If you decide to see "The Devil's Daughter" on YouTube, like I did, be aware that the picture is VERY pink and blurry. It's best watched on a small screen (such as your computer) and as for the pink...well, I guess we're stuck with it unless there's another copy out there somewhere.When her mother dies, Diane (Belinda Montgomery) is befriended by Lilith (Shelly Winters) who says she is one of her mother's old friends. She invites Diane to live with her and soon she agrees. But Lilith is a weird lady and so are her very odd friends...and Diane is naturally very creeped out by them. So, she moves out and gets a roommate--but she starts having weird dreams. She also is invited to a party at Lilith's home--and she soon discovers these new friends are all Satan worshipers. They also inform her that she's to be wedded to some demon...and not surprisingly, Diane thinks they're all a bunch of nuts. This is exactly the sort of plot that "The ABC Movie of the Week" did best--and the number of odd, supernatural films they made is huge. Think about it...films about alien impregnation, monsters living in the chimney, aliens turning folks into mindless zombies and witchcraft were the sorts of subjects of many of their productions...so "The Devil's Daughter" seems like a natural! It's creepy, strange and a lot of fun to watch. Not exactly a must see but it sure fits the bill if you want a bit of a fright.

In 1973, ABC assembled multiple-Oscar winner Shelley Winters, "Citizen Kane" and "The Third Man" veteran Joseph Cotten, Martha Scott from the film version and original stage production of "Our Town," talented young character actress Diane Ladd, and, for good measure, Abe Vigoda fresh from getting taken for a ride toward the end of "The Godfather." Wow, were they doing Shakespeare? Chekhov? A mini-series based on a classic American novel? Nope, they were donning robes and playing a coven of California witches scaring the bejesus out of poor Belinda Montgomery in "The Devil's Daughter," a cheap "Rosemary's Baby" knock-off. I don't know if all these distinguished actors needed the money, wanted to have some silly fun, or assumed that Robert Foxworth was destined for greater things than he actually achieved and was in need of some acting lessons, but the result is silly Satanic camp that will have you screaming with more laughter than fear.Before the credits roll, we watch Miss Ladd attempt to ward off some creepy home intruders with a gun that apparently misfires and kills her. We first see stiff, somber, shy young Belinda at the funeral for her mother, Ladd, who must have married extremely young and extremely well since her only child is already in her 20s after having spent her life in boarding and convent schools. This sheltered upbringing explains her awkwardness, extreme politeness, and lack of fear when Shelley Winters, chauffeured by a mute Jonathan Frid, shows up after the funeral, claims she was Ladd's best friend, and invites her home for lunch. Veteran film watchers knew that by 1973 Shelley was a bad omen, but Belinda must never have seen "What's The Matter With Helen" since she graciously accepts Shelley's invitation to stay in her mansion. Things at the manor get weird enough to change Belinda's pinched expression from mildly depressed to mildly disturbed, so she moves out into an apartment with a perky Marlo Thomas clone. Shelley is furious at Belinda, but they patch things up just in time for the latter to attend a party the former throws in her honor so she can meet her mother's old friends, one of whom is anthropologist Abe Vigoda, speaking in a bad Bela Lugosi accent and enticing young Belinda into performing a "Mexican Indian" dance with him. Yes, you read that right, this movie features an Abe Vigoda dance number, and if that isn't funny enough, all the Hollywood vets in attendance start chanting "HAIL THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER" at a whirling, dazed Belinda. And this is before we even meet Joseph Cotten as a crusty old judge who, for some reason, still works at a law firm, or Scott's son Foxworth, the stiff but ambitious architect with whom Belinda finds the true love that will shield her from the clutches of the coven . . . or will it? The film is an unintentional (?) advertisement for Satanism since the devil-worshipers appear to be having a lot more fun than goody-two-shoes sourpuss Montgomery. Cotten happily hams it up in a way that his former patron Orson Welles would appreciate, Vigoda looks like he's always on the verge of hysterics (perhaps he was), and Shelley, wearing a succession of absurd hats as she chain-smokes long brown cigarettes, leaves no scenery unchewed as Belinda's malevolent benefactress Lilith (yep, Lilith) Malone. You'd think that Belinda would prefer life in Shelley's sprawling Victorian home, with Frid to wait on her and two loony, strudel-baking old ladies next door, to renting an ugly apartment with a Breck girl in the next bedroom and dullard Foxworth upstairs, but the script needs her to be unhappy, so off she goes. But . . . for how long?

Because some people, like me, like to know EVERYTHING about a movie even if they plan to see it, including the ending. Anyway, here's the ending as I remember it, because I couldn't have been more than 8 yrs old when I saw it for the first and only time on TV. But I'll tell ya, it sure scared the little kid that I was, and I thought about it for days afterward, and it still stands out in my mind to this day, even though some of the details are a little vague. Abe Vigoda was in this movie? I don't remember that! I didn't even remember that ol' Barnabus was in this movie, and I LOVED Dark Shadows. So, at the end, the lead character (Belinda Montgomery?) is lured by the Judge (Joseph Cotton, I'm guessing, even though I remember it as him being an old family physician or something instead of a judge; see how memory fades?) to the wedding place, which as I remember it is in a cavern of some kind? Maybe I've got that wrong; and Shelley Winters is there laughing, and the Judge has a cape on, and the camera angle is kind of looking up at him, and he throws back the cloak, and he has goat legs, and he announces he's actually her father, the Devil, and she's played right into their (the satanic cult's) hands, because the "mortal" guy she has fallen in love with (I guess that's Robert Foxworth) turns out also to be the guy Satan wants to marry her off to, The Demon with Yellow Eyes, and yep, sure enough, they show Robert Foxworth, and his eyes glow yellow. There are a lot of close-ups in the last few minutes of the film. Everyone is laughing and rejoicing, except for Belinda Montgomery, who is very unhappy, and cries or screams or something, and that's the end. The bad guys win.

I have remembered that ending for over 30 years.WAY worth watching.Chilling.Anytime I can watch a movie without expecting the ending, which is so common in so many movies, I have to say it's worth watching.Seventies movies seem to have a "feeling" or "atmosphere" about them that generally make them unpalatable to me. In this case, however, it enhances the storyline to such a degree that I think if it had been made in any other decade, it wouldn't have been as good.I was 7 when I first saw it and I can tell you it really scared me back then.