In the first full week of May 2026, around the 7th & 8th, all manner of news events were taking place. Hantavirus had been found on a cruise ship. North Korea removed references of reunification with South Korea from its constitution. The Court of International Trade struck down the Trump tariffs. The NCAA Division I tournaments expanded to 75 teams each for men’s and women’s basketball.
But for a larger-than-you’d-expect cross-section of the world citizenry, the only topic that anyone wanted to discuss was the nigh-miraculous announcement that after 55 years, Warner Bros., through their newly christened specialty label Clockwork, would finally release the long and hotly desired 114 minute director’s cut of Ken Russell’s 1971 political horror drama THE DEVILS. To eavesdrop on the conversations this news sparked, you would think it was the Second Coming of Christ. When in fact it was the First Coming of ‘The Rape of Christ’, but more on that later.
I seriously doubt that anyone who has found their way to this outre culture blog of mine would be unfamiliar with THE DEVILS or Ken Russell’s career in general – after all, I’m not a foodie, a mommyblogger, or a K Street bloviator – so this history is not going to bother with silly things like describing the plot, justifying its excesses, or grandstanding for its inclusion in the canon. If you’re here reading now, that’s settled business.
What I will be laying out for you is the curiously convoluted history of THE DEVILS’ journey through American cinemas, and why it’s taken the entire lifespan of Julius Caesar, Emily Dickinson, and Johnny Ramone to put this movie out the way it was meant to be.
Before THE DEVILS even reached American shores, it was already causing strife internal and external in its country of origin. Russell’s intended 114 minute edit was rejected by British Board of Film Classification head censor John Trevelyan, with whom Russell had a surprisingly cordial relationship. Trevelyan had objections to the amount of screen time devoted to various acts of torture perpetrated on Oliver Reed’s Father Grandier during his sham trial, which Russell agreed to reduce. Two other scenes were demanded outright removed: a sequence of hysterical nuns engaging in erotic gratification with a downed crucifix (hence nicknamed “The Rape of Christ”) and a penultimate moment of Vanessa Redgrave’s Sister Jeanne, the prioress responsible for instigating Grandier’s persecution, taking bodily liberties with a bone from his charred corpse. After these alterations, the running time became 111 minutes, and the film received a British X certificate limiting attendance to adults over 18. But after early private previews, it was still banned in 17 local counties, castigated in the press, and Trevelyan left the BBFC shortly after.
After WB CEO Ted Ashley and other US-based executives saw the film in London, further cuts were demanded and executed before the domestic release. Three minutes of nudity and torture were removed, with other moments either visually altered or replaced with alternate takes to bring the bare flesh quotient down further. Despite these changes, the MPAA still gave the film an X rating as well. Initially professed to be 109 minutes according to the initial WB pressbook, the accepted running time today is 108 minutes for this US edit. It this this version that has stayed in sporadic circulation in America since.
It was July 16, 1971 – one day shy of my 2nd birthday – when THE DEVILS opened exclusively in New York at the Fine Arts on 58th Street and Los Angeles at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills. It would slowly roll out in platform release through the remaining months, with some markets not getting the movie until late November, mere weeks before Russell’s next film, THE BOYFRIEND, would be opening in the major cities. WB seemed to enjoy playing both angles of how to sell the film. Most of their ads would tout solemn copy about the subject matter, that it was not a film for everyone, and offer up several thoughtful critics’ pull quotes. But to tease the opening in several cities, they cheekily told ticket buyers, “Tomorrow, you can go to The Devils!”
There are several possible reasons for why, in June 1973, WB cut another five minutes from THE DEVILS, mostly involving lesbianism and Grandier beatings, to create an R-rated version, though as of locking this essay, I have not located any official press announcements or citations in my research yet. The studio had earlier prevailed upon Stanley Kubrick to remove some explicit footage from the previously X-rated A CLOCKWORK ORANGE to obtain an R rating, allowing it to screen in neighborhoods otherwise hostile to X-rated fare, so there was precedent. Logic suggests this was a similar attempt to put the movie in markets that had refused to book it previously. Seeing as the film had performed disappointingly in America, earning only $2 million in its initial release, versus the nearly $9 million it grossed in Europe, anything to help bring in more box revenue would have been tried. It must be noted that the previous X-rated cut was still available and frequently booked in big city repertory theatres in this time despite the availability of the newer R cut.
