, to be smoking hot.

There's a movie with Mickey Rooney and Victor McLaglen where Margaret Hamilton comes on HARD to McLaglen for the whole movie and he acts like she is radioactive.

I spent the whole movie yelling at the screen. "What's wrong with you? Drag her in the bedroom right now!"

what about witchiepoo from HR Puffnstuff?

and what about Evil Edna, the walking tv from will o the wisp?

where is this sex you speak of?

I should add that they definitely weren't sexy, but not cron-y either, more grandmotherly (and then there's Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, what's the difference btw a Fairy Godmother and a witch?)

Also missing is Sigourney Weaver as both glamour witch and crone in Snow White: A Tale of Terror, a late 90s t.v. movie of which I am incredibly fond, even though it's pretty uneven in parts.

Shame on all of you for not recognizing Anjelica Huston in "The Witches." She was both glamor and crone in spades.

Only Even Stevens and I will survive her mouse-themed wrath.

Does Cher count as the crone in Witches of Eastwick?

It's interesting that none of the actual crones own their power and just make themselves look uhm... clean I guess. If you look at the crones in the pictures above you might have to change it to Dirty old crones, cause they all look like they need a bath.

Props to ShagEaredVillain for the Witches mention. The scene in the movie where they remove their wigs, shoes, and other hiding accesories still plagues my mind to this day and is all about witches blending into society except in this one instance.

Also, I love that the film Willow was mentioned period, but how do you talk about Bavmorda and not mention her nemesis Razelle (I know she is a good witch), who was supposed to be this beautiful, young woman, and turns out transforming into a hardcore wrinkled crone once Willow actually gets the spell right and turns her from a goat.

The Other Mother from Coraline also transforms into the Beldam.

An interesting thought that has resulted from this posting is do male villains transform at all in regards to physical transformations to fulfill some evil scheme (besides Jafar in Aladdin) or does this only apply to female evil characters?

I thought witches were always about sexuality - just what do you think they're doing with that broom?!