Schoolmistress Gwen Mayfield secures a job in the sleepy little English village of Heddaby, having recovered from a nervous breakdown caused by a terrifying experience with witchcraft in Africa. She is soon accepted into local life by the friendly, if a little remote, villagers, but as time goes by she becomes progressively more disturbed as she senses that once again she is surrounded by a nest of witches.
Production Details
A Seven Arts-Hammer film production presented by Associated British Pathe Limited and released through Warner-Pathe Distributors Limited (UK) and Twentieth Century fox (USA)
Copyright MCMlXVl Hammer Film Production, Ltd, – All rights reserved
MPAA Approved Certificate No. 21322
The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the name, character, or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional
Based on the novel “The Devil’s Own” by Peter Curtis
RCA Sound System
Produced at Bray Studios, England
Technicolor 91 mins
Filming Began: 18th April 1966
UK Release: 9th December 1966
Studio:
Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire
Location:
Hambleden, Buckinghamshire – Village Exteriors
Stills from film
Click an image for enlarged slideshow
Cast & Crew
Red = Uncredited
Crew | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer | |
Art Director | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/don-mingaye/# | 37 | 1929 | 8 Nov 2017 | 88 | 28 | 15 | 43 | |
Assistant Art Director | Kenneth Ryan | 1 | 6 | 7 | |||||
Assistant Director | David Tringham | 31 | 13 Mar 1935 | 30 Nov 2022 | 87 | 3 | 3 | ||
Assistant Editor | Tony Lenny | 25 | 29 May 1941 | 1990 | 48 | 1 | 1 | ||
Boom Operator | Charles Wheeler | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Camera Operator | Cece Cooney | 60 | 11 Sep 1906 | Sep 1993 | 86 | 5 | 5 | ||
Casting | Irene Lamb | 10 | 10 | ||||||
Choreographer | Denys Palmer | 38 | 8 Oct 1928 | 1991 | 62 | 2 | 2 | ||
Clapper Loader | Eddie Collins | 21 | 13 Nov 1945 | 13.11.1945 | 78 | 3 | 3 | ||
Continuity | Anne Deeley | 55 | 1911 | 23 Feb 2004 | 93 | 1 | 1 | ||
Director | Cyril Frankel | 44 | 28 Dec 1921 | 7 Jun 2017 | 95 | 3 | 3 | ||
Director of Photography | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/arthur-grant/# | 51 | 1915 | 1972 | 57 | 33 | 33 | ||
Editor | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/chris-barnes/# | 28 | 1938 | 5 Jun 2009 | 71 | 21 | 12 | 33 | |
Focus Puller | Bob Jordan | 29 | 29 | ||||||
Hair Stylist | Frieda Steiger | 62 | 29 Dec 1903 | 19 Aug 1993 | 89 | 28 | 28 | ||
Make-up | George Partleton | 57 | 21 Jan 1909 | 17 Oct 1992 | 83 | 6 | 6 | ||
Music Composer | Richard Bennett | 30 | 29 Mar 1936 | 24 Dec 2012 | 76 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
Musical Supervisor | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/philip-martell/# | 59 | 6 Oct 1907 | 11 Aug 1993 | 85 | 104 | 1 | 105 | |
Producer | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/anthony-nelson-keys/# | 55 | 13 Nov 1911 | 19 Mar 1985 | 73 | 41 | 41 | ||
Production Designer | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/bernard-robinson/# | 54 | 28 Jul 1912 | 2 Mar 1970 | 57 | 45 | 4 | 49 | |
Production Manager | Charles Permane | 69 | 1897 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Production Secretary | Maureen White | 36 | 1930 | 01.01.1930 | 94 | 1 | 5 | 6 | |
Publicist | Bob Webb | 4 | 4 | ||||||
Publicity Director | Alan Thomson | 3 | 3 | ||||||
Scenic Artist | Feliks Sergejak | 60 | 25 May 1906 | 1982 | 76 | 4 | 4 | ||
Screenplay | Nigel Kneale | 44 | 18 Apr 1922 | 29 Oct 2006 | 84 | 6 | 6 | ||
Second Assistant Director | Terence Churcher | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Second Assistant Editor | Colin Needs | 23 | 1943 | 01.01.1943 | 81 | 2 | 2 | ||
Second Camera Operator | David Harcourt | 51 | 27 Sep 1915 | 5 May 2013 | 97 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
Second Focus Puller | Philip Finch | 36 | 1930 | 10 Jul 2002 | 72 | 1 | 1 | ||
Sound Editor | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/roy-hyde/# | 46 | 15 Feb 1920 | 28 Jun 1985 | 65 | 30 | 1 | 31 | |
Sound Recordist | Ken Rawkins | 48 | 1 Jan 1918 | 1971 | 53 | 18 | 18 | ||
Still Photographer | Tom Edwards | 1999 | 29 | 29 | |||||
Stunts | Peter Diamond | 37 | 10 Aug 1929 | 27 Mar 2004 | 74 | 4 | 25 | 29 | |
Supervising Editor | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/james-needs/# | 47 | 17 Oct 1919 | 4 Feb 2003 | 83 | 110 | 1 | 111 | |
Third Assistant Director | Christopher Neame | 23 | 24 Dec 1942 | 12 Jun 2011 | 15 | 9 | 24 | ||
Wardrobe Master | Harry Haynes | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Wardrobe Supervisor | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/molly-arbuthnot/# | 57 | 19 Dec 1908 | 31 Oct 2001 | 92 | 48 | 5 | 53 | |
Cast | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer | |
Adam | Willie Payne | 44 | Sep 1922 | 2017 | 94 | 2 | 2 | ||
Alan Bax | Alec McCowen | 41 | 26 May 1925 | 6 Feb 2017 | 91 | 1 | 1 | ||
Bob Curd | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/duncan-lamont/# | 48 | 17 Jun 1918 | 19 Dec 1978 | 60 | 7 | 7 | ||
