THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER (1973 TV-movie)

Alice Shaw is clearly in emotional distress at church though she rebuffs her priest when he tries to help. In her apartment, she is confronted by a crippled man walking on two canes (whose face we don't see) who has come to claim her 21-year-old daughter. Alice tries to shoot the crippled man, who claims to be the girl's father, but the bullets have no effect and she drops dead. At Alice's funeral, her daughter Diane is comforted by Lilith, an old friend of her mother's. Lilith is friendly but a bit aggressive and insists that Diane stay with her to let Diane sort out her life. Lilith introduces Diane to some eccentric neighbors and gives her a ring with a distinctive insignia, like a cross overlaid with an X, that she says belonged to Diane's mother. Diane notices a sinister looking painting in Lilith's living room of a creepy looking man in a cloak against a blood red background, and the ring insignia is present in the corner of the painting. We soon discover that Alice and Lilith were both in a cult of devil worshippers; apparently, the Devil himself (or perhaps a lesser demon), as pictured in the painting, fathered Diane, and Alice promised to give the girl up to the group when she turned 21. Now Lilith and the cult are trying to snare Diane into becoming their Princess of Darkness who will mate with the Demon of Endor. Diane's attempts to escape the influence of Lilith are ineffectual until she starts dating Steve, a handsome neighbor. Between Steve and the kindly judge who was the executor of Alice's will, Diane thinks she has escaped the clutches of the cult—but has she?

Between the title, the visuals, and the overdetermined narrative, it's obvious right from the get-go that this is basically a TV-movie version of Rosemary's Baby—the opening credits roll over an image stolen from the famous Rosemary's Baby poster. Almost every plot beat is predictable and, it being a 70s TV-movie, we also know that it's likely to have a downbeat ending (upbeat for the Satanists). Still, this was fun largely due to a good cast. Shelley Winters is fabulous as Lilith; she resists her scenery-chewing ways except for one scene in which she goes ballistic when Diane announces she's moving out, and it's a good scene. Belinda J. Montgomery (later Doogie Houser's mom) alternates between frightened and strong as Diane. Joseph Cotten has a glorified cameo as the judge. Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows) plays Lilith's mute butler; it's a small role but he plays the one cult member who actually is on Diane's side. Abe Vigoda, the year after The Godfather and the year before Barney Miller, looking a bit like Boris Karloff, is a cult elder. Robert Foxworth is handsome and serene as Steve. Martha Scott plays his mother and Diane Ladd is Diane's mother. Admittedly there are moments that verge on laughable, such as the chanting of "Diane, Princess of Darkness." But the ending, though predictable with the Demon of Endor showing up with glowing eyes (above right), is effective. Somehow I missed this one in my childhood but I'm glad to have caught up with it. Pictured at left are Winters and Frid. [Ok.ru]