Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

calvinnme I stopped this film 20 minutes in to look up the Scottish ballad the film was based on, "Ballad of Tam Lin", so I could make sense out of the film. Wikipedia has a thorough article on the song and the lyrics. Everything made much more sense after reading the article.That said, this was one of Ava Gardner's few supernatural films, and was Roddy McDowell's only directorial effort. The screenplay sticks fairly close to the song's plot, with a look at "Swinging London" mod clothes, late 60's slang , and a so-so song overlaying all as an attempt at "relevance". Listen for the bits of ballad sung through the film .Gardner gave an outstanding performance as the coven leader; the film lets the viewer decide if other fairy tale terms are applicable. Ian McShane is good as the Favored One, and Stephanie Beacham is good as his Human love.AIP gave the film only a limited release. The misunderstanding arises from the fact that AIP promoted it as a horror film rather than as a poetic romance even reediting the film and retitiling it "The Devil's Widow" from the original "Ballad of Tam Lin" to try and achieve this effect. As a result, no one was happy, and the film sank without a trace, predictably losing money.McDowell didn't direct another film, which is a real shame, because this one has startling photography, the music is interwoven to maximum effect, and McDowell did well by the actors.This is one of Ava Gardner's least-seen, most underrated films. My opinion is that if you feel lost in the beginning, stay with the film anyways as it improves as it goes on.

Keith DeWeese I saw this film for the first time last night and loved it! After reading so many mixed or out- right negative reviews of it over the years, I was truly surprised by how much I enjoyed it, how well it was made, how well the Tam Lin legend was updated to a relatively contemporary setting, and, ultimately, how enthralled I was by Gardner's Fairy Queen. I have to admit the first 15-20 minutes or so did take some work. Not that they were poorly spent minutes, but adjusting to the 1970s milieu of swinging London took some time, though it was great fun watching a very young Joanna Lumley in a film that somewhat prophesied her role as Patsy Stone on ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS.Now that I've seen this, I wish Roddy had made more films. This is how I like my spooky fairy tales told. May be it all comes down to you're either on the SHREK bus or the TAM LIN bus. I'm definitely taking another ride on the latter.

dbdumonteil The only movie made by talented actor Roddy McDowall whose career began when he was a child ("how green was my valley" "Lassie come home" ),who gave a memorable portrayal of Octavian in the underrated "Cleopatra" ,but who is best remembered as Cornelius in "planet of the apes " (1968 and sequel except for the second one) This would have worked in a better way as a costume drama;transposed to the late sixties time and its hippies ,it does not really make it.If it had not been for Mrs Gardner,who,even when she was aging ,was a feast for the eye ,I would have quit before the end ;based on an old folk song "the ballad of Tam-Lin" ,as performed by Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention (which can be found on their "liege and lief" album) ,the screenplay tries to follow the words to the song but there's nothing romantic because there is no magic in the air :it's the story of a wealthy (and still attractive )woman who,like the Eagles sing ,has a lot a lot of pretty boys (and girls) she calls friends .In her memoirs ,Ava Gardner does not write a single line about it.The fear of getting old had already been treated anyway,as far as she was concerned ,in John Huston's superb "night of the iguana",which she appreciated very much and which I recommend .

macnemo Based on Robert Burns' version of the Scottish folk tale "The Ballad of Tamlin," this modest but mesmerizing 1971 thriller concerns a young man, Tom Lynn ( Ian McShane), who becomes the romantic prisoner of an evil enchantress Michaela Cazaret ( Ava Gardner ). In a particularly arrestingly eerie and phantasmagorical set piece during which Tom, stoned out of his mind, is pursued by murderous acolytes of the bewitching Miss Cazaret, McDowall effectively punctuates the story's fairy tale quality with an entirely harmonious nightmarish and hallucinogenic tone that forever reflects the psychedelic sixties. McDowall's laudably creative panache as a filmmaker was embellished by a seductive performance from his star Ava Gardner. Though past her prime, she is nonetheless sultrily convincing as the irresistible, vampiric dominatrix insatiably commanding her hapless lovers to their eagerly desired doom.Tam Lin (aka The Devil's Widow ) was also McDowall's solo directorial effort. Based on the splendid result (especially the aforementioned set piece), it was a great pity that Roddy did not pursue a career as a film director because - as with Charles Laughton, who blessed us with his only turn as a director, the superb "The Night of the Hunter" - he possessed a definite flair as a filmmaker. Produced in 1969, his film sat on the shelf for two years. In 1971, McDowall returned to his film to do some post-production work on it but 'twas all for naught because it was poorly distributed and sank into relative obscurity. In 1998 Republic Home Video, in collaboration with Martin Scorsese and McDowall, restored "Tam Lin" and rescued it from oblivion by releasing a stunningly superb widescreen print with an introduction by McDowall.I highly recommend this stylishly directed and unjustly neglected gem to lovers of the macabre and mysterious. To all such, I strongly encourage you to seek it out.