Dancer | Brian Todd | 33 | 1933 | 01.01.1933 | 91 | 1 | 1 | ||
Dancer | Don Vernon | 39 | 26 Jul 1927 | 26.07.1927 | 97 | 1 | 1 | ||
Dancer | Ken Robson | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Dancer | Roy Desmond | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Dancer | Terry Williams | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Dr Wallis | Leonard Rossiter | 40 | 21 Oct 1926 | 5 Oct 1984 | 57 | 1 | 1 | ||
First Villager | Lizbeth Kent | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Granny Rigg | Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies | 75 | 25 Jan 1891 | 27 Jan 1992 | 101 | 2 | 2 | ||
Gwen Mayfield | Joan Fontaine | 49 | 22 Oct 1917 | 15 Dec 2013 | 96 | 1 | 1 | ||
Linda | Ingrid Brett | 19 | 1947 | 01.01.1947 | 77 | 2 | 2 | ||
Mark | Rudolph Walker | 27 | 28 Sep 1939 | 28.09.1939 | 85 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Mark | Yemi Ajibade | 37 | 28 Jul 1929 | 24 Jan 2013 | 83 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Mr Dowsett | John Collin | 38 | 18 Oct 1928 | 25 Feb 1987 | 58 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Mr. Glass | John Barrett | 56 | 18 Feb 1910 | 22 May 1983 | 73 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Mrs Creek | Shelagh Fraser | 46 | 25 Nov 1920 | 29 Aug 2000 | 79 | 1 | 1 | ||
Mrs Curd | Viola Keats | 55 | 27 Mar 1911 | 5 Jun 1998 | 87 | 1 | 1 | ||
Mrs Dowsett | Carmel McSharry | 40 | 18 Aug 1926 | 4 Mar 2018 | 91 | 1 | 1 | ||
Mrs. McDowall | Kitty Atwoood | 65 | 28 Jun 1901 | 1991 | 89 | 2 | 2 | ||
Nurse | Catherine Finn | 51 | 7 Feb 1915 | 1 Mar 1980 | 65 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Police Sergeant | Charles Rea | 43 | 8 Jan 1923 | 17 Mar 1992 | 69 | 1 | 1 | ||
Porter | Artro Morris | 40 | 17 May 1926 | 11 Feb 2014 | 87 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Ronnie Dowsett | Martin Stephens | 17 | 19 Jul 1949 | 19.07.1949 | 75 | 1 | 1 | ||
Sally | Ann Bell | 28 | 29 Apr 1938 | 29.04.1938 | 86 | 2 | 2 | ||
Schoolboy | Robert Charig | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Stephanie Bax | Kay Walsh | 55 | 15 Nov 1911 | 16 Apr 2005 | 93 | 2 | 2 | ||
Stephanies Maid | Prudence Hyman | 52 | 2 Feb 1914 | 1 Jun 1995 | 81 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
Tom | Bryan Marshall | 28 | 19 May 1938 | 25 Jun 2019 | 81 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
TV Repairman | Harold Coyne | 43 | 1923 | 24 Mar 2013 | 90 | 1 | 1 | ||
Valerie | Michelle Dotrice | 18 | 27 Sep 1948 | 27.09.1948 | 76 | 1 | 1 | ||
Villager | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/richard-neller/# | 72 | Oct 1894 | 14 Jul 1970 | 75 | 9 | 9 | ||
Villager | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/lindsay-hooper/# | 10 | 10 | ||||||
Waiter | Cecil Paul | 4 | 4 |
Original Poster
Click to enlarge
Footnotes
Hollywood actress Joan Fontaine owned the rights of the book on which this film is based and seems to have brought the idea to Hammer in the hope of reinvigorating her film career. If so, it did not work and she has only made three TV movies since – The Users (1978), Crossings‘ and Dark Mansions (both 1986).
She had been in movies since 1935, but made her name as the second Mrs de Wynter in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940), going on to win a Best Actress Oscar for her second film for him, Suspicion (1941). Her many other films include Jane Eyre (1944), Ivanhoe (1952), Serenade (1956) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961). She is the sister of Olivia de Havilland, although the two actresses fell out and have not spoken to each other for many years.
Cyril Frankel directed one other film for Hammer, the controversial 1960 thriller about a child molester, Never Take Sweets from a Stranger.
Ingrid Brett is the daughter of film producer/director Roy Boulting.
Martin Stephens (17 years old here) had already given impressive performances as a child in Village of the Damned (1960) and The Innocents (1961).
Michelle Dotrice will always be remembered as Michael Crawford’s long-suffering wife Betty in the BBC TV sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘ave ’em.
Leonard Rossiter later appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001:A Space Odyssey (1968) before becoming a household name in BBC TV’s The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and as miserly landlord Rigsby in Yorkshire TV’s sitcom Rising Damp.
Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies was a grand old lady of the British theatre, who rarely made films. She did however take another role for Hammer in The Devil Rides Out (1967). She was over 100 years old when she made her last TV appearance as The Dowager in Granada’s adaptation of Sherlock Holmes’ The Master Blackmaile (1991), starring Jeremy Brett.
Novelist Peter Curtis was in fact a woman, the name being a pseudonym of authoress Norah Lofts.
Rudolph Walker appeared in two of Hammer’s TV spin-off comedies in the 1970’s – Love Thy Neighbour and Man About the House.