Tue 17 Nov 2009
Reviewed by David L. Vineyard: DENNIS WHEATLEY The Devil Rides Out (Book & Movie).
Posted by Steve under Authors , Horror movies , Reviews[18] Comments
DENNIS WHEATLEY – The Devil Rides Out. Hutchinson, UK, hardcover, 1935. Bantam, US, pb, 1967. Many other reprint editions.
Filmed as The Devil’s Bride. Hammer Films, 1968. Released as The Devil Rides Out in the UK. Christopher Lee, Charles Gray, Nike Arrighi, Leon Greene, Patrick Mower, Richard Eddington. Screenplay: Richard Matheson. Directed by Terence Fisher.
With sales topping sixty million copies (that’s sales, not in print) Dennis Wheatley was one of the best selling writers of the 20th Century. His long list of books vary from mystery, to thriller, to spy novels, to historical adventure, to the occult, to lost worlds, and science fiction.
His long running series include tales of secret agent Gregory Sallust; Napoleonic era secret agent Roger Brook; Monte Cristo-like Julian Day; and the tales of Duc de Richleau and his team of modern musketeers: American Rex Van Ryn, Englishman Richard Easton and his wife Mary, and Simon Aron, a young wealthy Jewish adventurer.
The Devil Rides Out is a tale of de Richleau and his friends, and the first of Wheatley’s occult thrillers. It may also be his finest achievement in that genre. Simon Aron has fallen in with the mysterious cult leader known as Mocata, and de Richleau suspects something is wrong. When he confronts Simon, he discovers Mocata has the youth under his hypnotic spell and has drawn the young man into a demonic cult.
De Richleau recognizes a dangerous enemy in Mocata and summons his friends Rex Van Ryn and Richard Easton to aide in rescuing Simon. Not surprisingly Rex also finds a young woman under Mocata’s rule and sets out to save her after he and de Richleau crash a Black Mass to perform a daring rescue of their friend.
Now hiding Simon and the unwilling girl at Easton’s country home, they find themselves under siege by Mocata’s occult powers, climaxing in a night long battle of wills between de Richleau and Mocata, with our heroes within a protective pentagram and under attack by Death himself, mounted on a monstrous black stallion, who once summoned never leaves without a victim.
When Richard and Mary’s daughter is kidnapped by Mocata as a sacrifice to open the very gateway to Hell it is time for a final battle between good and evil.
I know a good many readers of this blog have little patience with the occult and the supernatural, but despite Wheatley’s sometimes awkward prose and mannerisms he had a real gift for both. (He himself didn’t believe in the supernatural but often wrote about its psychological dangers.)
Several of his books in the field were classics, among them The Haunting of Toby Jugg, The Ka of Gifford Hillary (something of a tour de force since it is narrated by the hero from a state of suspended animation in his tomb), To the Devil a Daughter, and They Used Dark Forces, a Gregory Sallust WW II spy novel about Nazi attempts to use the occult as a weapon in WW II. Despite these books, he only wrote ten occult thrillers, a small portion of his output.
Wheatley based Mocata on Alister Crowley, the self styled Satanic mage and Anti-Christ, who was also the basis for Somerset Maugham’s Oliver Haddo in The Magician, and James Bond’s arch enemy Ernst Stavro Blofield. Only a few years later during WW II Wheatley and Fleming would attempt to use Crowley’s occult contacts among the Nazi’s to infiltrate the party hierarchy while they both served in British intelligence.
Crowley’s real life, mostly spent dodging the law and creditors, was a good deal less dramatic than that of his fictional counterparts. Still, he had a fairly good run as one of the great con men and frauds of the 20th Century, rubbing shoulders with the great and near great from poets like William Butler Yeats and fellow members of the prestigious Golden Dawn, to one of men who built the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos.
The Devil Rides Out came to the big screen as Hammer Studios The Devil’s Bride with Christopher Lee ideally cast as de Richilieu and Charles Gray as Mocata. (Ironically Gray also played Blofield in the Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.)
The Richard Matheson screenplay is faithful to the novel and the night long battle with Death mounted on a great black horse a memorable bit of cinematic horror. It’s a first class film, handsome to look at, and played to full effect by a fine cast.
