Ritual of Evil (1970 TV Movie)

Louis Jourdan: David Sorell

Photos 

Quotes 

• David Sorell : What about your dreams, Loey?

  Loey Wiley : Nothing

  [looks away] 

  David Sorell : Still having them?

  Loey Wiley : No. Those are really groovy pills you gave me. I sleep great!

  David Sorell : Honest?

  Loey Wiley : Yeah, honest.

• Leila Barton : David, oh David, I knew we were old souls meeting for a second time. We must stay together now.

  David Sorell : We can't.

  Leila Barton : We must. We could live so gloriously. Live so many different lives together. David, the world has always been ruled by Lucifer. Acknowledge him. That's all you have to do. Just call his name, my love.

• David Sorell : She's quite - mystifying. Sometimes I think I've set a little snare, and she appears to walk right into it. And then - right out again.

  Harry Snowden : Are you sure you're not confusing witchcraft with bewitchment? I'm not so old that I can't remember how it feels to be enchanted. It still happens, I merely do less about it.

• Leila Barton : David, what is it? What's the matter?

  David Sorell : It's difficult to explain. It's something Larry Richmond told me.

  Leila Barton : And what was that?

  David Sorell : He called it a nightmare. He didn't seem to be sure if he dreamed it or lived it.

  Leila Barton : What?

  David Sorell : That a human sacrifice took place the night Aline died.

  Leila Barton : A human sacrifice for what?

  David Sorell : Now, Leila. You must know there are certain cults, certain demonology games...

  Leila Barton : You mean calling up the devils? Calling on poor, tired old Beelzebub?

  David Sorell : Well, there might be a dance or two still left in the old boy.

  Leila Barton : Oh David. All that went out with the middle ages. And those were the frightened ideas of people who couldn't face the truth that humanity is evil. They tried to burn the evil out of themselves by burning those poor women they called witches.

  David Sorell : "Humanity is evil." You believe that?

  Leila Barton : Evil, what is evil? Unhappy, frustrated women dreaming of nightly visitations? Uptight men dreaming of the same thing? The succubus and the incubus. David, is the need for love so very evil?

  David Sorell : You didn't answer my question.

  Leila Barton : You didn't answer mine.

• David Sorell : Tell me about the black mass.

  Harry Snowden : Well, it isn't really much connected anymore with real blasphemy - devil worship and that sort of thing. Very few people still believe in a devil with a tail and a toasting fork.

  David Sorell : We've all become too mod for that.

  Harry Snowden : Yes, indeed. If God is dead, I imagine he's taken the devil with him. Mind you, it's all based on the Dionysian celebrations of ancient Greece: "do what thou wilt, shall be the only law."

  David Sorell : Even murder?

  Harry Snowden : Do you think Aline could have become involved in something like that?

  David Sorell : It's possible.

  Harry Snowden : Vice is addictive, you know. Like drugs. Once you begin, you want to go on. And the search for the ultimate thrill could lead to murder. Do you prefer that explanation to witchcraft?

  David Sorell : It's more acceptable for a rational mind.

  Harry Snowden : You know, I think you tend to rationalize too much, my dear David.

• Jolene Wiley : Here, darling, here's your orange juice.

  Loey Wiley : I don't want it.

  Jolene Wiley : Oh, come on sweetie. It's good for you. Energy...

  Loey Wiley : Look, I don't want it!

  [knocks it across the bed] 

  Loey Wiley : Now, will you leave me alone, you old drunk!

  Jolene Wiley : Oh, Loey.

  David Sorell : She didn't mean it.

  Loey Wiley : Yes I did. Stop trying to make me good, I'm not good!

  Jolene Wiley : [frightened]  She sounds just like Aline.

• Leila Barton : I'm sorry, doctor, I really wish I could help, but I don't see how I can. It was true Aline and I were very close, but I didn't expect this.

  David Sorell : Nor I. I never would have thought Aline would want to kill herself.

  Leila Barton : Perhaps she didn't know it herself. You know everyone has a secret thought. Sometimes so secret we don't even bother to tell ourselves.

  David Sorell : Psychiatrists think they know a little more than most about secret thoughts. But I'm not sure we do.

• David Sorell : You like her a lot, don't you?

  Loey Wiley : Oh yeah, she's great. She's got this beautiful bawdy laugh, you know? Just breaks me up. I mean, you're just not the same after you know Leila. She doesn't pretend a lot of stuff, you know? Like "oh Loey, you mustn't say that, and you mustn't do that..."

  David Sorell : When really that's what everybody says, and everybody does?

• Leila Barton : We haven't seen you for a while, we thought you'd vanished.

  Chris : Hey, it's beautiful out here. Get to be by myself with nature. There's always lots of flowers. Can even be stoned if I want, and nobody bugs me. I guess I kinda dig graves.

  Leila Barton : No comment?

  David Sorell : I don't think I have one.

• David Sorell : I like your ring.

  Leila Barton : I've had it for ages.

• David Sorell : Sorry, I was mistaken, Sheriff.

  The Sheriff : Yeah. And I'll probably be sued.

  David Sorell : Oh, I'm not wrong about the body. I'm wrong about the place to find it.

  The Sheriff : Don't call me, Doc. I'm not listening to any more dreams.

• David Sorell : I'm sure you know that "Elmer's" other name is Priapus, the ancient god of lust, if I'm not mistaken?

  Leila Barton : Lust... isn't that the mean little word that deeply repressed people use to describe simple, unrestrained pleasure? But then you would know more about that than I.