The Devil Rides Out: Wickedly funny and painfully honest stories from Paul O’Grady

Product Information

In the 1960s his publishers were selling a million copies of his books per year. A small number of his books were made into films by Hammer, of which the best known is The Devil Rides Out (book 1934, film 1968). His writing is very descriptive and in many works he manages to introduce his characters into real events while meeting real people. For example, in the Roger Brook series the main character involves himself with Napoleon, and Joséphine whilst being a spy for the Prime Minister William Pitt. Similarly, in the Gregory Sallust series, Sallust shares an evening meal with Hermann Göring. Led by the Duc de Richleau, his friends begin a race against time and encounter the terrifying experience of Satanic entities. The text is littered with all manner of references to satanic practices and daft myth and legend relating to the dark arts, to the point that it just becomes very, very silly. How much bunk the author must have waded through to end up with such a mish-mash of nonsense I can only imagine, but he must have been overwhelmed because he certainly wasn't discerning in the final cut. The effect is an overload that renders any reasonable suspension of belief impossible. If we take the book’s explanation that, during their dream journey, they were ‘living in what the moderns call the fourth dimension – divorced from time,’ then we can assume that everything that takes place between de Richleau’s incantation in the face of the Angel of Death and him waking up again within the chalk circle as having happened on the astral plane, then the words of the Sussamma Ritual serve almost as cosmic book ends to their out-of-body experiences, brought about by the ritual itself. Christopher Lee in The Devil Rides Out 1968 Racism

Christopher Lee as the Duke de Richleau — an utterly inspired piece of casting. It seems that Wheatley and Lee knew each other well, that Lee shared Wheatley’s interest in the Occult and that Wheatley had pressed for Lee to be cast in the role of the duke. Lee himself was not keen on playing the Mocata role, it seems: “I told Hammer, ‘Look, enough of the villainy for the time being, let us try something different and let me be on the side of the angels for once.'” Casting Charles Gray — smooth, suave, debonair — as Mocata was also an excellent decision, a deliberate move away from the repulsive Mocata of the book. The oddest piece of casting is perhaps that of the opera singer Leon Greene as Rex; he has the chiselled good looks and the action-man physique but it was decided that his voice needed to be dubbed.TANITH: It’s what he’ll do. Oh god, it’s what he’ll do. Rex continues to believe that he can keep Tanith safe from Mocata. Silly boy! In the book the denouement takes place in the crypt of an age-old monastery. With our heroes imprisoned in an invisible magic circle, the Goat of Mendes makes a guest reappearance, this time above the altar on which the (naked) child is to be sacrificed, glaring at them with its “red, baleful, slanting eyes” and belching “fetid, deathly breaths from its cavernous nostrils”. The Devil Rides Out (love the title) isn’t as comedic as his first autobiography but it was still an enjoyable, if slow, read! It’s more about his past places of work and how he built himself up in his career in the very beginning. I’m looking forward to his other two autobiographies - the third focuses more on Lily Savage and will have funny stories from those years! Savage was just in her infancy by the end of this book! James Hilton, reviewing The Devil Rides Out, described it as "The best thing of its kind since Dracula". [2]

Instead of the repetition of the Sussamma Ritual, Marie Lou instead invokes an angelic being, one of the ‘Lords of Light’ who intervenes to defeat Mocata. De Richleau et al then find themselves transported beyond the physical world, until they are floating above their own unconscious bodies, still lying within the pentacle in the library of Cardinal’s Folly. Terence Fisher was chosen to direct. Fisher, who began his film career as an editor, directed his first film, A Song for Tomorrow in 1948. He continued to direct low budget films for studios and television until 1957, when Hammer, impressed with his work ethic, offered him The Curse of Frankenstein (1957, Terence Fisher). Shot in lurid Eastmancolor, The Curse of Frankensteinfirmly established Hammer as forerunners in the gothic horror genre. It starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee who had worked together for years, though Cushing was better known at the time. Despite its gripping pace, action and delightfully descriptive representations of devil worship and cult rituals, many of Wheatley’s values and attitudes have not aged well. Modern readers are advised to read with caution – or better still, read ‘Doctor Who and the Dæmons’ by Barry Letts instead! Simon Aron, a stoop-shouldered Jewish man with a very sudden interest in astronomy and gardening, is about to be baptized “Abraham”. Rex Van Wyn is a wealthy young man who enjoys sports of all kinds. His father is a banker and runs The Chesapeake Banking and Trust Corporation. Richard Eaton has married the Princess Marie Lou, and they have a daughter, Fleur. They sold off the lesser stones of the Shulimoff treasure to provide the princess with an independent income. They currently reside at Cardinals Folly in the country. Jim is a gardener; Malin is their butler; and, they have a nurse for Fleur. The appearance of the Goat of Mendes at the sabbat, the already-mentioned pentacle scene and the climactic ritual of the child sacrifice on the altar can all justifiably be called iconic. As noted in my previous Wheatley blog, a 2019 Daily Mail story about devil worshippers in the English countryside used a ‘Goat of Mendes’ still as a photo to accompany the text.The production designer was Bernard Robinson who joined Hammer in 1956 and had previously worked on several successful Hammer productions, including The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula (1958, Terence Fisher ). Robinson drew meticulous pencil and ink sketches of his designs and his attention to detail includes decorating the satanic temples with intricate astrological and Kabbalistic symbols. Matheson uses the esoteric information from the book with a light hand. Like all good horror, suspense is maintained by hinting at the enormity of the problems they face, and the Duke, played with authority by Lee, espouses enough occult information to create a sense of authenticity. Although Lee was a lot younger than the Duke, his aristocratic bearing gives him a gravitas that fits perfectly with the character. Christopher Lee’s Nicholas, Duc de Richleau, is as omniscient as god, but not quite pure enough to stand against the devil during a blood rite. He is a completely capable man, an expert on many things and a lover of the finest of them. A former soldier, he is disciplined and commanding and Lee is utterly convincing. We know he’s right. Even when he’s wrong, he’s right, just like Wheatley himself. He’s done it all, researched it extensively, rolled it over in his brain and decided what is right and what is wrong. And that it is wrong to allow the young rapscallion Simon to be baptized a Satanist. Oh, he understands the allure, but no, it’s just not proper.