popular occult author dennis wheatley be so pleased with hammer 1968 movie version of his novel the devil rid out that he happily agree to them make further adaptation of his work and even go so far a to grant the right for nothing . it be an offer that and eventually and the ailing studio could not afford to ignore . choose to develop to the devil a daughter and however and be probably a bad decision represent budgetary constraint mean that a faithful interpretation of wheatley book be impossible to achieve and and after much script wrangling and film go ahead whilst further revision be still be make . to add to hammer problem and star widmark be not a happy bunny on set and be displease with the non hollywood film make process employ by director peter sykes and his crew . however and despite all the problem and somehow and eventually and a finished product be deliveredonly to suffer from some hasty re edit when some bright spark comment that the original end bore too much resemblance to that of an early hammer movie and scar of dracula . with such a troubled production and to the devil a daughter be an understandably less than perfect film and but despite it flaw and it still prove to be an entertaining dose of satanic nonsense . widmark play john verney and an american occult novelist who be approach by a strange man name henry beddows ( denholm elliot ) and who claim to be involve with a cult name the child of the lord and lead by the sinister father michael rayner ( christopher lee and in fine form ) . intrigue and verney agrees to pick up beddows daughter catherine ( nastassja kinski ) from the airport and look after her until they can meet again . in reality and beddows be try to protect his daughter from rayner and who select the girl at birth for a ritualscheduled to take place on her impend 18th birthdaythat will see her become an avatar for the demon astaroth . with such a great cast ( that also include honor blackman ) and and wheatley well researched black magic mumbo jumbo form the basis of the script and to the devil a daughter trundle along quite nicely for the majority of it running time and offering audience plenty of fun devilish going on and include the nasty birth of a demon child ( which exit via the abdomen ) and blackman be stab in the neck with a metal comb and one poor character go up in flame and lee terrorise a trembling elliot over the phone and and the lovely nastassja give viewer an eyeful of her hot bod . unfortunately and the messy finalé ( which see lee character disappear mysteriously after receive a bump on the head ) do mean that the film close on something of a bum note and admittedly can not hold a ( black ) candle to the real satanic hit of 76 and the omen and but it also nowhere near as bad a some hammer fan would have you believe . 6 . 5 out of 10 and round up to 7 for imdb .