To the Devil a Daughter – 1976 | 95 mins | Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

“To the Devil a Daughter” has frequently been seen by film historians as the final nail in Hammer Studios’ coffin. Having struggled financially for some years, Hammer took advantage of the fact that they had, via Christopher Lee, acquired the rights to film a version of Dennis Wheatley’s novel, and attempted to produce a movie that would capitalise on the success of its previous Wheatley adaptation, “The Devil Rides Out”. For Hammer, “To the Devil a Daughter” was to be a serious British competitor to recent successful American movies like Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” and William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”.

American actor Richard Widmark stars as John Verney, a successful author of occult fiction, living in London. During a press reception to launch his new book, Verney is approached by Henry Beddows (Denham Elliott), who offers him information about a group of Satanists if he will look after his daughter, Catherine (Nastassja Kinski), for him. When Verney meets Catherine, he is surprised to discover that she is a nun, and has spent her life overseas as a member of the Church of Our Lord, led by the sinister Father Michael Rayner (Christopher Lee). It’s not long before Verney realises that the Church of Our Lord is not all that it seems, and that the Satanists are pursuing Catherine rather than her father. She is essential to a ritual that the group are planning to conduct, which will unleash a demonic force into the world. In order to prevent the ritual, Verney must protect Catherine and face Father Michael Rayner and the unearthly powers that he possesses.

“To the Devil a Daughter” represented a number of firsts for Hammer. It was the first Hammer movie to include overseas shooting – the shots of the Church of Our Lord were filmed in Germany. Also, according to stuntman Eddie Powell, it was the first British movie to include a full-body fire stunt.* However, Hammer’s attempts at innovation have been forgotten, whilst the film is remembered more for its failures.

One of the biggest problems faced by director Peter Sykes was the script. Unhappy with the original draft produced by Hammer, Sykes insisted that another draft was needed, and asked Gerald Vaughan-Hughes to rewrite it. However, Vaughan-Hughes was under pressure – filming had already started by the time he was commissioned, and so he was forced to write quickly, meeting Sykes each evening to hand him the pages to be filmed the following day. Vaughan-Hughes has recalled that the speed at which the script had to be written resulted in unnecessary mistakes – for example, towards the end of the film, Catherine’s foster mother, Eveline de Grass (Eva Maria Meineka), drains her own body of blood, but when the script was completed, Sykes realised that there had been no mention of why she had done this, or of what had happened to the blood. Therefore, Vaughan-Hughes had to go back and write this into the script.**

One of the most criticised parts of “To the Devil a Daughter” is the ending – again, the rushed way in which the film was made meant that the conclusion was not properly thought through until the post-production stage. The script for the final scenes is certainly sub-standard, and the final shots of Lee were eventually altered as they were thought to be too similar to one of his previous Dracula films, so the final version was made-up of shots that had been filmed for use in earlier scenes edited together.

However, although the issues arising from the rushed script and production are largely responsible for the film’s failure in the eyes of the critics, there are also major flaws in the directing of the movie. The opening scenes are short and jump from character to character in a dizzyingly incoherent and bewildering manner, and the poor quality library aerial shots of London also damage the film. Whilst Hammer attempted to include scenes such as the Satanic orgy and the demonic child climbing into Catherine’s womb in an attempt to appeal to contemporary horror lovers, they simply don’t work and appear gratuitous and unpleasant rather than horrific. Kinski’s performance is also unconvincing and insipid, and although central to the film as the focus of the Satanist’s attention, she does nothing to evoke our sympathy.

“To the Devil a Daughter” was based on a reasonable idea and, had it have been better scripted and directed, could have successfully hung onto the coat-tails of films such as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Exorcist” as they flew from box-office and critical success into the canon of horror movies. However, although Christopher Lee is, as usual, magnificent, and Denham Elliot puts in a good performance, the film was an artistic failure. Dennis Wheatley was appalled by it, and Lee also disliked it. Ironically, it did make money at the box-office, but due to Hammer’s financial situation, the money went to the studio’s backers, and Hammer did not benefit from it. Unfortunately, Hammer’s final horror film has come to represent both of the death of Hammer and of British horror, rather than the Satanic rebirth that Hammer had hoped for.

©Anya J. Davis

* Interview with Eddie Powell at the Festival of Fantastic Films, 1988, The Ultimate Hammer Collection, 2006.

** To the Devil…The Death of Hammer – DVD feature, The Ultimate Hammer Collection, 2006.