The Devil’s Disciple (1959)

Directed by Guy Hamilton. Starring Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott, Harry Andrews, Allan Cuthbertson, Basil Sydney, Eva Le Gallienne, George Rose, Mervyn Johns.

With this cast, plus playwright George Bernard Shaw providing the source material, talk bout a movie that should’ve been a lot better. Jack Hildyard’s photography fails to light a dramatic fire under this uneven telling of colonial uprising during the early years of the American Revolution. The stars are in their comfort zones—Douglas is a firebrand black sheep, Lancaster is an upright reverend driven to heroic deeds, and Olivier is a coldly polite gentleman antagonist of aristocratic bearing—while Scott is saddled with shrill hysterics as a fickle wife. Brevity helps, but the storytelling is slovenly and the tone erratic (the romantic stirrings are all smoke, no fire; a late scene of rebellion and danger is practically played off as slapstick). Incompatible as they may be with the main story, the most enjoyable parts are the stop-motion animation interludes. Original director Alexander Mackendrick was sacked early in production, replaced by Hamilton. Screenplay adaptation by John Dighton and Roland Kibbee.

54/100