Fantasy Island (TV Series) The Devil and Mandy Breem/Instant Millionaire (1980) User Reviews

Roddy McDowell as the devil

[safenoe · 8/10 · 26 July 2021]

This is a scary episode of Fantasy Island, with the battle against Satan in full force, and wow, was it scary. Roddy McDowell played Satan to the hilt, and you wonder if his character was the inspiration for the TV series Lucifer years later which also featured a British actor as the Devil.

Coincidentally, 31 years after this episode, another British actor Malcolm McDowell (no relation to Roddy I believe) played the Devil in Suing the Devil. What is it with British actors playing Satan?

More coincidentally, in 1998 Malcolm McDowell played Mr Rourke in the short-lived reboot of the series.

The devil made her do it!

[stones78 · 3 September 2014]

This was the darker segment I've been waiting for, and although it was still a bit cartoonish, I felt it delivered rather scary and tense moments, especially for 1980. Roddy McDowell portrayed the infamous figure perfectly, and the scene between he and Roarke in the dark, foggy garden during their anticipated battle gave me the creeps, and I'm a grown man! There's even some eerie images of demons floating in the air to scare both characters, played by Carol Lynley(yet again), and Adam West. It turns out that Mandy(Lynley)made a secret pact with Mephistopheles(McDowell)to keep her husband(West)alive after a serious operation; she has to turn her soul over to him after a year to the day of the pact. I'm not normally a huge fan of Lynley, but she was more effective, especially the fear she shows when the apparitions appear. It was also nice seeing West in a more serious role than the usual ham he plays. The other story wasn't chopped liver either, as it starred familiar faces, such as the late, great Ross Martin, Arte Johnson, Arlene Golonka, and Joe Turkel, who you may remember as Lloyd the bartender from The Shining(1980), which came out only a few months before this episode. The only obvious thing that's different here is that this fantasy is granted by Tattoo, although he doesn't doesn't discuss it with his boss first. The performances in this segment were solid as well, but the other segment was the clear winner.