Eye of the Devil (1966)

Wealthy mansion dweller (David Niven) is called back to the family estate because the grape harvest has mysteriously failed. He tells his wife (Deborah Kerr) not to visit him there, and behaves all mysterious. She visits him here anyhow and finds people acting very mysterious. The more she tries to find out what’s going on, the more mysterious things become. So mysterious!

A tremendously troubled production, starting with the fact that Kim Novak, originally cast in Deborah Kerr’s role, fell from a horse and fractured a vertebra. Principle filming was nearly complete but she was unable to finish. They were forced to hire Kerr and reshoot nearly everything. Rumors that Novak was fired are likely false. Then the studio shelved the project for over a year, motivated by equal parts lack of faith and concerns over the subject matter.

Although she appeared uncredited in a couple films and appeared in fifteen episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, Sharon Tate makes her official debut here. She won praise for taking on a believable English accent, or maybe she was dubbed. David Hemmings received media buzz from Blow-Out, which became a surprise hit while Eye of the Devil sat on the shelf. Donald Pleasence is a creepy priest.

Eye of the Devil leans hard into the mystery, if I didn’t make that clear enough. The progression to reveal isn’t ineffective, but it was more than a little heavy handed. The attractive sets and creative cinematography are compromised by the thin, black and white film stock giving it a low budget feel. In the end it just didn’t work for me. AMRU 2.5.