The Devil's Daughter (1973 film)

The Devil's Daughter is a 1973 American made-for-television horror film starring Shelley Winters, Belinda Montgomery and Robert Foxworth. It originally aired as the ABC Movie of the Week on January 9, 1973.

It was an early screenwriting credit for Colin Higgins.

Plot
Diane is a young woman (played by Belinda Montgomery) who attends the funeral of her mother. One of her mother's old friends, a wealthy woman named Lilith (Shelley Winters), introduces her to a Satanic cult (her mother was part of this cult before leaving it while Diane was a baby). The cult members have been keeping track of Diane (unbeknownst to her) throughout her childhood and teenage years, and believe her to be their "princess of darkness," insisting she take that role, which Diane rejects, horrified. Several strange things happen to Diane and her friends as the cult tries to take control over her. Diane eventually meets Steve, a charming young man (Robert Foxworth), and as she falls in love with him, feels she can defy the cult and live her own life. On her wedding day, Diane learns, to her shock and horror, that there are sinister conditions for the marriage, making her destiny unavoidable when she finds out that Steve is really the demon prince the cult had arranged her to marry.

Cast

 * Shelley Winters 	as Lilith Malone
 * Belinda Montgomery as Diane Shaw
 * Robert Foxworth 	as Steve Stone
 * Jonathan Frid 	as Mr. Howard
 * Martha Scott 	as Mrs. Stone
 * Joseph Cotten 	as Judge Weatherby
 * Barbara Sammeth 	as Susan Sanford
 * Diane Ladd 	as Alice Shaw
 * Lucille Benson 	as Janet Poole
 * Thelma Carpenter as Margaret Poole
 * Abe Vigoda 	as Alikhine
 * Ian Wolfe 	as Father MacHugh
 * Robert Cornthwaite as Pastor Dixon
 * Rozelle Gayle 	as Fedora

Production
The movie was filmed in Pacific Grove, California and Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California.

Reception
The Los Angeles Times said it "had about as much suspense as the Nixon-McGovern race." The New York Times called it "one of the better made for TV movies."

Legacy
Higgins later described the script as "just a job". However producers Milkis and Miller enjoyed working with Higgins and commissioned him to write a Hitchcock style thriller. This became Silver Streak.