Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Crwthod
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
christopher-underwood
A nice idea that never really seems to come to life as a film. From the earliest scene it looks as if Christopher Lee is on form and indeed despite all others floundering around him and dire dialogue dominating, he rises above it all and probably gives one of his best performances. But, this cannot be said of everyone. I have to imagine that the real problem here is a lacklustre script. If Honor Blackman comes across badly, you have to blame someone. I understand that Patrick Widmark upset just about everyone involved in the film so I guess that explains a lot and it seems here just wasn't enough money for anyone to grab this by the scruff of the neck and shake some life into it. Natasha Kinski is very effective and wanders innocently about, at least on the same wavelength as Lee, seemingly as happy dressed as a nun, laid out on the alter or completely naked and she was only fifteen. The film has its moments and Widmark is effective its just that the looming disaster doesn't really seem to permeate the walls of the lovely flat overlooking a recently refurbished St Katherine's Dock in London nor the various church interiors, perhaps they should have stuck to studio sets.
Rich359
This film started out well, with great photography, color, and locations that were sorely lacking in the other 70's Hammer films, and an interesting premise, but decides to become a gore fest with the interminably long "birth scene", which I think derails the whole film. It also is intercut with other long sequences so you can't really turn your eyes away. It seems that Hammer thought the reason the Exorcist was a huge hit was because of its shocking scenes. The difference is that the Exorcist had a compelling plot, and the scenes with Regan shocked you, but it was not overdone and worked with the film. Also Regans life was saved because of a priest sacrificing his own, which gives the audience a hero. In this film, a rock is a hero. It seems Hammer lost its bearing with this one, and I am surprised the Lee agreed to be in this film at this point of his career. Ashamed, it could have been great with a better script.
Adam Peters
(30%) The final big effort from Hammer to somehow stay alive in a world in which the big American studios at around the same period were releasing similar themed soon to be classics such as "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's baby", and this is sadly the best Hammer could offer. After falling into a slump from milking the Dracula cow for far too long, they had to do something new and more edgy. So they slapdashed together a script very loosely based on a popular book, then they managed to assemble a decent cast, but the resulting movie is a muddled, badly constructed affair, with a poor ending and a real lack of any fun or scares. It was a big hit in the UK at least, but is was not enough to save Hammer as EMI took almost every penny in profit, and that was that. This is not Hammer's biggest folly, but it maybe it at least shows that its death was not necessarily for the worst.
Claudio Carvalho
In London, the occult novelist John Verney (Richard Widmark) is contacted by a stranger named Henry Beddows (Denholm Elliott) during a lecture in a private gallery of his friends David Kennedy (Anthony Valentine) and Anna Fontaine (Honor Blackman). Henry asks John to meet his daughter, the nun Catherine Beddows (Nastassja Kinski), in the airport since she is coming from Munich and lodge her in his apartment since Henry has had a problem with Satanists and he would like to protect his daughter. In return, John could write a book with his experience with the Satanists. John brings Catherine to his apartment and sooner he learns that she belongs to the church "The Children of Our Lord" from Germany, and she will be eighteen years old on the All Hallows Eve. While she is sleeping during the night, John realizes that Catherine, and not her father Henry, is actually in danger. Sooner he finds that the excommunicated Catholic priest Father Michael Raynem (Christopher Lee), who is Catherine's godfather, and a group of Satanists that worship the Devil plan to use Catherine to become Astaroth through a ritual. John visits the bishop, who is his friend, and asks permission to read the same pages of The Book of Abramelin that Father Michael had read in the 50's. Now John battles against the powerful Father Michael to save the life and soul of Catherine. "To the Devil a Daughter" is the last film from Hammer with a promising story and a great cast with Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Nastassja Kinski and Denholm Elliott. Unfortunately they are wasted in a lame screenplay with many flaws and a disappointing conclusion. The gorgeous Nastassja Kinski (officially born on 24 Jan 1961, but sources tell that she was born in 1959) naked does not seem to be only fifteen years old; seventeen would be more acceptable. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Uma Filha para o Diabo" ("A Daughter to the Devil")
