alexanderdavies-99382 "To the Devil a Daughter" was Hammers final throw of the dice in attempting to re-invent themselves after their films were no longer finding an audience in America.This co-production between England and Germany was Hammers last chance in attempting the above.The film is interesting in offering a glimpse of what might have been but a rather thin plot and confusing narrative - not to mention that stupid ending, all conspire to let the side down. Christopher Lee is well cast in a role that offers him something different to play and Richard Widmark does well as the leading hero.According to fellow actor Anthony Valentine, Widmark was rather a challenge to work with and threatened to return to America a few times.Dennis Wheatley - whose book this film is based - was horrified and furious with the final results. He stated in an angry letter to Hammer that their film beared no resemblance to his novel in the slightest. With that in mind, he refused to allow Hammer to adapt any more of his work. I can hardly blame him.

utgard14 Hammer's last horror film is another adaptation of a Dennis Wheatley novel. They had previously done The Lost Continent, which sucked, and The Devil Rides Out, which also starred Christopher Lee and had a slightly similar plot to this. In that film, Lee rescues the son of a friend from a Satanic cult. In this film, Richard Widmark rescues the daughter of a friend from a Satanic cult. This time Lee's the villain. Playing the young nun pursued by Satanists is a teenage Nastassja Kinski. Also in the cast are the great Denholm Elliott and former Bond girl (here a sexy MILF) Honor Blackman.The Devil Rides Out was a superior movie in every way, not least of which was the script by Richard Matheson. This script is a mess and suffered through several rewrites. Dennis Wheatley was so disgusted by this movie that he told Hammer he no longer wanted them to adapt his work. Not that it mattered much as Hammer went out of business a few years later. Since this was released post-Exorcist, Hammer tried to get on that bandwagon and be as outrageous as possible. Most of this will seem pretty tame to modern audiences but was pretty shocking at the time. Hammer always had sex and violence as part of its horror formula but here with full-frontal nudity, some nasty sex scenes, and quite a bit of bloodiness, it makes most previous Hammer films seem like they should be rated G. Taking all of this into account, it's a watchable second-rate 'devil movie.' A good cast helps a lot. It's not the worst Hammer horror movie but it's far from their best. Look out for the stupid abrupt ending. Favorite quote: "98% of so-called Satanists are nothing but pathetic freaks who get their kicks out of dancing naked in freezing churchyards and use the Devil as an excuse for getting some sex." Sounds about right.

Neil Welch Having achieved moderate success with its adaptation of The Devil Rides Out, Hammer returned to the Dennis Wheatley well for To The Devil A Daughter, with an established US name in tow to hopefully bolster transatlantic box office, in the shape of Richard Widmark (Christopher Lee would be the baddie on this occasion, having played the heroic Duc de Richlieu in the former offering).And, as with The Devil Rides Out, time has shown Wheatley's work - or, rather, the screen adaptations of them - to be rather turgid and tame. The plot centres around a young woman who is due to be converted into a conduit for evil by a rather unpleasant black magic ring, and Widmark plays the main hero trying to keep her safe, assisted by other less well informed types (ie. spearcarriers fated for nasty ends).The trouble is that much of the movie comprises the two factions jockeying for position - nothing much actually happens. And, when it does happen, it isn't very good. There is a "special effect" of an embryo thingie which is, frankly, ludicrous, and the final showdown involves a video negative/contrast effect, and then - oh, the baddie is gone. Simply disappeared. Not smashed to bits, sucked into a pit, consumed by the demons he was trying to summon - just gone. Talk about your anti climax.No, I'm afraid 35 years' distance doesn't make this a forgotten gem, it just reminds us that it wasn't very good to start off with, but it didn't matter because we didn't have the choice and we were much less demanding.Nastassia Kinski gets her kit off, by the way, and reminds us that fronts were fluffy in 1976.

MartinHafer This film is about a Satanic cult helmed by fallen priest, Christopher Lee. The film begins with him being defrocked and soon picks up 20 years later--after he's created an order of nuns who look just like Catholic ones. The difference is that they've devoted their lives to Beelzebub.A young nun (Nastassja Kinski) is being sent from their headquarters in Bavaria to London. However, her father (Denholm Elliott) seeks out the help of Richard Widmark, a noted author on the occult, to rescue Nastassja and prevent her from going through with a pact with Satan. Why exactly he picked Widmark is uncertain but the American spends much of the film trying to stop the Satanists from kidnapping the girl. The trouble is, it turns out she's rather willing to join them--which leads to a bizarre and confusing finale.After watching this film I watched one of the DVD extras ("To the Devil... The Death of Hammer") and those connected with the film (such as Christopher Lee and the film makers) were very disappointed in the film as well--particularly the sloppy ending that just didn't work at all. Thank goodness for some outside validation for my relatively low score! TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER started off well enough and set a great chilling mood. However, as the movie neared the climax, it just seemed that the film got lost and was frantically looking for its way. Well, the documentary confirms this in several ways. First, in a very foolish move (caused by the pending closure of the studio), the film began without a finished script! Re-writes were done up until the last minute and as a result the film seemed rather incoherent at times. Second, the ending which would have been a lot better (having Lee getting impaled) was removed because they realized it was pretty much identical with one of the Dracula films that Lee had already made for Hammer Studios. Instead, the improvised ending was both confusing and limp. Apparently, the message the ending tells us is to toss a big rock at evil and it will easily be defeated!! Additionally, someone decided to stick in a rather gross scene involving a stupid demon having sex with Nastassja Kinski. Lee described this scene as "pornographic" in the documentary. I just thought it was icky and stupid--after all, the demon was an obvious puppet--and a bad one at that.Overall, fans of Hammer films will probably be very disappointed--except for the card carrying cult members who ALWAYS see every Hammer film as a cinematic masterpiece. Others will no doubt find the film confusing and less and less enjoyable as the film progresses.A final note--There is a lot of nudity and blood in this film. Full-frontal nudity and several terrifically violent and bloody scenes make this a very BAD choice for the kids!!