Tam-Lin (film)

Tam-Lin or
The Devil's Widow
Original film poster
Directed by Roddy McDowall
Written by William Spier
Robert Burns (poem)
Produced by Alan Ladd Jr.
Stanley Mann
Anthony B. Unger
Henry T. Weinstein
Starring Ava Gardner
Ian McShane
Richard Wattis
Cyril Cusack
Stephanie Beacham
Cinematography Billy Williams
Edited by John Victor-Smith
Music by Stanley Myers
Production
companies
Gershwin-Kastner Productions
Winkast Film Productions
Distributed by American International Pictures
Release dates
 December 1970 (U.K.) as Tam-Lin
September 1972 (U.S.) re-edited as The Devil's Widow
Running time
 106 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Tam-Lin, also known as The Ballad of Tam-Lin, The Devil's Widow and The Devil's Woman, is a 1970 British folk horror film directed by Roddy McDowall and starring Ava Gardner and Ian McShane.

Plot

A mysterious older woman, "Micky" (Michaela Cazaret), is in love with a younger man, Tom. She has used her wealth and influence to collect a group of hangers-on and is very controlling of Tom. But he meets and falls in love with Janet, the innocent young daughter of a vicar, and gets her pregnant. But when Tom tries to leave, Micky puts into motion a nefarious plot to enact a deadly vengeance.

Cast

Production

The film was made by Commonwealth United Entertainment. It was produced by Alan Ladd, Jr. and Stanley Mann, from a screenplay by William Spier based on the traditional Scottish poem The Ballad of Tam Lin. The film had original music by Stanley Myers and a musical version of the original poem recorded by the British folk rock band Pentangle, and was photographed by Billy Williams. It was the only film directed by McDowall.

Filming took place in the summer of 1969 at Traquair House and other locations in Peeblesshire, Scotland. The cast stayed at the Peebles Hydro Hotel. Interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios, on sets designed by art directors John Graysmark and Donald M. Ashton. Costumes were designed by Beatrice Dawson and Ava Gardner's gowns executed by Balmain.

Release

Given a limited release in Britain in December 1970, the film was shelved in the United States until 1972 when the rights were acquired by American International Pictures and it was recut and renamed The Devil's Widow.

A newer release of this film (1998) (Republic Pictures Home Video) re-cut the film to be closer to Roddy McDowall's intention.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote:

The beginning is not promising: tricksy angles, glossy decor and photography, smart-set drug junketings that echo the last days of Swinging London. What develops is perhaps even less palatable as the young lovers meet on the Scottish moors in the glowing soft focus terms of a TV commercial, romping about with the progress of their love recorded in a series of freeze frames. From there on, however, with the dialogue beginning to take on an edge of brilliance, Roddy McDowall gets a much firmer grip on the film, building a broodingly enigmatic sense of menace out of stray allusions and apparitions that hover without ever really being explained or over-exploited ... When it finally does come, the climax tends to be a little too excited for its own good; but it has some excellent notions ... and an ending not unworthy of The Hounds of Zaroff [1932] with lan McShane being pursued through a misty forest by a pack of hell-hounds conjured by his own imagination. Something of a curate's egg, in other words, but a horror film very definitely to be seen.

The Radio Times Guide to Film rated Tam-Lin two stars out of five, writing: "although interminably slow and hilariously pretentious at times, its aura of faded Swinging Sixties decadence is interesting."