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Daughter of Darkness is the tale of Emily (Emmy) Beaudine (Siobhan McKenna) and her
sexually charismatic nature. Always seemingly innocent, yet confidently seductive
without her knowledge, men of all types and kinds are helpless when in her presence.
Emmy starts out by helping out a priest in a small town in Ireland, probably for room
and board, and the viewer sees her as just a beautiful young woman, full of innocence
yet strikingly peculiar in nature. One feels that there is something “off” about Emmy,
but it just cannot be pinpointed. Within the first few minutes of the film, the spinsters
of the town gather and give the priest an ultimatum, demanding that the young Emmy
leave the church and town altogether. She is referred to as a slut and accused of
seductive practices with the men of the town. One can’t help but feel sorry for her.
One also feels that maybe the reason Father Corcoran (Liam Redmond) is reluctant to
see her go is because he, too, is transfixed by her seductive spell.
The plot progresses as Emmy runs into a gypsy boxer performing in a traveling fair who
fancies young Emmy. In his overzealous nature to get intimate with her, he forcefully
pushes himself upon her, resulting in him receiving a vicious scratching across the
face, leading to some disfigurement. Father Corcoran decides that Emmy must leave
sooner rather than later and arranges for her to be taken in at a very wealthy farm
with a family and their staff. The Talent farm sees her as a nice and pretty young girl,
but the women of the farm immediately find something that they do not like about
her, although up until that moment, their reasons are unjustified.
Touching upon many subjects that I felt were pretty “racy” for a film made in 1948,
the movie is a wonderful example of Gothic Film Noir and portrays our lead, Emmy, as
a Femme Fatale. As each man becomes enamored by her, they are seen leaving with
her and found dead later on. The viewer is left to wonder just how did each man die.
Was it by the hands of innocent and beautiful Emmy, or were there other forces at
work?
Director Lance Comfort has created a film that possesses great amounts of mise-en-
scene. There are so many elements in the film that play off brilliantly with the use of
lighting, shot angles, and overall tones.
Comfort sets up so many brilliantly composed shots utilizing lighting, Gothic
architectural dexterity, and morbid photographic brilliance. For example - In the
scenes where Emmy is slowly being defined by the other women of the farm as a
threat, not fitting in among the other women she works and lives with, whenever she
(Emmy) appears the shots are shot vertically. Emmy (McKenna) is always below the
camera, giving her character a weak and innocent camera angle. The director does
this with purpose and intent.
In one scene, Emmy is shown bringing young Robert Stanforth (one of the hired hands
and husband to Bess) a beer, purely for kindness as he has been working hard and she
felt he could use it. This simple gesture of kindness puts young Emmy in a pleasant and
innocent light. Shortly after, young Saul Trevethick comes along, to be left alone with
Emmy and immediately engages in close and direct conversation. She shies away, but
Saul goes in for the kiss, looking as if it is out of his control to stop him from doing so.
This scene is replayed again and throughout the film time and time again, leading to
the untimely demise of the men that Emmy engages with.
This film was not critically acclaimed, nor even recognized as having any merit in any
film genre. I even have a hard time classifying what genre this film may fall into: Film
Noir, Crime, Psychodrama, Horror. All of these descriptions aptly describe the film.
Now, it may even be considered a cult film, but I do not think it has that much of a
following…yet. This film had some really creative shots, from the one showing a
German Shepherd poised and ready to strike out at Emmy at any moment, growling and
baring all its razor sharp teeth, to unique scenes in which the steeples of the churches
are shown in Gothic-framed perfection. But maybe this film is one to be treated as
“notable as the first in-depth treatment of a female serial killer” as one fan of the film
on imdb.com noted in their thoughts on the film. Seeing Emmy as a serial killer never
crossed my mind, really, for the director does not make it 100% evident that Emmy is,
in fact, killing off the men that make sexual advances towards her. That we can only
assume.
I really admire Redemption Films for taking a forgotten film, one that should be a
classic in my mind, and giving it the all-star treatment in a pristine print presented in
letterbox format and with some extras to top it off. I highly recommend seeking out
this undiscovered gem and really marveling at the excellent cinematography, acting,
set design, and allusions to a purely evil and sinister character portrayed superbly by
actress Siobhan McKenna.
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For the year and age of the film (1948), I felt that the video quality was excellent. It
being shot in black and white, the colors were dark and solid when they had to be and
there was no grainy shades of gray sprinkled throughout as sometimes happens with
older prints. For the most part, the film looks excellent.
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The film was recorded in mono and is from 1948, so what do you expect? It sounds
great for its time and format it was recorded in. There are no gross amounts of white
noise nor static. Levels of dialogue can be heard perfectly throughout the whole film.
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Although there was no commentary in the film, with most of those associated with the
film probably a pretty good chance of having passed away or not being able to be
found, I thought Redemption did a pretty fine job. I really enjoyed the segment, “Kiss
of Death: Film Noir & the femme Fatale” with Dr. Patricia MacCormack. MacCormack
was so knowledgeable on the subject matter of film, feminism, extreme cinema, and
sexuality that there really could have been no better person to speak on the subject
matter of this film. She is an expert in her field and listening to her shows it. There’s
also a stills gallery and trailers from Redemption Films.
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I believe that if you have not seen Daughter of Darkness, as I had not seen nor even
heard of, you should go out and buy it! This film is so unique, beautifully shot, and
poetically crafted that missing this film would be a shame. If you are a fan of Goth
culture and film noir, then this film is a union of the two that cannot be passed up. Its
underlying tones of pure evil are subtle in nature, but grand in execution. This film was
originally banned in Finland in 1950! I guess they found its subject matter to be too
highly racy and obscene for their country back then. This film should be a cult classic
by now and will be if I have anything to say about it!
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