When Boomers, Gen Xers, and even Millennials think of Sir Christopher Lee, his first role that is likely to come to mind is that of Dracula in the many Hammer horrors in which he played the character. For Zoomers the first role that comes to mind may be Saruman in the Lord of the Rings films or Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Sir Christopher Lee played many villains in his long career and he was very good at playing villains, so much so that it is sometimes hard to believe he ever played a hero. One notable film in which he did play the hero was The Devil Rides Out (1968), originally released as The Devil's Bride in the United States.
The Devil Rides Out (1968) stars Sir Christopher Lee as adventurer and occultist the Duc de Richleau. The Duc de Richleau's protege Simon Aron (Patrick Mower) had broken off contact with him. It is for that reason that the duke and Simon's father, Rex Van Ryn (Leon Greene, dubbed by Patrick Allen), visit Simon at a manor house he recently purchased. There they find Simon in the company of others, and getting ready for some event to be held that evening. An investigation of the manor house's observatory reveals a pentagram and various strange markings, and it becomes obvious that Simon has become involved with Satanists. The Duc de Richleau then finds himself in conflict with a Satanic cult, led by Mocata (Charles Gray).
The Devil Rides Out was based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley. It was the second novel by Mr. Wheatley to feature the Duc de Richleau, the first being The Forbidden Territory, published in 1933. In all, the Duc de Richleau would appear in eleven novels by Dennis Wheatley, with the last novel, Gateway to Hell, being published in 1970. As to the Duc de Richleau himself, he was an aristocrat who engaged in a variety of adventures. The Duc de Richleau novels range in genre from adventure (The Forbidden Territory) to mystery (Three Inquisitive People) to the occult (The Devil Rides Out and Gateway to Hell). The Devil Rides Out would not be the first Duc de Richleau novel to be adapted as a a film. The Forbidden Territory was adapted by none other than Alfred Hitchcock in 1934, although the character of the Duc de Richleau was replaced by an Englishman named Sir Charles Farringdon (Ronald Squire). Sales for Dennis Wheatley's books remained strong throughout the years, and in the Sixties they sold in the millions.
It would be Christopher Lee himself who led Hammer Film Productions to adapt The Devil Rides Out as a movie. Christopher Lee was a huge fan of Dennis Wheatley's work, and had even met the author at one of his lectures in the mid-Fifties. He then persuaded Hammer to adapt Dennis Wheatley's novels. It was then in 1963 that Hammer optioned The Devil Rides Out, as well as some of Dennis Wheatley's other novels on the occult. Hammer ultimately decided against adapting The Devil Rides Out at the time, as they felt that because The Devil Rides Out dealt with Satanism it might not receive a certificate from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
Fortunately, as the Sixties passed concerns about censorship over devil worship in movies abated, so Hammer Film Productions felt secure enough to adapt the novel The Devil Rides Out. The original script for The Devil Rides Out was written by John Hunter, who co-wrote the Hammer adventure film Pirates of Blood River (1962) with John Gilling. Hammer was unhappy with John Hunter's adaptation, so they hired legendary science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer Richard Matheson to write a new script. Even in 1967 Hammer Film Productions had concerns over any possible censorship, so they submitted the script for The Devil Rides Out to the BBFC. The BBFC made it plain that they did not want to see "...any misuses of Christian emblems or any parodies of Christian prayers." Hammer was then very careful as to what was shown on screen in The Devil Rides Out.
Christopher Lee was set to play the Duc de Richleau from the very beginning. For the all important role of the villain Mocata, Hammer had originally wanted Gert Fröbe, best known for playing Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond movie Goldfinger (1964). The role would ultimately go to an actor who would later play another villain in a James Bond movie. Charles Gray would go onto play Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Still later he would play the Criminologist in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). The Duc de Richleau's friend Rex Van Ryn was played by Leon Greene, who had appeared in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). His voice would be dubbed by Patrick Allen (more on that in a bit).
The Devil Rides Out was directed by perhaps the director most associated with Hammer Film Productions, Terence Fisher. He directed the film that turned Hammer into the premier studio for horror movies, The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), as well as Dracula (1958--AKA Horror of Dracula), The Mummy (1959), and yet other Hammer horrors. Special effects on The Devil Rides Out were provided by Michael Stainer-Hitchens, a situation which was not of Hammer's choosing. Michael Staivers-Hutchins co-owned the rights to the novel The Devil Rides Out, and demanded that he provide the special effects in return for his rights to the book. As it turned out, some of the bigger special effects in The Devil Rides Out would be completed by an uncredited Les Bowie, who had provided effects for such Hammer films as The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Dracula (1958), The Kiss of the Vampire (1963), and yet others. He would later be part of the special effects team on the movie Superman (1978).
The Devil Rides Out completed shooting in the summer of 1967, but its path to the big screen would not be smooth. It was producer Anthony Nelson Keys, who also served as producer on such Hammer films as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958), who decided that Leon Greene's voice would have to be redubbed. Leon Greene's voice was then dubbed by Patrick Allen, who had appeared in the Hammer swashbuckler Captain Clegg (1962) and narrated the Hammer adventure film The Viking Queen (1962). He would also provide the voice-over for the British trailer for The Devil Rides Out. In the United States, the American distributor for The Devil Ride's Out, 20th Century Fox, cut several seconds of some of the film's more controversial scenes. They also retitled it The Devil's Bride for its American release, as they feared The Devil Rides Out made it sound like a Western.
The Devil Rides Out was released in the United Kingdom on July 7 1968 as the lead feature in a double bill with Slave Girls (1967), as the Hammer film Prehistoric Women had been retitled for its British release. It was released on December 18 1968 in the United States. While The Devil Rides Out has gone on to become a favourite with Hammer Film fans, it did poorly at the box office on both sides of the Pond. In the United Kingdom, much of the reason for its poor performance at the box office may have been because it was paired with Prehistoric Women. Not only did Prehistoric Women belong to a completely different genre (fantasy adventure), but Hammer counted it among their worst motion pictures ever made and actually delayed its release in the United Kingdom for two years. It had been released in the United States on January 24 1967.
In the United States, The Devil's Bride (as it was titled in the States) may have simply been the victim of bad timing. Rosemary's Baby (1968), which also dealt with devil worship, had been released on June 19 1968. Witchfinder General (1968), produced by Hammer rival Trigon British Film Productions, was released under the title The Conqueror Worm, in the United States on August 14 1968. Even though The Devil Rides Out had originally been conceived in 1963 and filmed around the same time as Rosemary's Baby and shortly before Witchfinder General (which was filmed in autumn 1967), it was then beat to American cinemas by two other movies that dealt with Satanism. For Americans, then The Devil's Bride may have felt like an afterthought.
Fortunately, The Devil Rides Out would find new life on television and still later on home media. No less than Sir Christopher Lee himself named The Devil Rides Out as one of his favourite films and he said that he would like to have seen it remade with modern special effects with him playing a more mature Duc de Richleau. Over the years it has developed a cult following and has become a favourite among the Hammer horror movies. In many ways it was a pioneer in its genre. Conceived in 1963 and released the same year as Rosemary's Baby and Witchfinder General, it was among the first in a new occult horror cycle that would last into the Seventies.
