Dennis
Wheatley's book is a very effective and exciting horror although rather
too complex to transfer straight to screen, thus writer Richard
Matheson was brought in to adapt the screenplay. Most of the credit for the good story,goes to Wheatley himself - de
Richleau and Rex have a really strong motive for stopping the satanists
(more than the usual 'girl in peril' or 'Van Helsing' riff of most
similar stories).
Wheatley's lengthy research into the real life practices of
devil-worshippers means that the film has a much more authentic feel
than many of its rivals, while the Mocata character has a wonderfully
subtle evil streak.
Screenwriter
Richard Matheson
had previously, very sucessfully adapted a variety of Edgar Allan Poe
stories for the screen as part of the AIP/Roger Corman Poe-cycle of the
early 1960s, here again he sucessfully abbreviates and alters the
story to fit the 90 minute run-time, while retaining the main focus and
feel of the book - thus a lot of interesting, but ultimately
unnecessary sequences are removed, while the plot and characters remain
the same (a strong contrast to the much poorer adaptation of To the Devil a Daughter that Hammer filmed in 1976).
Unfortunately,
the script is not perfect. The limited run-time means that many
sequences in the story still seem rushed, despite Matheson's trimming,
and while many of the scenes removed were missable, some good scenes
from the book had to be removed as well, including detail of Rex and
Tanith's blossoming romance. The climax
here is far less effective than in the book, and although the smaller
scale of the film's ending scenes is understandable considering the low
budget, the changes to the explanation offered, give the
screenplay a much more "convenient" ending than that used in the
novel. Ultimately however, it is effective for most of the run-time,
and builds some genuine scares and tension in several scenes.
Director Terence Fisher had partly retired by the late 1960s, and
The Devil Rides Out
was his last non-Frankenstein production - he demonstrates the same
effective demonstration that had so boosted Hammer's early gothic
horrors. In 1968, Hammer were in the middle of a co-production
deal with
American distributors Seven Arts which provided the largest budgets of
any Hammer films. The budget can clearly be seen here with some great
looking sets, large casts of extras, an impressive 1930s setting, and
some effectively realised special effects (although still noticeably
cheap in many of the scenes). Frequent Hammer composer James Bernard
gives an instantly recognisable soundtrack that really helps to build
the tension in many of the scenes.
Hammer favourite Christopher Lee takes the lead role of de
Richleau in a rare 'good-guy' leading performance - although hardly old
enough to play the character (described by Wheatley as being in his
70s), Lee does manage to bring a real gravitas to the role making
it easy, even for fans of the novel, to ignore the age difference.
Charles Gray, best known for his roles in two James Bond films, gives a
wonderful performance as Mocata, fitting Wheatley's description well.
Leon Greene as Rex is rather confusingly dubbed by the very
distinctively toned Patrick Allen (
Captain Clegg (1962)) and gives a decent performance, as does future
Yes Minister star, Paul Eddington.
Ultimately,
The Devil Rides Out
is an effective, often entertaining and occasionally scary film,
boasting strong acting and good production with a decent, if rather
rushed script that does manage to keep most of the best ideas from the
book. With a 2 hour run-time this could have been a perfect film, as it
is, it ranks among Hammer's best and comes highly recommended to all
Hammer fans, and a great place to start for newcomers. For fans of the
book, Hammer's film is not perfect, but sticks close to the story and
characters, and is a million miles better than the abomination of
To the Devil a Daughter (1976).
