#leon greene

[lobbycards]

The Devil Rides Out aka The Devil's Bride, US lobby card. 1968

[clemsfilmdiary]

The Devil Rides Out (1968, Terence Fisher)

Also known as: The Devil’s Bride

11/24/22

[moviemosaics]

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

directed by Richard Lester, 1966

[filmap]

The Devil Rides Out Terence Fisher. 1968

Driving Milton Bryan, Woburn, Milton Keynes MK17 9HS, UK See in map

See in imdb

[saturdaynightmovie]

Leon Greene and Phil Silvers in

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) Director: Richard Lester Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

[fourorfivemovements]

Films Watched in 2020:

89. The Devil Rides Out (1968) - Dir. Terence Fisher

[petersonreviews]

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/25/2019: THE DEVIL RIDES OUT

As someone who supposedly loves horror movies, it’s just embarrassing how much I have to catch up on. Hammer is a big gap for me in general, and if THE DEVIL RIDES OUT doesn’t convince me to get with the program, then perhaps nothing will. This riveting, richly pigmented deprogramming drama is right up my proverbial alley, including that fact that it earned an X certificate in 1968 for what I can only assume is a pretty interesting reason.

Pillar of the Hammer empire Terence Fisher and Richard Matheson adapted the Dennis Wheatley novel of the same name, about a pair of heroic gentlemen who endeavor to save a couple of youngsters’ souls from eternal damnation. When the Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) discovers that a friend’s son has been absorbed into a devil cult, he and his jocular friend Rex (Leon Greene) set out to rescue him, and a conveniently attractive young woman in the same predicament, before they can be “rebaptized” as witches. To do so, the duke will have to employ all of his own esoteric knowledge to defeat the supernaturally enabled high priest Mocata (Charles Gray). There’s thrills and chills, spells and hexes, and my very favorite thing, a real live Baphomet!

Although not as visually broad as a lot of Hammer fair, the breezy thriller is carried easily by the sheer presence of nemeses Christopher Lee and Charles Gray. Lee doesn’t lose a shred of his usual gravity to playing a good guy--and honestly, I had to confirm what year marked the first comic book appearance of Doctor Strange (1965) to correct my intense suspicion that le Duc was an inspiration for the sorcerer supreme. However, the real load bearing here is done by Charles Gray, who may be known to you as either the Bond villain Blofeld or the Criminologist from THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, depending on what kind of person you are. Setting aside his ability to summon the actual Goat of Mendes, among other things, Gray helps Matheson create the perfect occultist, a dyed in the wool satanist who believes in the force of his own individuality above all else. Gotta love this speech about witchcraft, which I barely prevented myself from transcribing ALL of, so compelled am I:

“In magic there is neither good nor evil. It is merely a science, the science of causing change to occur by means of one’s will. The sinister reputation attaching to it is entirely groundless, and is based on superstition rather than objective observation. The power of the will is something people do not understand, attributing to it mysterious qualities which it does not possess--being made of the power of mind over matter, or in the greater number of cases, the power of mind over mind, as your mind now is succumbing to mine...”

Apparently the production was delayed four years due to censorship threats brought upon it by the subject of devil worship. Somehow in all these years it had NEVER occurred to my dumb ass that you might not have been allowed to talk so much about Satan at a certain time in a relatively modern era. I don’t have the resources to immediately discover why the chaste, talky THE DEVIL RIDES OUT would have earned an X certificate, which barred the attendance of children under 16 even with an accompanying adult--surely it couldn’t be that tawdry toga party! But, I’d love to imagine that it was because of the devil himself, and that idea makes me want to do a whole research project on censorship cases that had little to do overtly with violence or sexuality.