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The Devil Is a Woman

Original title: Il sorriso del grande tentatore
  • 19741974
  • RR
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
130
YOUR RATING
The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
Drama
The Mother Superior of a convent wields power in its most vicious forms. And as she as she destroys the people in her care, she herself becomes her own victim as she draws on all her spiritu... Read allThe Mother Superior of a convent wields power in its most vicious forms. And as she as she destroys the people in her care, she herself becomes her own victim as she draws on all her spiritual powers to drive out the tempter.The Mother Superior of a convent wields power in its most vicious forms. And as she as she destroys the people in her care, she herself becomes her own victim as she draws on all her spiritual powers to drive out the tempter.
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
130
YOUR RATING
    • Damiano Damiani
    • Damiano Damiani(story)
    • Fabrizio Onofri(screenplay)
    • Audrey Nohra(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Glenda Jackson
    • Claudio Cassinelli
    • Lisa Harrow
    • Damiano Damiani
    • Damiano Damiani(story)
    • Fabrizio Onofri(screenplay)
    • Audrey Nohra(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Glenda Jackson
    • Claudio Cassinelli
    • Lisa Harrow
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 5User reviews
    • 4Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos15

    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)
    The Devil Is a Woman (1974)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Glenda Jackson
    Glenda Jackson
    • Sister Geraldine
    Claudio Cassinelli
    Claudio Cassinelli
    • Rodolfo Solina
    Lisa Harrow
    Lisa Harrow
    • Emilia Contreras
    Adolfo Celi
    Adolfo Celi
    • Father Borelli
    Duilio Del Prete
    Duilio Del Prete
    • Monsignor Salvi
    Arnoldo Foà
    Arnoldo Foà
    • Monsignor Badensky
    Gabriele Lavia
    Gabriele Lavia
    • Prince Ottavio Ranieri d'Aragona
    Francisco Rabal
    Francisco Rabal
    • Bishop Marquez
    Rolf Tasna
    • Monsignor Meitner
    Eugenio Bottari
      Sara Sperati
      • Princess Alessandra Ranieri d'Aragona
      • (as Adele Sperati)
      Edoardo Canali
      Enrico Ribulsi
      • Professor Villa
      Edda Ferronao
      • Kitchen maid
      Ely Galleani
      Ely Galleani
      • Rodolfo's girlfriend
      Margherita Horowitz
      • Prince Ottavio's mother
      Fabrizio Jovine
      Fabrizio Jovine
      • The Doctor
      Carla Mancini
      Carla Mancini
        • Damiano Damiani
        • Damiano Damiani(story) (screenplay)
        • Fabrizio Onofri(screenplay)
        • Audrey Nohra(screenplay)
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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      Storyline

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      Did you know

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      • Trivia
        Aside from a short voice over, Glenda Jackson does not appear in the first 30 minutes of the film.
      • Connections
        Featured in Armchair Thriller: The Chelsea Murders (1981)

      User reviews5

      Review
      Review
      Featured review
      6/10
      THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (Damiano Damiani, 1975) **1/2
      According to the Leonard Maltin Film Guide, this film merits a BOMB and is "indifferently acted…technically atrocious"…he must have been thinking of THE KILLER NUN (1978; see below)! What we really have here is an excellent cast of internationally renowned actors involved in a serious, arty exercise in "Nunsploitation": Glenda Jackson stars as the iron-willed Sister Geraldine who heads a strange hybrid of mental asylum and tourist hostel in Rome, with Adolfo Celi her right-hand man and Father Confessor to the 'inmates'. The latter are an eccentric set of ecclesiastical misfits – Francisco Rabal is a communist bishop from Cuba, Arnoldo Foa' a Polish monsignor who collaborated with the Nazi regime in WWII, etc. – and wealthy degenerates – Gabriele Lavia is a Prince unhealthily obsessed with his own sister and so on; running the day-to-day operations of the establishment with an equally iron fist is Bolivian émigré Lisa Harrow (who, when married to the local Police Chief, fell for an anarchist and later organized the former's death in an ambush). The coming of historian Claudio Cassinelli (on an invitation by Foa', who needs help to write his memoirs in order to exculpate himself in the eyes of his superiors!) slowly but surely turns the entire order of things in disarray: contacting Lavia's sister on his behalf against Jackson's specific instructions (an innocent and trivial action which, indirectly, leads to Lavia's suicide a' la ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST [1975]), reawakening Harrow's feelings of love for another man (she had previously turned those onto her pet feline or nightly bouts of masturbation!), etc. Eventually, all of the 'inmates' are liberated by Cassinelli's presence, revolt and go back out into the real world – including Harrow who shacks up with the writer himself; unfortunately, as a result of Jackson's malicious misinformation that she is terminally ill, her long-dormant sexuality blooms into full-blown nymphomania (which includes sleeping with the, by her own admission, disgusting condominium handyman) and, while on their way to see a doctor by train, she runs out on her mate altogether! Some time later, just as he is about to commit himself to a new relationship with the briefly-glimpsed Ely Galeani, Cassinelli returns, on a hunch, to Jackson's hostel and, to his shock, discovers that all the inmates have come back and become their own previous subservient, resigned selves (he now also finds among them Lavia's gorgeous sister, the woefully underused Adele Sperati)! Director Damiano Damiani has made an eclectic bunch of interesting movies over the years and this, while perhaps not among his best work, is certainly one of them, aided in no small measure by another of legendary composer Ennio Morricone's weird, choral scores. From the cast, newcomer Harrow is a revelation (in every sense of the word, since she indulges in full frontal nudity during that aforementioned handyman encounter): this is still her best-known film – although she would later go on to have a son by actor Sam Neill. Personally, it was a joy for me to watch 3 actors from films I dearly love – Celi (THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY [1974]), Foa' (THE 100 HORSEMEN [1965]) and Rabal (NAZARIN [1959], VIRIDIANA [1961], BELLE DE JOUR [1967]) – sparring verbally on screen in their scenes together. One final note: ironically, it may be that this film is not better-known because the two English titles accorded it (including THE TEMPTER) were already attached to more popular movies!
      helpful•5
      1
      • Bunuel1976
      • Mar 21, 2009

      Details

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      • Release date
        • January 24, 1974 (Italy)
        • United Kingdom
        • Italy
        • English
      • Also known as
      • Filming locations
        • Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy
      • Production companies
        • Euro International Films
        • Lifeguard Productions
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Technical specs

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      • 1 hour 45 minutes
        • Mono

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