To the Devil a Daughter is a 1976 horror film, directed by Peter Sykes and produced by Hammer Film Productions and Terra-Filmkunst. It is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley, and stars Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Nastassja Kinski and Denholm Elliott. It was the final Hammer production to feature Christopher Lee until The Resident in 2011.
Plot
Occult writer John Verney (Widmark) is asked by Henry Beddows (Elliot) to pick up his daughter Catherine (Kinski) from the airport. Catherine is a nun with the Children of the Lord, a mysterious heretic order located in Bavaria and is allowed to come to visit once a year on her birthday. But after Catherine arrives, Beddows then insists that she stay with Verney. But the order, under the sinister excommunicated heretic Father Michael Rayner (Lee), 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.
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
- Constantine Gregory as Kollde
- Brian Wilde as Mr Pardo
- Howard Goorney as Critic
- Frances de la Tour as Salvation Army Major
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 the film did not follow his novel and he found it obscene. Wheatley told Hammer that they were not to make another film from his novels ever again.
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 frontally nude scene, at the time not illegal in the UK.
Critical reception
To the Devil... A Daughter has been negatively received by critics, and currently holds a 17% approval rating on movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews. Time Out called it "a good deal more interesting than the rest of the possession cycle, but still a disappointment."
References
External links
- To the Devil... A Daughter at the Internet Movie Database