Daughter of Darkness

Comfort crafted a work that, while imperfect, stands out in its singular vision and feels ahead of its time. That singularity is precisely why its rediscovery (and why reassessments and retrospectives of films overall) matters.

The Lilith Chapter. Daughter of Darkness is directed by Lance Comfort and adapted to screenplay by Max Catto from his own play titled They Walk Alone. It stars Anne Crawford, Maxwell Reed, Siobhan McKenna, George Thorpe, Barry Morse, Liam Redmond, Cyril Smith and Honor Blackman. Music is by Clifton Parker and cinematography by Stanley Pavey. Emmie Beaudine (McKenna) isn't liked by the women folk of the Irish village community where she lives. There's something about her that riles them, frightens them even. So when the women of the village round up on her keeper, the priest, she is sent off to live on a farm in a North Yorkshire county of England. Which is timely as she has had an altercation with one of the men from a travelling fair. Once at the "Tallent" family farm, Emmie settles in well and seems genuinely happy, but still some of the women folk in the vicinity view her with suspicion, and when a face from Emmie's past shows up, it's the catalyst for doom and desperation. It's an odd chiller of a movie, something of an acquired taste, it's hard to pigeonhole. Never overtly horror, noir or otherwise, it's not hard to see why some specialist genre fans have found it a disappointment. Yet if you can buy into Comfort and Catto's ethereal world there's a picture of great rewards here, a complex character study mingling with asides on sexual empowerment, even a story with sup…

This is quite an effectively creepy crime drama - all centring around "Emmie" (Siobhan McKenna). She arrives from Ireland at the farm owned by the "Tallent" family where she soon gains a reputation as a bit of a flirt, an instant success with the local men but less so with the ladies - especially the suspicious "Bess" (Anne Crawford). It's a this point that the roguish boxer "Dan" (Maxwell Reed) appears on the scene. Now he knows a thing or two about "Emmie" and so when he is found face down in a ditch, the fingers of suspicion all point at their newcomer. Did she do it, though? What is her mysterious secret? The story is tensely directed by Lance Comfort with two strong performances from McKenna and Crawford that go some way to demonstrating the position of women in society at the time, and of the attitudes of their menfolk. The cinematography makes good use of light and shade techniques to enhance the sense of menace that does, gradually, accrue as the story heads towards it's quite exciting denouement, too. Unlike many films of this genre, it thrives as much on what we don't know as what we do; there are gaps - like a jigsaw with missing pieces, and that adds nicely to this short but sweet intrigue. Maxwell Reed adds little, but Liam Redmond and Barry Morse prop up well from a familiar-looking supporting cast and present us with a surprisingly good watch.

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