Despite his best selling status, Wheatley was likely best known in this country for the series of books he did in the 1930’s in the File series (File on Robert Prentice, File on Bolitho Blane), in which he provided the characters and crime and a complete set of clues, from lipstick-stained cigarettes to diagrams of the murder scene for the reader to solve.
The books had a brief vogue, but ultimately it proved more fun to read about detectives than try to play one — not to mention the tendency to lose the enclosed clues.
Despite his many flaws as a writer (he once said he never knew a best selling writer who knew the meaning of the word syntax) Wheatley knew how to spin a tale, and like his great literary hero Alexandre Dumas, his books are often highly readable and entertaining once you get into them. A number of his books were filmed, including Forbidden Territory, The Eunuch of Stamboul (as The Spy in White), To the Devil a Daughter, and Uncharted Seas (as The Lost Continent).
Even absolute howlers like the stand alone Star of Ill Omen, where a British secret agent is kidnapped by Martians in a UFO and foils a Martian/Commie plot to destroy London (and believe me I’m making it sound saner than it reads), have a sort of goofy charm.
His historical novels about Roger Brook, secret agent to William Pitt, probably received the most critical acclaim. Dark Secret of Josephine, in which Napoleon’s first wife reveals her ties to voodoo in her Hatian homeland, is likely the most successful blend of his chief interests; history, espionage, and the occult.
But The Devil Rides Out is a first class thriller in the classic form. If you only read one Wheatley novel, this should be the one. The shootout at a Black Mass is worth the price of admission alone, and the siege within the pentagram guaranteed to raise the hackles of the most jaded horror fan. It’s a grand example of the occult thriller at its best.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
For all his current popularity, I suspect that Dan Brown is fated to become as obscure and forgotten 50 years from now as Wheatley is today. I’ve never liked DEVIL RIDES OUT (the movie) as much as others seem to. Except for Christopher Lee the cast is pretty nondescript. Given the modest budget, they might as well have updated the setting and skipped the effort at “period” clothes and props.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Actually Wheatley’s name is still a seller outside the US, and it was never that big here. You may be right about Dan Brown, but Wheatley has already survived since 1935. He may disappear eventually, but not yet. In the UK and elsewhere Wheatley still has a following, but he never really caught on here.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Let me know which review I should steal?
November 17th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Patti
You’re certainly welcome to use this one!
— Steve
November 17th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
A few updates on the Wheatley filmography.
Wheatley’s The Haunting of Toby Jugg was a made for television movie in 2006 with Robert Pattinson as Jugg and Julian Sands as Dr. Burns, filmed as The Haunted Airman.
Forbidden Territory (1934) is based on another de Richleau novel, though de Richleau becomes an Englishman and Rex and Simon his sons for the film. Phil Rosen directed, and Alma Reville (Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock) wrote the screenplay.
Wheatley’s first novel and the first de Richleau was a fair play mystery, Three Inqusitive People. Prisoner in the Iron Mask tells the origin of de Richleau and his first meeting with American adventurer Rex Van Ryn.
The Spy in White (aka Secret of Stamboul) starred James Mason and is available on one of those cheap DVDs for under $10.
To The Devil a Daughter and Lost Continent are both Hammer productions, Natasha Kinski and Richard Widmark in the former. Daughter was the second and last of Hammer’s attempts to do a Wheatley film series, not long before the studio ended production.
During WW II Wheatley was in command of a group of writers, artists, producers, and special effects artists who designed and came up with many of the deceptions used to disguise the D Day invasion of Normandy and also partially responsible for the famous Man Who Never Was operation. His liaisons included Colonel David Niven and Lt. Commander Ian Fleming.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I’d have to agree that Dennis Wheatley is a name that was never widely known in the US, but he certainly was a powerhouse of a bestseller elsewhere, particularly the UK, of course.
I’m just wondering if the British brand of the supernatural and the occult just does not translate well across the Atlantic in general, not just in Wheatley’s case.
I’m no expert on horror fiction, but if my hypothesis is correct, then why is it so? Are British ghost stories and tales of the occult too quiet and subdued for American tastes?
