1971 - THE DEVILS, Ken Russell's crazed film about god knows what.

The Devils is based on a historical incident involving a convent of nuns in 17th century France who claimed to be possessed by the devil.  Since Ken Russell directed it you can be sure he will really take his outrageous style to the extreme.  The movie was subjected to a lot of censorship and considering the scenes of sex and violence, its amazing the whole film wasn't repressed.

Interestingly enough the film does appear to follow the general historical situation of what happened in Loudon, France where a group of nuns accused the  bishop, Urbain Grandier of witchcraft.  Grandier played by Oliver Reed was apparently a rather independent fellow and had a lot of conflict with everyone's favoring Catholic villain Cardinal Richelieu.  Looking for an excuse to get rid of Grandier, Richelieu used the trumped up charge of witchcraft to ultimately have him burned at the stake.

 

Russell really pours it on in this film with lots of nudity, blood, torture and just plenty of sick stuff in general. The acting is very good.  Reed actually manages to create some sympathy for Grandier, and Vanessa Redgrave is just nutty as the head of the convent walking around with a hunchback of all things.

 

The Devils will never be endorsed by the Catholic Church  and I doubt it will ever be on a double bill with Going My Way.

Russell wrote the screenplay, the running time is 111 minutes