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Released by: MGM
Released on: 3/15/2011
Director: Hollingsworth Morris
Cast: Tom Selleck, Barra Grant, Tani Phelps Guthrie, Ben Rubio, Chito Reyes
Year:1972
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The Movie:
The powers that be over at Fox have taken a page out of the Warner Brothers playbook and are now offering up their own DVD-R program that, like the Warner Archives program, offers up oddball catalog titles on demand taken from the best available existing sources. One of the titles from their inaugural batch of titles is this oddball horror film shot in the Philippines.
Known the world over as the mustachioed Magnum P.I. and from his stint in Three Men And A Baby, future N.R.A. spokesperson Tom Selleck got an early start in Hollywood as the leading man in Hollingsworth Morse's Daughters Of Satan. Morse was primarily a television director, having worked on such series as Lassie and Petticoat Junction, and seeing the actor best known Thomas Magnum running around in an exploitation film directed by someone so strongly associated with family viewing is a tad odd.
Selleck plays Jim Robertson, an art expert who is happily married to his wife, Chris (played by Barra Grant, starlet of a few short lived TV series) and living in the Philippians. While out perusing some of the shops in the area, Jim comes across a painting depicting the burning at the stake of three witches. The central witch in the painting bares a remarkable resemblance to his wife, so, being the romantic ladies man that he is, Jim buys it for her and brings it home. Some might think this an odd move for someone trying to impress their wife, but that thought apparently never crosses Jim's mind, as no sooner has he brought it home and shown his wife than the picture is proudly displayed on the wall of their home. How romantic - look honey, I just put up a painting that basically shows you being burned at the stake!
Chris soon starts to exhibit some strange behavior, and begins to take on some of the characteristics of her medieval doppelganger, allying herself with two other local women (and a giant dog named Nicodemus) that are spitting images of the other two witches depicted in the painting. Together, the three carry out Satan's wished and attempt to murder Jim, who may or may not be a direct descendant of a famed conquistador responsible for executing the three witches depicted in the artwork way, way back in 1592.
If it all sounds rather goofy, it is. Typical of a lot of low budget seventies occult films, Daughters of Satan is pretty hard to take too seriously. Throw the Magnum P. I. connection into the mix and it gets downright funny (take for instance, the scene where Selleck pulls a gun and announces it as a .357 Magnum, or the fact that the film was written by a 'Higgins' - or what about the scene where Selleck is on the back of a truck throwing giant boxes of Marlboro's at some bad guys?). Selleck more or less walks his way through the film and doesn't really appear to be too happy to be there, while the supporting cast doesn't do much better.
The film does have a couple of good qualities though. The soundtrack is sure to appeal to those into oddball horror themes, as it's filled with all sorts of those wacky 'ooooeeeeeooooo' sounds that are used all too infrequently these days. There are also a couple of nude flagellation scenes involving the lovely Ms. Grant that, while appealing from an exploitation standpoint, feel pretty out of place in what would otherwise be a strictly PG rated outing. An exception to this is a scene where a strange nude scene where one of the evil women tries to seduce our hunky leading man (hey, People magazine didn't vote him one of the '50 Most Beautiful People In The World' for nothing) and shows off her boobs in order to do so. She just can't resist his rug of chest hair!
Video/Audio/Extras:
Daughters Of Satan is presented in a .85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and the interlaced source material looks to be a tape master. This transfer won't blow you away but it's watchable, if soft and occasionally murky. Some minor color fading is evident but never overly problematic. Detail is about average for an older low budget seventies movie like this. There are no problems with compression artifacts and print damage is never a big deal.
The English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack is sufficient. Dialogue is clear and the levels are balanced nicely. There are a few instances where some background hiss is present but other than that this is a serviceable, if not particularly noteworthy, sound mix.
Extras? Nothing. Totally bare-bones save for scene selection and a static menu screen.
The Final Word:
A goofy seventies devil cult film is given a decent looking bare-bones release from the MGM Limited Edition Collection. Fans of the film will consider this one worth picking up despite the lack of extras.
Remember when Selleck went on Letterman in the early 80's and passed out "RE-RELEASE DAUGHTERS OF SATAN" buttons? I always thought that was a class move.