Eye of the Devil (1966)
Eye of the Devil (1966), directed by J. Lee Thompson.
This film seems mostly forgotten and is not well-regarded by those who do remember it. It is slow and the audience is way ahead of the Marquise in penetrating the unsettling happenings at the vast family castle and estate. There is a lot of running down passages to no purpose.
At first I thought they were trying to emulate Roger Corman's success with his Poe series, but done with bigger talents and less lurid atmosphere. But people want more thrills in their thrillers. "Mind-chilling terror" promises the poster.
And yet: it builds to something in the end, approaching that little "folk horror" genre that includes The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) and The Wicker Man (1973). The weight of the past, the Old Ways, the need for sacrifice and -- in this case -- inescapable family duty.
The good parts:
Fine cast, a mix of old and new.
Tremendous French location: Château de Hautefort.
Lovely, fine textured and shadowed cinematography.
Quality restoration for Blu-ray by Warner.
The director:
J. Lee Thompson -- Tiger Bay (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962), Kings of the Sun (1963).
Cinematographer:
Erwin Hillier -- A Canterbury Tale (1944), The Dam Busters (1955), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), Sands of the Kalahari (1965), School for Scoundrels (1960), The Valley of Gwangi (1969).
The Old Guard:
Deborah Kerr, so great in her time that I'm out of superlatives -- Black Narcissus (1947), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), The End of the Affair (1955), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), The Innocents (1961), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), The Night of the Iguana (1964).
David Niven played refinement but I would not think of him as "strong". Here he is sympathetic when showing suffering wrapped around a steel core. Previously seen in: A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Separate Tables (1958), The Bishop's Wife (1947), The Dawn Patrol (1938), The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937).
Flora Robson -- played QE1 twice! -- Fire Over England (1937), Black Narcissus (1947), The Sea Hawk (1940).
Newer talent:
Donald Pleasence -- a tiny selection of his filmography: The Outer Limits (1963) The Man with the Power, Cul-De-Sac (1966), The Great Escape (1963), Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981).
David Hemmings, bad boy with a bow -- Blow-Up (1966), Deep Red (1975), Barbarella (1968).
Introducing Sharon Tate. She did not live long enough to do more than "be pretty" in her films, which she certainly was. Here her glamour nicely projects sinister hypnotic manipulation. She looks like she might have wandered over from Incubus (1965). I saw her last in The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967).
Available on a fine looking Blu-ray from Warner. They put great effort into a product that was going to have limited appeal. The ways of physical media have always been mysterious.
