Sunday, April 24, 2022

Movie review - "The Devil's Daughter" (1973) *** (warning: spoilers)

 After Harold and Maude Colin Higgins wrote Killing Lydia (which became Foul Play) and two TV movies, this and The Distributor, which I don't think was made. This is a decent TV movie, a Rosemary's Baby knock off (I think the pitch was "Rosemary's Baby at 21") about a young woman (Belinda Montgomery vaguely familiar to me - I googled her and saw she was Crockett's wife in Miami Vice) who after the death of her mother (Diane Ladd) goes to live with one of the latter's mates (Shelley Winters) unaware mom was topped by Satanists who have a claim to Montgomery.

Atmospherically handed by Jeannot Swarzc and the cast is very strong (it includes the workmanlike Montgomery, plus Abe Vigoda, Joseph Cotten and Richard Foxworth). It does lack an extra twist or two - like, you can kind of guess charming Foxworth, the boyfriend, will be bad and that Cotten will be bad, and her BFF will be killed. Higgins got better at doing misdirects and twists later on.

The producers, Miller and Miklis, were big TV guys - they did a lot of TV movies, went on to do Happy Days - and they liked Higgins so much they went on to produce Silver Streak and Foul Play with him.  (Miller was gay and later formed a professional partnership with his real life partner, Bob Boyett)

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