The Devil’s Disciple *** (1959, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Eva Le Gallienne, Janette Scott, Harry Andrews, Basil Sydney) – Classic Movie Review 8997

Despite the special cast, director Guy Hamilton’s 1959 black and white comedy drama The Devil’s Disciple is an only so-so film of George Bernard Shaw’s intriguing play about Dick Dudgeon (Kirk Douglas), the son of a 1777 New Hampshire pastor.

Dick’s Dad is hanged by the English as a warning to the rebels, but Dick cuts the body down and hides out with pastor, the Rev Anthony Anderson (Burt Lancaster), but is arrested.

The two American star friends enjoy themselves in committed performances, and are excellent, but, even so, scene-stealing Laurence Olivier upstages them in a smaller role as English General John Burgoyne. The appealing support cast is also on the plus account.

However, the play and entertaining acting apart, this is a sluggish production with a hesitant script by John Dighton and Roland Kibbee that unprofitably changes many of the original lines for the worse and bends the plot for no good reason.

It was filmed in England.

Also in the cast are Eva Le Gallienne, Janette Scott, Harry Andrews, Basil Sydney, George Rose, Neil McCallum, David Horne, Mervyn Johns, Erik Chitty, Allan Cuthbertson, Percy Herbert, Phyllis Morris, Brian Oulton and Steven Berkoff.

The Devil’s Disciple is directed by Guy Hamilton, runs 82 minutes, is made by Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions and Brynaprod, is released by United Artists, is written by John Dighton and Roland Kibbee, based on George Bernard Shaw’s play, is shot in black and white by Jack Hildyard, produced by Harold Hecht, Richard Rodney Bennett, and designed by Terence Verity and Edward Carrere.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8997

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