The Devil Rides Out (Duke de Richleau)

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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. In Dennis Wheatley’s novel, de Richleau is described as elderly Frenchman in semi-retirement as an ‘art connoisseur and dilettante’. Lee was only 46 when he played the part, and the character is aged down accordingly. In his later years, Lee frequently stated in interviews a desire to star in a remake of ‘The Devil Rides Out’ as an age-appropriate Duke. In the film, the Duke is given the Christian name ‘Nicholas’ whereas, in Wheatley’s novels, his full name was ‘Jean Armand Duplessis’ before he inherited the tile of Duke de Richleau. Due to Hammer’s strict budgets, Robinson was skilled at using the same sets and props time and again in various films. He was particularly known for using twisted pillars to create a sense of unease. A particularly nice touch is the three-headed ornament on the gate leading to Mocata’s house, filmed at a private house called High Canons a few miles from Elstree-Borehamwood Studios. Due to its location, it has been used in multiple TV shows and films including The Satanic Rites of Dracula (Alan Gibson, 1973). Robinson’s sets, in combination with Rosemary Burrows’ costumes, successfully bestow a decadent feel. Rex stands outside Mocata’s house with the three-headed snake designed by Bernard Robinson 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.

The book details how de Richleau seals the windows with asafretida grass and blue wax and makes the sign of the Cross in holy water over every entrance and doorway. He sets five white tapering candles at each apex of the five-pointed star along with five horseshoes with their horns pointing outward and five dried mandrakes, four females and one male, in a vase of holy water. He binds Simon’s wrists and ankles with asafcetida grass and strings garlic for everyone. The Duke measures a perfect circle seven feet in diameter, marking it in chalk and drawing a five-pointed star inside. It is done with geometrical precision, or else the pentacle could be dangerous. Inside the circumference he writes an exorcism, along with other ancient symbols including: “Cabbalistic signs taken from the Sephirotic Tree; Kether, Binah, Ceburah, Hod, Malchut,” the Eye of Horus and some ancient Aryan script. 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! O'Grady gets unsuitable job that he hates, falls in with a crowd at a gay bar, sees a drag act and thinks "I could do that". O'Grady quits job he hates, gets another, starts frequenting another completely different but somehow exactly the same bar in which there is a resident drag act, and thinks "I could do that, but BETTER". Repeat with interchangeable jobs, bars and 'larger than life' queens (again interchangeable) over a period of 6 years, until finally O'Grady (or Lily) decides to start his own act and.....it ends. Beyond general evil and Devil worship, it’s not entirely clear what Mocata’s goal is in the film – and the reason for this alteration in the story is quite a heartbreaking one. In the novel, it is revealed that if Mocata can practise the ritual to Saturn in conjunction with Mars with someone who was born in a certain year at the hour of the conjunction, the whereabouts of ‘the Talisman of Set’ will be revealed to him.

About the contributors

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!

When adapting the novel for screen in the ’60s, screenwriter Richard Matheson could no longer have the heroes on a quest to prevent the Second World War as, even if they defeated Mocata, the audience would know that they ultimately failed. It was Matheson’s idea to focus solely on that ‘personal matter of protecting Simon’. The Satanic ritual, as described in the book, is more decorative for a start, with the leaders of the cult wearing ‘fantastic costumes’. One wears a cat cask complete with furry cloak and dangling tail, another is dressed as a ‘repellent toad’, a third wears a wolf costume and Mocata himself is a bat with ‘webbed wings sprouting from his shoulders’.

Reviews

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. I can see why. Released in 1934, it was the scariest thing to hit a mass audience since Draculaby Bram Stoker. Like Dracula, the thing that scared my mom and her mom was the dead baby sacrificed to an undead and uncaring force of nature. HP Lovecraft wrote his own mythology, which today has taken on a scholarly life of its own, but Wheatley wrote as an informed insider. He detailed the discordant music and the bitter herbs that should be burned in rituals that would summon the devil itself. What I enjoyed most about this book is that it hasn’t fallen into the trap that most lazy celebrity autobiographies do; it is not ghost-written. You can hear Paul O’Grady saying every single word you’re reading; not only has he got a very distinctive speaking voice and turn of phrase, but also a totally distinguishable writing style. This book isn’t about settling old scores (a certain Mrs Osbourne springs to mind here) or boring us to death with mind-numbing details. Paul writes about this period of his life as he sees it; sometimes it’s funny, sometimes moving, always honest. I enjoyed the bizarre cast of characters very much even though, at times, I got confused as I felt that O’Grady assumed our previous knowledge of his many friends and rivals. It was interesting to find out who the legendary Vera actually is and how they met, and I loved reading about the many drag queens O’Grady came across in the few short years that this book catalogues, who, I suppose, became his inspirations for Lily (I think I have a slight drag queen obsession!).

The score was composed by James Bernard, who said in an interview that The Devil Rides Out was one of his favourite books. Bernard attended Wellington College, a private school in Berkshire which was also attended by Christopher Lee. An acquaintance of Benjamin Britten, Bernard studied at the Royal College of Music after serving in the RAF. 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. 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: These negotiations went on from 1963 until 1967 because, even though Stainer-Hutchins was willing to sell his interest, he wanted to work on the special effects. The problem with that, according to Carreras, was that they wanted more money than the budget allowed and weren’t particularly very good.The good guys did make some stupid moves: Rex drove me mad with his stupid decisions about Tanith at the inn. Duh. At the very least consult with the duke instead of falling asleep in the woods! Leaving Fleur unprotected makes me question their intelligence as well. Simon choosing to go against his friends despite the logic of their decision. And poor Richard, having to go a whole day without his drinks and meat…

But that’s the thing with The Devil Rides Out, whilst the film has aged better than then book, Wheatley – despite his deplorable views on race – certainly laid the foundations for so much British horror that was to come in the latter half of the 20 th Century and it’s interesting to revisit his work to see the origin of so much that was to follow.The Great Sabbat itself is a good example of where book can outdo film. Wheatley imagines it well over several chapters. The satanists’ meeting place is a grand house in the village of Chilbury, the sabbat itself somewhere on the plains of Wiltshire in a “saucer-shaped depression”. The duke and Rex follow the satanists in their car; Tanith, meanwhile, is lured there by malign forces. In the (very) low-budget film, on the other hand, the grand house appears to be handily placed just round the corner from where Mocata’s evil powers have caused Rex’s car to crash and Tanith to effect her escape from him. Mocata, the main occultist, is a none too subtle version of Aleister Crowley who was someone Dennis Wheatley met on several occasions and got to know well. Indeed it was apparently Wheatley, Maxwell Knight and Ian Fleming who came up with the ruse to co-opt Aleister Crowley to help convince Nazi Rudolph Hess to parachute into Scotland whilst they were working for British intelligence during WW2.