THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER (1973) **

While attending the funeral of her estranged mother, Diane (Belinda J. Montgomery) bumps into Lilith (Shelley Winters), an old friend of the family.  Lilith invites Diane to stay in her home, and before she can even move in, the mute servant (Jonathan Frid) is trying to warn her something’s amiss.  Diane eventually figures out Lilith is some sort of Devil worshipper and gets out of there quickly.  When Diane meets the man of her dreams (Robert Foxworth), she forbids the ever-meddling Lilith to stay out of her affairs.  Too bad she was pretty much doomed from the start.

Poor Diane had to realize she was in danger right from the get-go.  I mean you know you’re in trouble when Shelley Winters invites you to stay at her house where there are devil paintings on the wall and Barnabus Collins is her mute servant.  If that doesn’t tell you that you’re trapped in a crappy Made for TV Rosemary’s Baby knockoff. directed by Jeannot Szwarc, I don’t know what will.

Written by Colin Higgins, who had just written Harold and Maude the previous year (and would go on to direct 9 to 5), The Devil’s Daughter follows the standard ‘70s Made for TV horror formula to a tee.  Something cool happens in the opening minutes to grab your attention, and then you have to wait until the last few minutes of the film for something equally compelling to occur.  Even when it finally happens, it’s wholly predictable and tame.  I guess that would’ve been an acceptable trade-off if everything in between hadn’t been such a slog. 

The supporting cast is strong though.  Diane Ladd makes a memorable impression as Diane’s ill-fated mother in the opening scene.  Joseph Cotten also does a fine job as the kindly old judge who probably isn’t all that kindly after all.  The funniest casting is Abe Vigoda as one of the Devil worshippers.  Not only do you get the hilarious visual of seeing Fish dressed in a black cultist robe, you get to hear him TRYING to do a Mexican accent, but he basically just sounds like Boris Karloff.  That alone makes The Devil’s Daughter almost worth watching.