But it was also in that month of June 1973 that the final Supreme Court decision in the Miller vs. California case was handed down, creating the troublesome “three-prong” test for determining obscenity. Since “community standards” were extremely variable and unpredictable from town to town, legacy studios and independents alike releasing X-rated films subsequently created alternate softer or R-rated cuts precisely to serve these markets, the better to avoid prosecution in potentially reactionary places by overzealous police and politicians. While there had not been the same level of public protest in America that THE DEVILS met with in the UK, it’s reasonable to believe WB wanted to avoid giving potential antagonists ammunition.
A month earlier that year, WB made the unusual decision to allow multihyphenate Tom Laughlin to self-distribute his 1971 film BILLY JACK, which had previously delivered lackluster returns when the studio first released it. Laughlin’s strategies of saturation in terms of four-walling several theatres in a city, blasting newspapers and television stations with advertising, and making himself available to the press, paid off handsomely for the filmmaker, who was pocketing all the money. It would not be long after this that WB took a lesson from Laughlin, and from the mid-70s to the early 80s, would similarly do first-run saturation reissues of their enduring 70s hits, either to piggyback on trends of the day or to hold onto screens where their newer films fizzled out early. Also, regional bookers and owners of single-screen venues...the prime clients that made money from BILLY JACK...that were seeing their popularity decline in favor of new corporate multiplexes from Redstone, General Cinema, and AMC, would, on their own accord, program unofficial citywide revivals of WB favorites for a week during opportune periods.
This was certainly the idea WB had in mind when in the beginning of 1974, in Burlington and Rutland Vermont...typical of the small markets who would have to wait months for THE EXORCIST as it first made its platform rollout across the big cities...they teased anxious audiences there by programming a double feature of the R-rated cuts of CLOCKWORK ORANGE and THE DEVILS. Ads asked, “THE EXORCIST – ARE YOU READY FOR IT? Before it comes to town and before you see it, you must prepare yourself emotionally by first seeing THE DEVILS!”
Independent operators in other markets took the baton. And more importantly, most of them showed the X rated cut. In Texas the copy read, “If you plan to see THE EXORCIST, you must first see THE DEVILS!”
In Virginia, bold text hyped, “A Roman Catholic nun is possessed by THE DEVIL! Today, we could place her in the finest hospital with the most competent doctors and the latest medical facilities. In 1634 (sic), they either burned her at the stake...or called in an EXORCIST!”
In North Carolina, “The Management” even took at swipe at Friedkin’s hit, declaring, “This is a true story about Exorcism. This film is in no way similar to THE EXORCIST. The scenes are more vivid, the tortures realistic, and the final scene is one of the most horrifying motion picture events ever filmed.”
And after 1975, when THE EXORCIST itself was ready for second-run, while WB never officially packaged it with THE DEVILS, crafty programmers took the liberty of uniting them in unholy matrimony.
At the tail end of the 70s, the number of theatres that refused to play X-rated or unrated films intended for adults only increased exponentially, along with the number of newspapers that refused to carry advertising or even individual listings for them. As a likely accommodation to this trend, in the spring of 1979, WB resubmitted four of their remaining X-rated films to the MPAA – Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg’s PERFORMANCE, Sidney Lumet’s LAST OF THE MOBILE HOT SHOTS, Luchino Visconti’s THE DAMNED, and the previous 108-minute cut of THE DEVILS – and was able to get them all re-rated R as is. It is this version of the latter film which has stayed in Stateside theatrical and streaming availability ever since: looking at the closing credits, you can see the opaque replacement MPAA certificate plastered over the original vector graphic to reflect the altered registration.
However, in 1980, there seemed to be a window of change. United Artists Classics, initially founded to service, ironically enough, the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library for repertory play, had met with surprising success in arthouses with its first-time US release of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s very unique and very X-rated “Trilogy of Life” films: THE DECAMERON, THE CANTERBURY TALES, and ARABIAN NIGHTS. And independent distributor Analysis Releasing was also reaping strong profits from Bill Lustig’s thriller MANIAC and the controversial Penthouse-magazine-produced epic CALIGULA, both released unrated but firmly enforced as adults-only attractions.
