Tam-Lin (film)

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Tam-Lin or The Devil's Widow
Original film poster
Directed by	Roddy McDowall
Written by	William Spier Robert Burns (poem)
Produced by	Alan Ladd Jr. Stanley Mann Anthony B. Unger Henry T. Weinstein
Starring	Ava Gardner Ian McShane Richard Wattis Cyril Cusack Stephanie Beacham
Cinematography	Billy Williams
Edited by	John Victor-Smith
Music by	Stanley Myers
Production companies	Gershwin-Kastner Productions Winkast Film Productions
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release date	December 1970 (1970-12) (UK)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Tam-Lin, also known as The Ballad of Tam-Lin, The Devil's Widow and The Devil's Woman, is a 1970 British folk horror film directed by Roddy McDowall and starring Ava Gardner and Ian McShane.^[1]

A mysterious older woman, "Micky", is in love with a younger man, Tom. She has used her wealth and influence to collect a group of hangers-on and is very controlling of Tom. But he meets and falls in love with Janet, the innocent young daughter of a vicar, and gets her pregnant. But when Tom tries to leave, Micky puts into motion a nefarious plot to enact a deadly vengeance.

• Ava Gardner as Michaela Cazaret
• Ian McShane as Tom Lynn
• Richard Wattis as Elroy
• Cyril Cusack as Vicar Julian Ainsley
• Stephanie Beacham as Janet Ainsley
• David Whitman (Kiffer Weisselberg) as Oliver
• Fabia Drake as Miss Gibson
• Sinéad Cusack as Rose
• Joanna Lumley as Georgia
• Jenny Hanley as Caroline
• Madeline Smith as Sue
• Bruce Robinson as Alan
• Victoria Fairbrother as Vanna

The film was made by Commonwealth United Entertainment. It was produced by Alan Ladd, Jr. and Stanley Mann, from a screenplay by William Spier based on the traditional Scottish poem The Ballad of Tam Lin. The film had original music by Stanley Myers and a musical version of the original poem recorded by the British folk rock band Pentangle, and was photographed by Billy Williams. It was the only film directed by McDowall.^[2]

Filming took place in the summer of 1969 at Traquair House and other locations in Peeblesshire, Scotland.^[3][4] The cast stayed at the Peebles Hydro Hotel.^[5] Interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios, on sets designed by art directors John Graysmark and Donald M. Ashton. Costumes were designed by Beatrice Dawson and Ava Gardner's gowns executed by Balmain.

Billy Williams recalled the challenges of photographing Gardner outside the studio and shot the climax LSD sequences on infrared film. He recounted how Commonwealth United Entertainment went bankrupt during the editing. The film was shelved until Commonwealth United Entertainment's films were acquired by National Telefilm Associates and American International Pictures in the USA.

Given a limited release in Britain in December 1970, the film was shelved in the United States until 1972 when the rights were acquired by American International Pictures and it was recut and renamed The Devil's Widow for a 1977 release.^[6]

A newer release of this film (1998) (Republic Pictures Home Video) re-cut the film to be closer to Roddy McDowall's intention.^{[citation needed]}

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote:

The beginning is not promising: tricksy angles, glossy decor and photography, smart-set drug junketings that echo the last days of Swinging London. What develops is perhaps even less palatable as the young lovers meet on the Scottish moors in the glowing soft focus terms of a TV commercial, romping about with the progress of their love recorded in a series of freeze frames. From there on, however, with the dialogue beginning to take on an edge of brilliance, Roddy McDowall gets a much firmer grip on the film, building a broodingly enigmatic sense of menace out of stray allusions and apparitions that hover without ever really being explained or over-exploited ... When it finally does come, the climax tends to be a little too excited for its own good; but it has some excellent notions ... and an ending not unworthy of The Hounds of Zaroff [1932] with lan McShane being pursued through a misty forest by a pack of hell-hounds conjured by his own imagination. Something of a curate's egg, in other words, but a horror film very definitely to be seen.^[7]

The Radio Times Guide to Film rated Tam-Lin two stars out of five, writing: "although interminably slow and hilariously pretentious at times, its aura of faded Swinging Sixties decadence is interesting."^[8]

• Tam-Lin or The Devil's Widow at IMDb
• Tam-Lin at Rotten Tomatoes
• Tam Lin at Not Just Yesterday: The Roddy McDowall Podcast
• Tam Lin at Tam Lin Balladry