To the Devil a Daughter
To the Devil...a Daughter | |
---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Peter Sykes |
Produced by | Roy Skeggs |
Written by |
Chris Wicking John Peacock Gerald Vaughan-Hughes |
Based on |
To the Devil a Daughter by Dennis Wheatley |
Starring |
Richard Widmark Christopher Lee Honor Blackman Nastassja Kinski Denholm Elliott |
Music by | Paul Glass |
Cinematography | David Watkin |
Edited by | John Trumper |
Production company |
Hammer Film Productions Ltd. London Terra Filmkunst GMBH Berlin |
Distributed by | EMI (UK), Cine Artists Pictures (US) |
Release date | 4 March 1976 (UK) |
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country |
United Kingdom West Germany |
Language | English |
Budget | ₤360,000[1] |
To the Devil...a Daughter is a 1976 British-West German horror film directed by Peter Sykes, produced by Hammer Film Productions and Terra-Filmkunst, and starring Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Nastassja Kinski and Denholm Elliott. It is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley. It was the final Hammer production to feature Christopher Lee until The Resident in 2011.
Plot
American expatriate occult writer John Verney (Widmark) is asked by Henry Beddows (Elliot) to pick up his daughter Catherine (Kinski) from London airport. Catherine is a nun with the Children of the Lord, a mysterious heretical order based in Bavaria and founded by the excommunicated Roman Catholic priest Michael Rayner (Lee), where Beddows is allowed to come to visit Catherine only on her birthdays. But after Catherine arrives, Beddows then insists that she stay with Verney. The order, however, under Father Michael, makes all efforts to get Catherine back and uses black magic to stop Verney as he protects her. Verney learns that the order really harbours a group of practicing Satanists, who have prepared Catherine to become an avatar of Astaroth upon her eighteenth birthday. The priest kills Verney's friends, and tries to get Verney. Verney battles the priest and his henchmen and is able to rescue Catherine.
Cast
- Richard Widmark as John Verney
- Christopher Lee as Father Michael Rayner
- Honor Blackman as Anna Fountain
- Denholm Elliott as Henry Beddows
- Michael Goodliffe as George De Grass
- Nastassja Kinski as Catherine Beddows
- Eva Maria Meineke as Eveline de Grass
- Anthony Valentine as David Kennedy
- Derek Francis as The Bishop
- Izabella Telezynska as Margaret
- Constantin de Goguel as Kollde
- Brian Wilde as Black Room Attendant
- Howard Goorney as Critic
- Frances de la Tour as Salvation Army Major
- Petra Peters as Sister Helle
Production
The film was adapted by Christopher Wicking and John Peacock from the 1953 novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley. It was the second of Wheatley's "black magic" novels to be filmed by Hammer, following The Devil Rides Out, released in 1968. Wheatley disliked the film because it did not follow his novel and he found it obscene. He told Hammer that they were not to make another film from his novels ever again.
Wicking called the film "an awful mess. There was no real focus to it."[2] He wanted to incorporate DNA as part of the storyline but said EMI refused because they felt this would make the film too much like a science fiction movie rather than a horror movie.[2]
Michael Carreras said the film "simply didn't work... the people who made it forgot about the ending." Carerras says he asked Nat Cohen of EMI Films for additional funds to do a new ending - "I had it properly written out and we knew exactly what to do" - but Cohen refused.[3]
This was Michael Goodliffe's last film, made shortly before he committed suicide while suffering from depression.
Christopher Lee's line "It is not heresy... and I will not recant!" was sampled by heavy metal band White Zombie for the song "Super-Charger Heaven". The movie's title was also referenced by White Zombie in the song "Black Sunshine" ("To the devil, a daughter comes...")
Kinski was fourteen years old at the time of filming her frontal nude scene.
Critical reception
To the Devil...a Daughter has been negatively received by critics, and currently holds a 38% approval rating on movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on eight reviews.[4] Time Out called it "a good deal more interesting than the rest of the possession cycle, but still a disappointment."[5]
References
- ↑ Marcus Hearn & Alan Barnes, The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films, Titan Books, 2007 p 166
- 1 2 All's Well That Ends: an interview with Chris Wicking Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 55, Iss. 658, (Nov 1, 1988): 322.
- ↑ Swires, Steve (1992). "Fall of the House of Hammer". Fangoria. p. 58.
- ↑ "To The Devil A Daughter - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
- ↑ "To the Devil a Daughter Review. Movie Reviews - Film - Time Out London". timeout.com. Retrieved 17 August 2012.