Inspired by their numbers, WB announced in July 1980, via Variety, their intentions to release the 111-minute UK cut of THE DEVILS. The publication made note that both its producer Robert H. Solo, and its director Ken Russell, were at work making new projects for the studio -- THE AWAKENING and ALTERED STATES respectively – both hotly anticipated for release at the end of the year.
After more teases in entertainment wire reports, a date was announced for the premiere: March 25th, 1981, effectively serving as a 10th Anniversary celebration, at San Francisco’s Castro theatre, a legendary venue in the kind of eclectic neighborhood that would be drawn to Russell’s style of flamboyance and excess.
However, on that actual Wednesday, March 25th, 1981 date, the 111-minute cut of THE DEVILS did not open. Indeed, it did not open anywhere in America. It was never even spoken of again. A double feature of PRIVATE BENJAMIN and THE GREAT SANTINI, took its place.
So, who stopped THE DEVILS return that spring?
It probably didn’t
help that both maverick WB production chief John Calley, arguably
Russell’s strongest defender at the studio, and CEO Ted Ashley, who
had demanded the film’s cutdown to 108 minutes but otherwise
allowed it to find an audience once it hit the market, both left the
studio at the end of 1980, to be replaced by Robert A. Daly and Terry
Semel, men with no significant relationship or loyalty to the
director or producer.
It also probably didn’t help that both Solo’s and Russell’s films caused headaches before their 1980 releases. Orion, the fledgling company created by former UA executives that was initially headquartered at WB, and which was backing Solo’s production of THE AWAKENING, had rejected director Mike Newell’s preferred cut, and called in Monte Hellman to make last-minute reshoots barely two months before its intended Halloween release. Concurrently, after several testy exchanges, Russell had ALTERED STATES screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky barred from the set, and in turn, the Academy Award winner made public his displeasure and took his name off the film, his credit listed as “Sidney Aaron.” And both films only met with modest box-office performance before THE DEVILS’ intended March rerelease date. As such, the bloom was off their roses in Burbank; getting clipped would be the logical result.
And it really probably didn’t help that in November 1980, Ronald Wilson Reagan was elected the 40th President of the United States of America in a landslide, Senate control switched to the Republicans for the first time since 1954, and the number of state governorships run by Republicans increased to 23, almost half the country. All of these changes brought about with the heavy influence of Jerry Falwell’s political organization The Moral Majority, dedicated to the eradication of abortion, gender equality, gay liberation, divorce, and roughly anything else that wasn’t traditional Christian heteronormative behavior.
To be fair to Daly and Semel, even though they cancelled this particular theatrical resolicitation of THE DEVILS, they did not interfere further with the already released versions. The 108 minute cut began airing on premium cable and continued to be a repertory and midnight movie favorite. Although amusingly, since WB never created new publicity materials to reflect the rating change, theatres that took out newspaper ads for their revivals often used old ad slicks that still had the X rating on them...along with the very outdated “Warner Bros. - a Kinney Leisure Service” byline.
1981 also brought another double-edged sword to THE DEVILS accessibility. Warner Home Video, three years into its existence, released the film on VHS and Beta, in one of their distinctive oversize gatefold boxes. (Later reissued in a clamshell case in 1983 and a paper sleeve in 1991) However, depending on which reviewer’s account you trust, this tape contained either the very truncated 1973 US edit, or a time-compressed (PAL sped-up) version of the standard 1971 US edit, both of which logged in at 103 minutes, severely pan-scanned from its original 2.35 scope ratio, and the original Kinney Shield logo replaced with the familiar 70s Bass Worm logo. This would be the only physical release of the movie WB ever issued in America.
So throughout the ‘80s, while you couldn’t see the stronger UK cut as planned at the start of the decade, you could still see some version of it relatively easy in America. Hell, if you were watching “PRIME TIME WRESTLING” on USA Network on August 10, 1987, you probably saw a promo for their basic cable premiere three nights later!
If there were to be a specific moment when active suppression of THE DEVILS began at 4000 Warner Blvd. 91505, the best guess would be that spring day in 1999 when Robert A. Daly & Terry Semel stepped down as studio heads, and were replaced by Alan F. Horn & Barry Meyer. It was not long after the latter men’s ascent that access to THE DEVILS became much more difficult – the VHS going out of print, no widescreen laserdisc or DVD release, cable airings ceasing, and repertory bookings denied.
Peoples’ evidence A: in early 2008, on several home video message boards and trade publications, Warner Home Video first teased that there would finally be a DVD release for THE DEVILS, leaking a May 20th release date, new cover art, and a 111-minute running time, suggesting they were taking another try at releasing the UK X certificate cut in the States. But within days, the artwork was pulled from as many websites as possible, and the studio outright denied there was any release forthcoming.
Peoples’ evidence B: On Friday, June 18th, 2010, with no advance word, THE DEVILS was made available exclusively for streaming and downloading on iTunes, in Standard Definition and its existing US 108 minute cut, presented for the first time in any home viewing medium in its proper 2.35 scope ratio. After excited reactions from fans were posted to message boards and blogs, and some entertainment press figures began to ask more questions, the movie was removed from sale at iTunes on Monday afternoon. Its availability lasted less than 72 hours! The resulting outcry was the inspiration for me to write my first essay about this film so long ago.
Horn & Meyer left their chair positions in 2013, replaced by Kevin Tsujihara, who was previously the president of the Home Entertainment division. The division that to this day, still has never released THE DEVILS on DVD or Blu in America. He would resign the position on March 18, 2019, under allegations of sexual harassment. His replacement, Ann Sarnoff, was a former Viacom and BBC executive known for elevating childrens’ and genteel adults’ programming. Toby Emmerich would become President and Chief Content Officer of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group in 2017, and its chairman in 2018. And of courser there’s a little matter of David Zaslav, the current CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, of whom I’ll only say that he looked at the legacy of James “The Smiling Cobra” Aubrey and said, “Hold my venom.”
None of these executives were ever caught on record expressing personal animus about the film or Ken Russell, so nobody really knows why so much time and energy was spent on putting THE DEVILS back in the hole. But it’s not hard to speculate that fallout from media circuses as the record division’s 1992 release of “Cop Killer” by Ice-T’s heavy metal band Body Count, or the studio’s longstanding “no NC-17 ratings” policy that led to compromised theatrical editions of Oliver Stone’s NATURAL BORN KILLERS and Stanley Kubrick’s EYES WIDE SHUT and a delay of the restoration of Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH, had left all these executives feeling even more risk-averse than their predecessors.
Indeed, while, say, the uncut version of NATURAL BORN KILLERS was ultimately released to physical media, as recently as December 2021, WB was not allowing bookings for it, or any of their NC-17 or equivalent-level films, such as New Line Cinema inheritances David Cronenberg's CRASH, or John Waters’ PINK FLAMINGOS and FEMALE TROUBLE, citing “issues with their legal team.” The stance seems to have softened some, as there have since been screenings and streamings of said films, including sporadic availability for THE DEVILS. And of course, that bizarre cameo in the otherwise family friendly SPACE JAM 2. But what of these “legal issues”?
Perhaps a clue can be found in a February 2005 Variety article by Dana Harris, reporting on Ray Pistol’s Arrow Productions plans to rerelease Gerard Damiano’s game-changing adult film DEEP THROAT, to tie into the publicity surrounding the Imagine Entertainment produced documentary INSIDE DEEP THROAT, directed by Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato. (Not mentioned in the article was Pistol enlisting longtime independent distributor Mark Borde to service the film to theatres. Borde had previously mounted a 20th Anniversary theatrical reissue of the comparably controversial CALIGULA in 2000.)
The reporter had questioned representatives from two major art theatre chains, Laemmle and Landmark, as to whether they would book it, and while Laemmle’s spokesman said they would, Landmark’s VP of marketing Ray Price said they would not, even though other X-rated films as FLESH GORDON continued to pop up in their theatres. His pull quote had a curious statement:
"You have police departments dedicated to going after DEEP THROAT."
