Eye of the Devil

Somebody went and put Deborah Kerr in charge of the kids again! This began an ill fated trilogy of films based on the Devil's facial sense organs. In Ear of the Devil Julie Andrews believes her caretaker charge is playing a saxophone of the damned and finally Nose of the Devil was just ninety minutes of Peter Fonda doing exactly what you'd imagine based on that title.

Schizophrenic. What could be misinterpreted as suspense-building could in fact be characters walking really slowly and staring off into space, and the cameraman forgetting to balance the tripod. It doesn't help that the dialogue is clammy but the story is great.

The sluggish plot was okay though I expected some sort of bigger twist in the end. The output was nicely 60s and aged a lot. They put poor Kerr run a lot for opposite of robotic staring off characters.

Excellent camerawork, very reminiscent of Frankenheimer's work on films like Seconds. Excellent use of shadows. All people in small towns are part of a cult right? Read that Kim Novak was supposed to be in Kerr's role, which would've ruled. Also read someone suggested this could've been an influence on Hot Fuzz and I could totally see that.

I liked this one and being filmed in black and white really helped.

Very much feeling the influence of the French New Wave, there's some dizzying and spectacular camerawork that gets bogged down in the fact that there's maybe 20 minutes worth of plot in the 90 minutes of film. Deborah Kerr (who always has the worst luck with men) is thanklessly tasked with running around and screaming most of the time, and the film lacks any twists or even hints at twists. But it looks great!

Sharon Tate is magnetic here, & this honestly is proof enough that anybody who says she couldn't act doesn't know what they're talking about. She could act, not incredibly but well enough, & her presence made up for her weak spots in spades. Speaking of acting, everyone is quite good here. It's just a shame about the plot, which I found meandering. I didn't love the characters, either. The witch siblings deserve their own movie, though. An interesting watch, but ultimately a dull one for me.

Boring.

Surprisingly little known film considering that it has a killer cast of Niven, Kerr, Hemmings, Pleasance, Tate, etc. Striking B/W photography, jazzy score, innovative editing put together to create an eerie atmosphere. Too bad that the set-up is a lot more intriguing than the pay-off, but there's still plenty to like for fans of Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby.