With an all-star cast and a director with a string of hits behind him (Northwest Frontier, The Guns Of Navarone, Cape Fear, Taras Bulba), Eye Of The Devil must have looked a good bet on paper. Unfortunately, the final product is a somewhat muddled and murky affair which fails to live up to its potential. There is always something curiously enjoyable about watching talented stars in trouble, and Eye Of The Devil certainly offers a glorious opportunity for such mean-spirited voyeurism.
French land-owner Phillipe De Montfaucon (David Niven, sorely miscast) is summoned back to the family vineyard in the sleepy French town of Bellenac. He implores his wife Catherine (Deborah Kerr) to remain in London with their children Antoinette and Jacques (Suky Appleby and Robert Duncan). However, Catherine ignores his advice and follows her husband to the gloomy ancestral castle. It seems that for the third year in a row the De Montfaucon vineyards have yielded unsuccessful crops, and the townfolk seem to think that Phillipe can somehow rectify the problem. Upon arriving in Bellenac, Catherine is immediately unsettled by the oddness of the people in the area, especially the priest Pere Dominic (Donald Pleasance), and the brother-sister conjurers Christian De Caray (David Hemmings) and Odile (Sharon Tate). Even her husband Phillipe seems to be acting strangely and Catherine is determined to find out why. Gradually she discovers that the entire town is full of satanists and the poor crops are believed to be the result of a long-lasting family curse. As the oldest surviving De Montfaucon male, Phillipe is expected to sacrifice himself as part of a bizarre pagan ritual in order to restore health to the grapes!!
Talk about a wacky plot! The actors take it all very seriously though (not a single tongue in a single cheek to be found), which only serves to make them look pretty foolish. Kerr has the most difficult job, for she is the only normal person in the picture and therefore the only character with whom the viewers can identify. She tries quite hard, but isn't helped in the slightest by the mystifying script. Of the weird characters, Sharon Tate and David Hemmings come off best, their scenes carrying a certain hypnotic fascination though not a deal of sense. There are occasional effective moments during the film, such as the bit where some hooded figures pursue Catherine in a forest, but on the whole it is a very disappointing film which tries too hard to conceal its plot twists and ends up appearing muddled. No doubt there is a cult crowd for this kind of thing somewhere, but from my point of view it's just a wasted opportunity. This was one of the most extraordinary casts ever assembled in the '60s and it's somewhat dismaying when one reflects on what might have been.
French land-owner Phillipe De Montfaucon (David Niven, sorely miscast) is summoned back to the family vineyard in the sleepy French town of Bellenac. He implores his wife Catherine (Deborah Kerr) to remain in London with their children Antoinette and Jacques (Suky Appleby and Robert Duncan). However, Catherine ignores his advice and follows her husband to the gloomy ancestral castle. It seems that for the third year in a row the De Montfaucon vineyards have yielded unsuccessful crops, and the townfolk seem to think that Phillipe can somehow rectify the problem. Upon arriving in Bellenac, Catherine is immediately unsettled by the oddness of the people in the area, especially the priest Pere Dominic (Donald Pleasance), and the brother-sister conjurers Christian De Caray (David Hemmings) and Odile (Sharon Tate). Even her husband Phillipe seems to be acting strangely and Catherine is determined to find out why. Gradually she discovers that the entire town is full of satanists and the poor crops are believed to be the result of a long-lasting family curse. As the oldest surviving De Montfaucon male, Phillipe is expected to sacrifice himself as part of a bizarre pagan ritual in order to restore health to the grapes!!
Talk about a wacky plot! The actors take it all very seriously though (not a single tongue in a single cheek to be found), which only serves to make them look pretty foolish. Kerr has the most difficult job, for she is the only normal person in the picture and therefore the only character with whom the viewers can identify. She tries quite hard, but isn't helped in the slightest by the mystifying script. Of the weird characters, Sharon Tate and David Hemmings come off best, their scenes carrying a certain hypnotic fascination though not a deal of sense. There are occasional effective moments during the film, such as the bit where some hooded figures pursue Catherine in a forest, but on the whole it is a very disappointing film which tries too hard to conceal its plot twists and ends up appearing muddled. No doubt there is a cult crowd for this kind of thing somewhere, but from my point of view it's just a wasted opportunity. This was one of the most extraordinary casts ever assembled in the '60s and it's somewhat dismaying when one reflects on what might have been.