To the Devil a Daughter *** (1976, Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Denholm Elliott, Michael Goodliffe, Nastassja Kinski, Anthony Valentine) – Classic Movie Review 4973

Freely adapted from the 1953 novel by Dennis Wheatley, director Peter Sykes’s 1976 movie is an interesting but sometimes clumsy and rather poorly produced Hammer horror occult possession movie, redeemed by the complicated plot and strong performances from an excellent cast, with Richard Widmark and Christopher Lee both exceptional.

Christopher Lee is suitably sinister playing excommunicated priest Father Michael, who sets up a satanic cult and convinces wimpy Henry Beddows (Denholm Elliott) to sign over his daughter’s soul so that she will become the Devil’s representative on Earth on her 18th birthday.

Nastassja Kinski plays Catherine Beddows, the teenage girl pledged to the Satan worshippers and Richard Widmark stars as the American occult novelist John Verney, the writer who comes to her aid when Henry Beddows seeks his help to save his daughter.

Written by Christopher [Chris] Wicking (screenplay) and John Peacock (adaptation), it is sporadically scary and sometimes atmospheric, with eerie situations and creepy locations. It is not in the class of Christopher Lee and Hammer’s earlier Dennis Wheatley film adaptation, The Devil Rides Out (1968), but it is intriguing, involving and entertaining enough.

Also in the cast are Honor Blackman as Anna Fountain, Michael Goodliffe as George de Grass, and Anthony Valentine as David Kennedy, with Derek Francis, Izabella Telezynska, Constantine Gregory, Anna Bentinck, Petra Peters, Howard Goorney, Irene Prador, Brian Wilde, Frances de la Tour and Eva Marie Meinike.

Co-produced by Terra-Filmkunst, it is the last Hammer film to feature Christopher Lee until The Resident in 2011. It is shot in Technicolor by David Watkin, produced by Roy Skeggs, scored by Paul S Glass and designed by Don Picton.

However, Wheatley hated the film because it greatly departs from his novel and he thought it was obscene and told Hammer that they could not film any other of his novels. This might be because Kinski was only 15 when filming her frontal nude scene. In 1997 she said she felt torn apart by the pressure to appear nude and regretted that there was no one present to protect her.

Christopher Lee’s naked scene was performed by his regular stunt double Eddie Powell.

South London-born Wheatley died the following year on 10 November 1977, aged 80.

Christopher Wicking thought Wheatley’s novel was extremely bad and was pleased to be changing it greatly. But, ironically, his script was rewritten by others, mostly during shooting, and he too disliked the film, especially the ending. Gerald Vaughan-Hughes is responsible for uncredited additional material.

It is Goodliffe’s last film before he committed suicide through acute depression.

It was filmed in London, West Wycombe (Buckinghamshire), Germany, and in the EMI Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, on a fairly low budget of ₤360,000.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4973

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