Eye of the Devil (1966)

Vineyard owner marquis Philippe de Montfaucon is called back to his castle Bellenac because of another dry season. He asks his wife and children to remain in Paris, but they still come ... See full summary »

Director:

J. Lee Thompson

Writers:

Robin Estridge (screenplay), Dennis Murphy (screenplay),

Stars:

Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Donald Pleasence

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Deborah Kerr	...	Catherine de Montfaucon
David Niven	...	Philippe de Montfaucon
Donald Pleasence	...	Pere Dominic
Edward Mulhare	...	Jean-Claude Ibert
Flora Robson	...	Countess Estell
Emlyn Williams	...	Alain de Montfaucon
Sharon Tate	...	Odile de Caray
David Hemmings	...	Christian de Caray
John Le Mesurier	...	Dr. Monnet
Michael Miller	...	Grandec
Donald Bisset	...	Rennard
Pauline Letts	...	Servant
Robert Duncan	...	Jacques de Montfaucon
Suky Appleby	...	Antoinette de Montfaucon

Storyline

Vineyard owner marquis Philippe de Montfaucon is called back to his castle Bellenac because of another dry season. He asks his wife and children to remain in Paris, but they still come after him. His wife Catherine de Montfaucon soon discovers that her husband is acting mysteriously and that his employees are following old pagan rituals that call for the life of the marquis himself to save the crops.

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Plot Keywords:

vineyard | estate | pagan | france | pagan cult | 

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Taglines:

we've got your number!

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Genres:

Crime | Horror | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

July 1966 (UK)

Also Known As:

13

Filming Locations:

Château de Hautefort, Dordogne, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmways Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min 96 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally Kim Novak was cast in the role of Catherine de Montfaucon. Filming began in the fall of 1965 in France. Near every scene had been filmed when Kim Novak fell from a horse and wasn't able to complete her scenes. Deborah Kerr was hired to take over and every scene that featured Miss Novak had to be re-shot with her replacement.

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Crazy Credits

"and introducing Sharon Tate"

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Connections

Referenced in Death in Hollywood (1990)

User Reviews

Decadence of rural owners in the wine region

"Eye of the devil" (1966) directed by J.Lee Thompson had a distinguished cast in a scene inside a residence in Paris by night, during a party, when the telephone rings suddenly and the owner interrupts his melodic attendance of a symphonic concerto by an invited private orchestra, puzzling the symbolic of the event. Notwithstanding, this movie was for a certain manner in debt from another, directed in 1960 by Ingmar Bergman. But with a plot from another nature and speculative target, made in Sweden, at the time and from its own universe, situated one century before this one, directed by Thompson.

In which, as though in contrast with the next days, after with another suited scene, but that one now was situated in the exterior of a castle, at the middle center of this countryside of some wine's landlords, still surviving since almost two centuries after the peasant's unrest in France. Like an evocation of the ancient regime, it's not so much obscure as revival times of sects, but there are some instants for a good appreciation of performances like the character of Deborah Kerr, for instance attracted to the abyss by another young blonde, who was there like a witch apprentice in a strange ritual at an open air on a rampart scene and whose role was performed by Sharon Tate.

David Hemmings wear a cap on the window of a tower with his bow and arrow as descendant of Robin Wood, occupying the castle just when the Marquis arrival as David Niven and his whip finishing the masquerade. In the name of cordial entente from the police, that previously opened the road nearby - it seems the Loire riverside at the time of De Gaulle circumspection attitude in public morality - if not in the name of private life style such a powerful : there are many curiosities in the castle Hautefort such as the concealed room of the tower and several passages very well expressed with lamps and mirrors by sun day and during darkness with nightmare, hypnotism and belladonna poisonous narcotic effect - in short cuts edited as abstract and experimental way

• on two occasions as representing the perturbed mind of this dame,

when imprisoned in a domestic way till the sacrifice and raining for the better croft of vineyards as it occurs after. This movie is not so bad as it was seen as focusing commercially a private scandal of the time, but too surprisingly it's a register from the phobias and perversions like a framework of the time from the evocation of crusade's kind of spirit.