Sorry, Denis, That Was Uncalled For...

[poliphilo]

I shouldn't have called Wheatley a lousy writer because he's keeping me entertained and if he was really lousy I'd have given up by now. There are things he's not very good at, notably characterisation and dialogue, but set-piece action sequences are very much his thing- and the scene in which the Duke gate-crashes an open-air Satanic orgy in his Hispano-Suiza while his musclebound young American friend, standing on the car's running board, dematerializes the Goat of Mendes by chucking a crucifix at it is pretty damn exciting. I'm at the half-way mark and the Duke and the young American have been called away and the chief Satanist has just turned up at the rambling mansion (in Wheatley's world all the houses "ramble") where no-one stands between him and his intended victim but the tiny Russian princess and her goofy husband- and I'm really quite keen to find out what happens next.

I haven't seen the film of the book (only clips) but it has a high reputation. Wheatley seems made for the movies- and I wonder why he hasn't been adapted more often.

Comments

[sovay]

I haven't seen the film of the book (only clips) but it has a high reputation.

Is this The Devil Rides Out? I haven't seen it, either, but have also heard good things.

[poliphilo]

Yes, it's The Devil Rides Out.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a re-make. Christopher Lee thought so too- and would have loved to have had a second crack at it- taking advantage of his own increased maturity and modern CGI

[strange_complex]

I mean... it is splendid as a film in its own right, but judging from a) what poliphilo says here and b) some things another friend who's experienced both said, I think it is quite a free adaptation of the book. Certainly, there's no tiny Russian princess but instead a home counties house-wife, and as was typical for Hammer films a lot is edited out to fit into a 1.5-hour narrative. Honestly a great movie, though, with some extremely quotable lines.

Hammer did To the Devil a Daughter too, and it's also largely OK, but the ending is widely panned and it walks the narrow line between the sublime and the ridiculous a bit less successfully than The Devil Rides Out. I usually start watching it with very low expectations, find myself thinking about half-way through that it's better than I thought / remembered, and then rediscover why my expectations were so low by the end.

[poliphilo]

Richard Matheson wrote the script for the movie and the general opinion seems to be that he made a good job of streamlining Wheatley's fairly leisurely narrative. The princess is a series character who featured in earlier books and her status and her Russianness add nothing to what she's required to do in this one.

[strange_complex]

Ah, that makes sense as in the film Rex obviously knows her and her husband of old (I think he's related to them, actually), but get very little explanation of how. Indeed, to be fair the wife could be of Russian ancestry but have been brought up in England since childhood so that it's no longer detectable.

If I remember rightly there is also an actual Russian princess in the film, but she is not tiny or the mistress of the house to which Mocata comes in search of Tanith. Rather, she's simply a member of Mocata's Satanic circle.

[sovay]

Honestly a great movie, though, with some extremely quotable lines.

Cool. I will keep an active as opposed to a casual eye out for it.

I usually start watching it with very low expectations, find myself thinking about half-way through that it's better than I thought / remembered, and then rediscover why my expectations were so low by the end.

That is more or less exactly the experience I had when I rewatched it last year. I really think it's mostly the ending that sucks, but it sucks so dramatically that it back-shadowed my memories of the entire film.