The Devils (film) The Devils (film) The Devils is a 1971 British historical drama horror film directed by Ken Russell and starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. Russell's screenplay is based partly on the 1952 book "The Devils of Loudun" by Aldous Huxley, and partly on the 1960 play "The Devils" by John Whiting, also based on Huxley's book. The film is a dramatised historical account of the rise and fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest executed for witchcraft following the supposed possessions in Loudun, France. Reed plays Grandier in the film and Vanessa Redgrave plays a hunchbacked sexually repressed
Vanessa Redgrave co-starred with her father. In 1961, she played Rosalind in "As You Like It" for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1962, she played Imogen in William Gaskill's production of "Cymbeline" for the RSC. In 1966, Redgrave created the role of Jean Brodie in the Donald Albery production of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", adapted for the stage by Jay Presson Allen from the novel by Muriel Spark. Redgrave had her first credited film role, in which she co-starred with her father, in Brian Desmond Hurst's "Behind the Mask" (1958). Redgrave's first starring film role was in "Morgan – A