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Those who have criticised the Hammer film’s finale as being somewhat anticlimactic might have to be careful what they wish for when reading the novel. Instead of rescuing Peggy/Fleur from the occultists’ house which Rex discovered earlier in the film, our heroes head straight from Cardinal’s Folly (the Eaton’s Kidderminster home) to France in Richard’s private plane, and from there they follow a lead to Greece, which involves a twelve-hundred-mile journey across the alps to Yanina, after which ‘we’ll have to use horses’! every adept knows that it started because one of the most terrible Satanists who ever lived found one of the secret gateways through which to release the four horsemen. The Devil Rides Out, Chapter XX, The Four Horsemen Up to this midpoint of the story, the later film (very) roughly follows the original book: Simon Aron, young friend of the Duke de Richleau and Rex Van Ryn, has become embroiled with a group of satanists and must be rescued before his satanic baptism. Though Rex is ignorant in these matters, the duke is something of an expert. The film script — aided by Christopher Lee’s wonderful delivery — conveys gravitas but not pomposity: “Though I have never mentioned it, I have made a very deep study of these esoteric doctrines.” Once again, the character outwardly appears to be English, whereas he is French in the book. And in complete contrast to the suave elegance and charm with which Charles Gray (who was 40 at the time) plays the part, Wheatley describes him as ‘a pot-bellied, bald-headed person of about sixty, with large, protuberant, fishy eyes, limp hands and a most unattractive lisp.’ 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!
Don’t look at the eyes, Rex! Don’t look at the eyes! Sound advice from the duke when facing Embodied Evil. No prizes for guessing what Rex does next Heaven and Hell are only symbolical of growth to Light or disintegration to Darkness. There is no such person as the Devil, but there are vast numbers of Earthbound spirits, Elementals, and Evil Intelligences of the Outer Circle floating in our midst. But anyone who accepts Satanic baptism does exactly the reverse. They willfully destroy the barrier of astral Light which is our natural protection and offer themselves as a medium through which the powers of Darkness may operate on mankind.” So in a sense he managed to time his own literary demise rather well, as it coincided with just such a sea change in the mid-seventies, which witnessed the beginning of a steady decline in the sales of his novels. A new breed of, shall we say, more socially aware and diplomatic writers was emerging, and the world of debutantes' balls, stiff upper lips and adherence to duty, which had managed to hang on through two world wars, was finally let go of. The opening scene, where we see the Duke’s look of relief as Rex lands his private plane, accomplishes several things at once. It casts the Duke as a concerned father figure, anxious for his friend and elevates us immediately into Wheatley’s rarefied world of private planes and luxury products. As such, the film is a favourite with classic car enthusiasts and includes a red 1928 Lancia Lambda, a 1927 Bentley 3 Litre Vanden Plas and a 1929 Invicta 3 Litre, amongst other beauties. The 1928 Lancia LambdaAccording to the book, Simon was introduced to Mocata via a business associate, and his psychic powers saved Simon from potential bankruptcy when he predicted a financial crash. The more time he spent with Mocata, the more he fell under the Satanist’s hypnotic influence. Moreover, Mocata’s real interest in Simon lay in the fact that he is one of the rare people who were born ‘at a time when certain stars were in conjunction’, which makes him essential to Mocata’s invocation of Saturn coupled with Mars. 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.
This was the first time I came across a book by Dennis Wheatley & I am glad to say i was not disappointed.
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He was, therefore, cast as the Duke de Richleau and relishing the opportunity, read all the de Richleau books in preparation. The beautiful doomed Tanith, the charismatic Duc, the naturalised Russian Princess, Simon the banker, Rex Van Ryn the suitor and skeptic Richard Eaton fill a cast of fascinating characters pitted againt the sinister cruel Mocata and his fellow satanists. It isn’t cowardice, though Lee’s eyes are filled with terror. It is timing. He knows it is up to him to live to fight another day.
The story follows five characters, their leader the Duke de Richeau, is pretty much Christopher Lee. Seriously. Take Christopher Lee, the most bad-ass Renaissance man alive and just call him de Richeau. Being that Wheatley wrote the character in the 1930’s we can assume that one of the following happened: A) Wheatley had access to a crystal ball and modeled the Duke after the future Lee, B) The universe was so impressed with what a bad-ass the fictional Duke was that it immediately aligned the stars to make a then 11 year old Lee into the Duke, or C) A young Christoper Lee read the about the Duke and said, “Holy shit, I’m going to be this guy,” and promptly succeeded at it. Given what I know about Christopher Lee and of Wheatley’s extremely thorough research into the occult, all of these are equally possible. In fact, Christoper Lee enjoyed the novel so much that he played Duke de Richeau in the 1968 film version when he was finally old enough to play himself. How could you not be scared? And how could you not be seduced? This was real and dangerous and happening in all the best places.Racism and awkwardness aside, I thoroughly enjoyed The Devil Rides Out. I even used some of it in my Call of Cthulhu games. I recommend it for anyone that enjoys classic horror or might be interested in something a bit different than the standard tropes we find in today’s Horror and Urban Fantasy stories. The film script includes so many memorable lines memorably delivered — Christopher Lee, in particular, often using short … pauses … between … words … for … added … dramatic … effect. Here are some of my favourites: This is a very religious book, but more along the lines of Light versus Dark, Good versus Evil, and the Powers of Good. Fifty-two of Wheatley's novels were published posthumously in a set by Heron Books UK. More recently, in April 2008 Dennis Wheatley's literary estate was acquired by media company Chorion.
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