Tam Lin was made into a movie released in 1970. The movie, released under the alternate title The Devil's Widow, starred Ava Gardner, Ian McShane, and Stephanie Beacham, and was directed by Roddy McDowell.
Plot and images
Janet meets Tom and Mickie
The movie set the action in late 1960s, primarily in Scotland (filming took place in '68), where a wealthy older woman, Michaela, surrounds herself with young, bohemian artists, taking in those who show up on her doorstep, and taking one, Tom, a young, penniless artist, as her lover. She is portrayed early in the film as a patron of sorts, taking the bright young people to her country estate for a get away, and worrying at them to have a big breakfast before they depart. Once at the estate, Janet, the daughter of the local vicar, brings a puppy to one of the guests, and while there, meets Tom. She later describes the people at the mansion to her father as appearing to be magical, and that Mickey looked 'like a goddess'.
Janet and Tom are lovers Residency at the house is portrayed as a continuous party, with the revealers playing parlor games in the evening, and surrounding themselves with music and dance. There is one dark spot, when a former lover of Mickie's shows up to protest his abandonment, saying he cannot live without her. Mickie responds by telling him, quite calmly, that he may die then. Tom comes to bed quite drunk one night, and the next morning, somewhat hungover, goes for a walk in the local hills. Janet, who had been watching her father work on a sermon, also goes for a walk and encounters him by a small stream. They have a strange, halting meeting, verging on confrontation, and become lovers.
Tom gets a warningMichaela is not pleased with this development, sensing Tom's wandering. Her assistant speaks to Tom, informing him that there is a history her past lovers dying under mysterious circumstances every seven years. Mickie confronts him as well, bearing an odd mask with a dagger in the handle, reminding him that he must love her. Tom continues to see Janet, enraging Mickey. Tom has a confrontation with Mickey where he says she is using him for his youth. She demands that they reconcile. Tom leaves, but is told he has only a week's reprieve before Mickie will kill him for his transgression. Mickey sends the bright young people away and instead surrounds herself with dark, more sinister types.
Janet and Tom reunite Janet, meanwhile, has grown quiet and concerned, worrying her father. When he leaves on a trip, she consults the local wise woman, and confesses that she is pregnant. The woman gives her a note and the contact information for a surgeon who will perform an abortion. Janet goes to the mansion to seek Tom, only to be confronted by Mickey, who tells her Tom left several days before, without saying goodbye. Janet goes to the surgeon. As she hesitates on the doorstep, Tom appears, having received a note telling him where to find her. They embrace, and she agrees to go home with him. He is living in a small caravan by the river.
Tom drinks before the hunt. When the week is up, Tom is kidnapped and returned to the mansion in Scotland. There, Michaela offers him a slim chance to live- drink a potion, be hunted by her new pack of followers, and if he escapes, he's free. Mickey's new set of darkly-clad friends play games with Tom, chasing him through the house, speaking of what fun it would be to murder him. Tom's vision is increasingly uncertain, and he sees Mickey as a goddess presiding over a sacrifice. When his head start is nearly up, Mickey gives him a set of car keys and tells him to leave. He stumbles from the house and takes a white car.
The Transformations
Janet finds him as he flees the mansion, where hallucinations cause him to drive them off the road, and then flee through the woods. They are followed shortly therafter by Mickey's followers, who bay like hounds and enter the woods after them. Mickey and her servants watch from the side, calmly, as the drama unfolds. Janet pursues Tom as he imagines himself as a bear, when she helps him untangle himself from branches. Then he imagines himself strangled by a snake, when she helps lift him out of the mud. Finally, he imagines himself on fire, and she pulls him safely out of the river and onto the farther shore, where he collapses.
Janet rescues Tom
Janet and Tom collapse, exhausted. Mickey and her assistants approach, but, declaring that "It hasn't worked", they call off the pursuers and then depart. Tom slowly regains consciousness, embracing Janet. The last scene of the movie is Mickey and Oliver on a plane, departing for future travels together.
Type: Modern retelling
The movie never explicitly makes clear how much of the story is supernatural, although parts of it can be read that way. The transformation sequence, for instance, is portrayed as somewhere between a horrific ritual and a very bad drug trip.
Micheala's exact motivations are also unclear, and the story can be read simply as a wealthy older woman who keeps a herd of young artists about her. On the other interpretation, Micheala's frequent use of masks, allusions to regular sacrifices of young artists, and Tom's protests that she is eating up his life suggest a less natural origin. In a director's commentary, McDowell referred to her character as a "Bitch Goddess" who devoured the best years of people's lives. Although the movie includes a voice over shortly after the opening credits that makes mention of the Fairy Queen and Tam Lin, this identification is never explicitly stated by characters within the film.
The overall tone of the movie includes a shift from bright daylight colors and sunlit scenes to darker clothing, blue tones, and night scenes. Early and mid-movie events are likely to take place outdoors, and characters are generally wearing light clothing, in green settings, suggesting summer time. Later scenes are foggy, windy, and characters are more warmly dressed, indicating that activity has moved into fall. However, there is no explicit tie to Halloween or the end of the year stated in the movie, and exact timing is imprecise.
Supernatural elements in the movie are fairly mild. There are scenes with parlor-game levels of fortune telling among the bright followers of Mickey's house, and the woman who provides Janet with the address of a surgeon is also described as someone who reads cards for local villagers.
Tam Lin in The Devil's Widow
The movie used an original version of the ballad, performed by the group Pentangle
Additional Images
Lovers
colorful people
country estate
Janet, with puppy
Tom gets a warning
Tom ignores warnings
Mickey threatens Tom
Janet is in trouble
Tom before the queen
Tom sees things
Janet joins Tom
They are pursued
Mickey looks on the hunt
Tom tries to escape
The hounds
Tom and Janet are safe.
Actor Commentary
"He goes through, like, an acid trip, which was simplified for a '70's audience, rather than trusting the actual ballad itself, and of course it was more taking the elements of the original story and combining it with the excesses of the late 60s."
Ian McShane, from Adventures in Poetry, Series 5, episode 4. BBC 01 August 2004
