An
old school British conservative like Dennis Wheatley understood the nature of
evil, so he fought the Infernal One tooth-and-nail with his occult horror novels.
Someone could do a jolly entertaining mini-retrospective of the seven films and
one TV anthology episode based on his books, but this would definitely be the
centerpiece. It happens to be the only Hammer film scripted by Richard Matheson
and the great Sir Christopher Lee also often identified it as one of his favorites.
Lee plays Wheatley’s intrepid Nicholas, Duc De Richleau in Terence Fisher’s The Devil Rides Out (a.k.a. The Devil’s Bride, trailer here), which screens as
part of the Arena CineLounge’s Satanic Panic film series.
Despite
the devilish goatee, De Richleau is an upstanding Christian gentleman, who has
studied the occult in depth, and therefore understands the profound danger it
represents. Both he and Rex Van Ryn have taken a fatherly interest in Simon
Aron, the son of their late military colleague. Rather mysteriously, Aron has
gone off the grid (circa 1929), so the two old friends have decided to pay him
a call. Much to De Richleau’s alarm, they walk in on the pre-game for a black
mass to be conducted by the villainous Mocata.
De
Richleau manages to scuttle the ceremony and then returns later to whisk off Aron,
whether he wants to be saved or not. At first, Van Ryn has a hard time believing
De Richleau’s warnings, but he soon sees enough to make him a believer. He also
starts to fall for Tanith Carlisle, another young recruit due to be initiated
into Mocata’s circle.
Devil Rides Out is notably heavy
on the occult imagery, particularly for 1968. There is definitely some serious
Satanic panic going on in these tony British drawing rooms and on the Salisbury
Plain. Somewhat surprisingly, some of the visuals seem to parallel those seen
in A Dark Song (which like DRO, was also influenced by the Aleister
Crowley mystique).
Regardless,
Lee is terrific as De Richleau, clearly enjoying a rare turn as the hero. His
De Richleau is rather a bit brusque and mysterious, not unlike his longtime
friend Peter Cushing’s portrayals of Sherlock Holmes. He also has some rather
engaging British upper-class bro chemistry with Leon Greene’s Van Ryn (dubbed
by Patrick Allen, which seems odd, since Greene was an opera singer, as well as
an actor).
Beyond
the nifty Hammer-style demonic horror, DRO
represents a unique assembly of talent. In addition to Lee and Matheson
adapting Wheatley, it features future fine artist Niké Arrighi as Carlisle,
Paul Eddington (best known as the easily befuddled James Hacker in Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister) as De Richleau even more skeptical friend Richard
Eaton, Charles Gray (Blofeld in Diamonds
are Forever) as Mocata, and Nigerian playwright Yemi Ajibade as an African
cultist.
