Tam Lin (1970)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Roddy McDowall

Writers:

Robert Burns (poem)
William Spier (writer)

Release Date:

September 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Based on an ancient Scottish folk song, an older woman uses witchcraft to keep her young jet-set friends.

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Independent Film

Cast

Ava Gardner	...	Michaela Cazaret
Ian McShane	...	Tom Lynn
Richard Wattis	...	Elroy
Cyril Cusack	...	Vicar Julian Ainsley
Stephanie Beacham	...	Janet Ainsley
David Whitman	...	Oliver
Fabia Drake	...	Miss Gibson
Sinéad Cusack	...	Rose (as Sinead Cusack)
Joanna Lumley	...	Georgia
Jenny Hanley	...	Caroline
Madeline Smith	...	Sue
Bruce Robinson	...	Alan
Pamela Fairbrother	...	Vanna (as Pamela Farbrother)
Rosemary Blake	...	Kate
Michael Bills	...	Michael

Also Known As:

Games and Toys (UK) (working title)
The Ballad of Tam-Lin
The Devil's Widow (USA)
The Devil's Woman

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | UK:AA | Spain:18 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Commonwealth United Entertainment

Trivia:

This is the only film directed by Roddy McDowall.

Soundtrack:

The Best Part of You

A macabre gem

Based on Robert Burns' version of the Scottish folk tale "The Ballad of Tamlin," this modest but mesmerizing 1971 thriller concerns a young man, Tom Lynn ( Ian McShane), who becomes the romantic prisoner of an evil enchantress Michaela Cazaret ( Ava Gardner ). In a particularly arrestingly eerie and phantasmagorical set piece during which Tom, stoned out of his mind, is pursued by murderous acolytes of the bewitching Miss Cazaret, McDowall effectively punctuates the story's fairy tale quality with an entirely harmonious nightmarish and hallucinogenic tone that forever reflects the psychedelic sixties. McDowall's laudably creative panache as a filmmaker was embellished by a seductive performance from his star Ava Gardner. Though past her prime, she is nonetheless sultrily convincing as the irresistible, vampiric dominatrix insatiably commanding her hapless lovers to their eagerly desired doom.

Tam Lin (aka The Devil's Widow ) was also McDowall's solo directorial effort. Based on the splendid result (especially the aforementioned set piece), it was a great pity that Roddy did not pursue a career as a film director because - as with Charles Laughton, who blessed us with his only turn as a director, the superb "The Night of the Hunter" - he possessed a definite flair as a filmmaker. Produced in 1969, his film sat on the shelf for two years. In 1971, McDowall returned to his film to do some post-production work on it but 'twas all for naught because it was poorly distributed and sank into relative obscurity. In 1998 Republic Home Video, in collaboration with Martin Scorsese and McDowall, restored "Tam Lin" and rescued it from oblivion by releasing a stunningly superb widescreen print with an introduction by McDowall.

I highly recommend this stylishly directed and unjustly neglected gem to lovers of the macabre and mysterious. To all such, I strongly encourage you to seek it out.