— Steve
November 17th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
PS to David
Thanks for the update on the Wheatley films. I’ve see none of them, so they’ll go on my (ever expanding) want list.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Steve
I see your point about Brit horror, but James Herbert and Ramsey Campbell have both done well here, and certainly Clive Barker did. John Christopher and John Wyndham wrote a mix of horror and sf that did well too.
And for that matter the Hammer Horror films were tremendously popular here.
Keep in mind it was Wheatley’s occult fiction that gave him an American audience in the first place when Bantam began to republish them in the sixties and they did fairly well here, enough so that Ballantine reprinted many of the Sallust novels and other publishers one or two Wheatley books.
Wheatley didn’t do badly here, just nothing like his UK and Commonwealth sales. Peter Cheyney and James Hadley Chase never did that well here either compared to their world wide sales — which were impressive.
In England Wheatley is a name in the horror genre to compare with Poe or Stephen King. His Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult reprinting many classics of the genre was a major imprint that ran to a long list of titles by the likes of Dumas, Algernon Blackwood, and William Hope Hodgson.
We can be a bit insular here at times. For instance French writers such as San Antonio (Frederic Dard), Jean Bruce, and Henri Viernes are among the bestselling writers in the world but very little of their work has ever made it into English translation in this country. Viernes, whose hugely popular Bob Moraine has been successful in books, comics, movies, and an animated series hasn’t even been translated into English in the UK much less here.
The whole world followed the adventures of Tintin but he’s largely unknown here even though Speilberg is doing the movie. Until the animated series Babar was known to only a relative handful of American readers.
I suspect it has less to do with the willingness of American readers to buy this material than with American publishers lacking imagination and unwilling to take risks.
Karl May, one of the best selling writers in the world, was virtually untranslated in English until the 1970’s, and many of Jules Verne’s books are virtually unknown here — some only now being printed in American editions with modern translations.
American popular literature is much more provincial and insular than we sometimes realize.
November 18th, 2009 at 3:31 am
I enjoy occult and supernatural thrillers and dark urban fantasy every bit as much as I do traditional mysteries and detective novels.
I believe that we are living through a Golden Age for magic/mystery/dark fantasy P.I hybrids and I couldn’t be happier.
For a top-notch example, look at the first of Jim Butcher’s (Harry) Dresden File series, “Storm Front”…
The Sci-Fi Channel TV “Dresden Files” series couldn’t hold a candle (or Glory Hand) to the novels. The last few about Dresden haven’t hewed as close to the P.I plot template as the first three or so did.
However Dresden himself–wizard though he may be–continues to be very much the hard-boiled practitioner narrating the tales in a modern day Chicago where the monsters and sorcery happen to be real.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Rick
Butcher and Dresden are worth getting to know, and follow the old Campbellian Unknown line where Magic has rules and consequences when it is abused.
Are you familiar with Jack Mann’s (E. Charles Vivian), books about British PI George Gordon (Gees)? Some excellent occult thrillers, and if you don’t mind reading online many are available as free downloads. Several of them were reprinted in the classic Famous Fantastic Mysteries and A. Merritt Pulps with covers and interior art by the great Virgil Finlay. Bookfinger reprinted them in attractive uniform editions that are fairly easy to find too.
Another good older one to seek out is James Gunn’s The Magicians, where the pi hero finds himself caught in a war between black and white magic at a hotel convention for amateur magicians. Funny, sexy, and hard boiled in the screwball vein.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
There is the Dennis Wheatley Web-site, which those interested in finding out more about him might like to look at. I’d give you the address, but I’m afraid that I’m no good at that sort of thing!
I’ve been an admirer of his for years, and would agree with the opinions of both his (lack of) literary style and his relentless readability. I would also add that if you enjoy TDRO, then you must also try STRANGE CONFLICT, a mesmerising cross-over between Black Magic and WWII espionage novel.