And that to me is the murder weapon, albeit applied to the wrong victim.
From the Nationwide Festival of Light in 70s Britain, to the Moral Majority in 80s America, to William Donohue leading the Catholic League since the 90s, to the rise of Fox News in the noughts, to the surreal amount of furious podcasters, influencers, and media manipulators in the present day - we have had some form of Morality Police standing post, lying in wait, looking for the slightest spark to literally feed The Blaze. And while THE DEVILS long ago may have lost their priorities on fire and brimstone, there’s a whole battalion of culture warriors that want all the smoke.
As my invaluable colleague Mr. Lucas wrote back in 1996...
"[THE DEVILS is] not merely an indictment of 17th Century conspiracies, but an indictment of political agendas which have been with us throughout the course of human history. When government is at its most immoral, history shows that it tends to ally itself with the Church, and to deflect public attention from its own corruption by demonizing convenient scapegoats—artists, philosophers, progressives...in a word, liberals...As these targets are demonized, they become political issues—never to be permanently exorcised, because public opinion is a pendulum, swinging one way and then another. But as this film powerfully demonstrates, in the crossfire of ideals and oratory, lives are sometimes destroyed."
And if THE DEVILS had garnered the instant classic reviews that A CLOCKWORK ORANGE had earned, or been as huge as THE EXORCIST, which has made it rain in the watertower for decades, or had as powerful a producer to keep happy as Arnon Milchan on NATURAL BORN KILLERS, it would have been vigorously defended by any number of WB execs. Because it would be worth it. But THE DEVILS drew mixed reviews, took decades to turn a profit, and its creative team became irrelevant. In the cold calculus of corporations who control entertainment businesses, it was considered not worth it.
Why have things suddenly turned around then? Especially in a year where conservative tradionalists have gone amok, actual government officials are trying to end entertainers’ careers, and there may not even be a Warner Bros. Entertainment by 2027?
Michael De Luca & Pamela Abdy currently head Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, taking over from Emmerich and Sarnoff in July 2022. Last year, not every movie they greenlit made money in theatres, but the titles that did make money made lots of money. Their taste also netted the studio eleven Academy Award wins, including Best Picture and Best Director.
The duo hired Christian Parkes, a marketing officer formerly of the smaller distribution company Neon, known for enjoying above-average success releasing unconventional films, to run a new division of WB, called Clockwork, intended to chase the same audience that made Neon a trusted brand. He made his old bosses lots of money. His skills also netted the company eleven Academy Award wins, including Best Picture and Best Director.
The first talent they hired to make a film for them was Sean Baker, whose previous film, ANORA, released by Neon, grossed $59 million against a $6 million production budget and an $18 million ad budget, and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
They all like THE DEVILS. They all generate money. And they want it back in circulation.
Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
The new 114 minute restoration of THE DEVILS, including all the material Russell had cut to appease the BBFC over half a century before, first screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on May 14th, in the “Cannes Classics” section. When the tickets went on sale four days before, all 452 seats at the Salle Buñuel screening room sold out in under 60 seconds. Deadline declared it, “The Coolest Film at Cannes.”
While that screening was from a 4K DCP, reportedly, a subsequent screening scheduled during Festival Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy from June 20-28 will be from a new 35mm print.
The restoration then opens in select North American theaters on October 16th for an exclusive one-week engagement, with international theatrical release dates to be announced. No announcement of a physical media or streaming release, but in light of all what's been transcended, patience is in order for that.
Upon announcing the news a month ago, the Clockwork marketing department released a lovely new teaser poster, which, in the rush to be ready for the press, someone just copy/pasted all the original credits...along with the very outdated “Warner Bros. - a Kinney Leisure Service” byline.
Maybe this time it will find its tribe. Maybe inquisitive moviegoers will queue up in numbers like never before to approach Russell’s extravagant tour de force with fresh eyes.
Or maybe this is just one last chance for a few Jokers to set millions of dollars on fire before the Ellison family erase the legacy of Jack, Harry, Albert, and Sam once and for all.
Whatever results, this time it’s nice to have THE DEVILS in the details.
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