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 Award presenter Paddy Chayefsky, and sparked controversy. One Redgrave biography noted that "The scandal of her awards speech and the negative press it occasioned had a destructive effect on her acting opportunities that would last for years to come." Later film roles include those of suffragist Olive Chancellor in "The Bostonians" (1984, a fourth Best Actress Academy Award nomination), transsexual tennis player Renée Richards in "Second Serve" (1986), Blanche Hudson in the television remake of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" (1991), Mrs. Wilcox in "Howards End" (1992, her sixth Academy Award nomination, this time in a supporting role); crime