As David says, the magic stuff only takes up about 10% of his output. Unfortunately, the magic stuff tends to be the only part of his work that some people read. If you only read one of the ‘straight’ thrillers, then try THE GOLDEN SPANIARD. With a well described background of the Spanish Civil War, it is probably one of the best things that he ever wrote.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
For the uninitiated here is a brief, and highly personal, run down of my choice for the best of the Wheatley novels (in no particular order). DR = de Richleau
S = Sallust D = Julian Day RB = Roger Brook
The Devil Rides Out -DR
Forbidden Territory -DR
The Golden Spaniard DR
Prisoner in the Mask – DR
Black August – S
They Found Atlantis
The Quest of Julian Day – D
They Used Dark Forces – S
Uncharted Seas
Gunmen Gallants and Ghosts (revised edition)
Strange Conflict – DR
The Man Who Missed the War
The Haunting of Toby Jugg
The Man Who Killed the King – RB
The Island Where Time Stood Still – S
The Ka of Gifford Hillary
To the Devil a Daughter
The Satanist
The Dark Secret of Josephine – RB
White Witch of the South Seas – S
The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware – RB
Admittedly a long list, but then Wheatley was prolific. Most of the Sallust and de Richleau books are entertaining, but these would be my choices for standouts. And just for fun, The Star of Ill Omen, which is so bad it deserves to be an alternative classic.
Black August, They Found Atlantis, Island Where Time Stood Still, Uncharted Seas, and The Man Who Missed the War are science fiction, the first about a second general strike promoted by England’s enemies and the rest lost world novels, a sub genre Wheatley mined effectively.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
The website that Bradstreet is referring to is http://www.denniswheatley.info/contents.htm It’s a dandy, all right. I especially like the pages with the covers. If these don’t get you excited about reading the books themselves, nothing will.
That goes for me, too. Between the covers and the titles that David lists, I’m going to have to find one to read, and soon.
Funny thing is, I don’t remember the US paperbacks from Bantam and Ballantine at all. (Note that the first US edition of The Devil Rides Out was the Bantam pb.)
I simply wasn’t looking for Wheatley books at the time, but in the 1970s, I found a stash of UK Arrow paperbacks I glommed up immediately. As I recall, however, I read only a couple of them, both Roger Brook novels.
The books were so thick, though, that it seemed to take me forever to get through them, and I went back to thinner fare. I no longer have those Arrow books, I’m sorry to say. I must have swapped them off sometime to someone for something else.
— Steve
November 20th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I’m a sucker for anything remotely related to the Musketeers. Gotta try this series.
November 20th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
There are a couple of vintage audio interviews (1966 & 1971) with Wheatley over at the BBC’s “Lost Decade” page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/dennis-wheatley.shtml
The page has a pair of video interviews with him as well, though they don’t seem to be working at the moment.
November 21st, 2009 at 12:48 pm
David’s survey of Wheatley certainly generated some very lively discussion. I’ve very much on the side of the readers who like occult/supernatural/horror fiction (even when it crosses over into mystery fiction) and I don’t think that classic British supernatural fiction is under appreciated on this side of the Atlantic. Ash-Tree Press has been publishing classics of both British and American supernatural fiction for about two decades and they’re still in business, although they’ve stopped adding titles to their occult detectives series. Since many of these were British it might suggest the series wasn’t well received, and might support a claim that British supernatural fiction doesn’t travel well. But Hodgson, M. R. James and Le Fanu have never lacked American readers, perhaps only supporting an argument that quality tells.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
To be fair, though, Wheatley wrote very few short stories (he has only a couple of books of short stories, and no-one would claim that they are his best work). It’s much easier for an anthologist to pop in a James or a Le Fanu story into an anthology than it is to persuade someone to reprint a whole novel. The logic being, I suppose, that if you didn’t like the short story then there’ll be another one along in a minute. If you didn’t like the novel, then you’re more or less screwed.
Apparently Wheatley and Alfred Hitchcock were good friends, and the director intended to direct a version of THE FORBIDDEN TERRITORY back in the 30s. For various reasons, Hitchcock was unable to do it, and the eventual movie failed to set the movie world on fire. DW always wondered if he would have gained more of a foothold in the USA if the Hitchcock movie had happened.
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Bradstreet
Re the Hitchcock connection this may explain why the screenplay for Forbidden Territory was written by Mrs. Hitchcock, Alma Reville.