This movie is a collosal disappointment. I've read Fred Mustard Stewart's terrific novel. And although the movie (to it's credit) stays very faithful to the source material, the casting, and an incredibly poor script, deal a death blow to the film adaptation.The plot revolves around Myles Clarkson (Alan Alda), a failed musician-turned-journalist, who, still longing for his piano playing days, lands an interview with famous pianist Duncan Ely (Curd Jurgens) who at first is very hostile til he notices Myles hands.This is an important detail. One the audience needs to keep in mind...Because once this detail is noticed, Ely does a complete one eighty, and along with his daughter Roxanne (Barbara Parkins), proceeds to woo Myles with dinners, presents, offers of friendship. And, of course, free use of his piano.Myles is swept up. Overwhelmed. Completely lost in their glamorous thrall.His wife Paula (Jacqueline Bisset) is suspicious, and has every right to be. There's something not quite right about this couple.And as the plot progresses, we learn what it is. And when we do, we're not really all that shocked.Is it any surprise that Ely and Roxanne have been having an incestous affair? Is it any surprise that they're Satanists? Is it any surprise that Myles has been seduced completely?The story really is terrific. With an ending that's as disturbing as Paula's insane love for her husband which causes her to overlook the fact that he murdered their daughter as part of a deal with Satan and Ely.All of this, the novel conveys brilliantly. The problem is the movie doesn't at all.Not only does fail to onvey Paula's enamourment with Myles, it also grossly miscasts the characters. Paula's obsession with Miles is never conveyed well in the script. Roxanne (a femme fatale in the novel) has been reduced here, to a weak, trembling waiffe. And Alan Alda is a good actor. He's just not good for this. Making it ridiculous that women like Paula and Roxanne are getting into a cat fight over him.It's a little bit like them getting into a cat fight over Woody Allen... only worse: With Woody Allen it's hysterical; with Alan Alda, it's just plain stupid.

Music journalist Myles Clarkson (Alda) goes to interview the dying master of the piano Duncan Ely (Jurgens). Ely is impressed with Myles and notices he has the hands of a pianist. Myles becomes good friends with both Ely and his pretty daughter Roxanne (Parkins). All of this is making Myles wife Paula (Bissett) very suspicious of Myles' new odd friends. Once Ely passes, Paula begins to see a change in Myles personality. Suddenly, Myles is able to play as well as Ely could and eventually takes up his concert duties. There is an obvious attraction between Myles and Roxanne. Paula does some investigation and discovers that Ely and Roxanne made a deal with the devil so Ely could live on, as Duncan Ely's soul has invaded Myles body. Desperate to get her husband back, Paula turns to darkness and makes her own deal with the devil. Thoroughly strange film from Director Paul Wendkos weaves a slow, but hypnotic spell. Told from the perspective of Paula the wife (A stunning looking Bissett), the audience is forced to look through her eyes into this bizarre world of devil worship. Wendkos does a good job of keeping the audience off balance with dogs wearing masks, crazy parties, and bizarre dreams, and shooting this all with extremely wide angle photography which captures the feeling of dread. Jerry Goldsmith offers up an effective and moody score which predates his Oscar winning score for "The Omen" which you can certainly hear in flashes here. The film has a leisurely pace which may turn off some viewers, and the horror is more weird and strange than shocking or gruesome. There are some decent payoffs for patient viewers and enough creativity to come recommended.

Hey, it was 1971, M*A*S*H was still in his future, and you gotta eat, right? So it seems this is Alan Alda's take on the situation, as he plays a character somewhat like Hawkeye Pierce, but this time a gifted pianist who had to take up journalism as a result of bad reviews. He meets ups with Duncan Mowbray Ely, an ageing pianist who is at the end of his life. He befriends Alda's Clarkson – but with a nefarious bent...You see, Duncan (a menacing Curd Jürgens) and his sister, Roxanne (a really twisted performance from Barbara Parkins) are Satanists, and are luring Clarkson in... in order to perform a "soul swap," letting Jürgens take over Alda's mind and body. Only problem, a whole bunch of people end up "having to die," and it's left in the hands of Clarkson's wife, Paula (a stirring, epic performance from Jacqueline Bisset) to try and make things right.For a 1970's "Quinn Martin Production," the ending quite surprised me. The only issue I have with the flick is that it looks (today anyway), like a made-for-TV movie in terms of production values. Story-wise and acting are actually pretty good, and it's a fun little flick to watch – if you want enter the mindset of the early 1970's in which it is made. It is a movie of it's time.

Very strongly reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby in substance and style, and why not? When did Hollywood not endear itself to cash-ins of other popular films? Jackie Bissett got to do two of them - this one and The Deep.She's great in both. Everyone else is very good, but for Alan Alda, who is merely adequate. Funny, even Bradford Dillman is better here, but then Alda wasn't yet into his stride. This almost reeks of TV movie entrapments, it's a Quinn Martin production, but manages to overcome most of them with a fairly literate denouement.There's the momentary lapse into trite dialog, and silliness, as exhibited by a trip to Mexico where entry into Mexico is announced by a painted billboard on a two-lane highway running past a park with water sprinklers going and with no border guards nor line of cars. Believe me, I went to Mexico in 1971 both from San Diego and inland Calexico, and there was no such sweetheart road of entry.Well, watch it and you'll see what I mean. It's worth a view just for the great opening credits.