It turns out that last week’s rumor about a DVD release of Ken Russell’s The Devils from Warner Home Video was not quite untrue, but ultimately what does the gradations of truth matter: the film isn’t coming out. And that’s even after we saw some artwork for the disc!
It’s a bummer for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it’s a great and, in the modern digital world, functionally lost film. And if you’re going to do a decent DVD of it, you should do it soon – Ken Russell is older than dirt, and he’s one of the few surviving folks who worked on the 1971 film; cinematographer David Watkin died just a couple of weeks back.
The good news is that The Devils won’t be forgotten. I’ve heard from sources that higher ups at WHV are actually big fans of this movie. I don’t know exactly why they’re not putting it out, but at least some of the muckety mucks would like to see it hit shelves. All we can do in the meantime is show support for them by keeping talk of The Devils alive. Let’s convince these folks that this movie, if released, will sell.