The Devil and Daniel Webster

Possibly one of the best films ever made.
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"The Devil & Daniel Webster" is simply put, a great film with an important moral. It is based on a short story of the same name by Stephen Vincent Benét.

It takes place near the state lines of Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the 1840's. Jabez Stone, a struggling and destitute farmer signs a contract with Satan, offering to give him his soul after 7 years of good fortune. He has money but is very unhappy with his predicament. When the devil comes to collect, Jabez calls on Daniel Webster to help him void the contract.

Note:

Daniel Webster was a real-life historical figure. He was secratary of State a few times and ran for president in 1836

I am reminded of Matthew 16:26

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" I could almost say that this could be a Christian film. It goes to show that...

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William Dieterle was Hollywood's greatest fantasist in the thirties and forties. Whether making marvelous neo-Gothic/Romantic versions of classics such as THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME or one of the greatest ghost stories ever made in America in A PORTRAIT OF JEANNIE, Dieterle, who was famed for his ability at handling crowd scenes, similarly excelled in slightly surreal subjects. One of many highly success German expatriates working in Hollywood, he incorporated into many of his films many techniques found in some of the classics of German Expressionism, none more than in THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (originally released by the studio as ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY, based on the Stephen Vincent Benet short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster"). Not surprisingly, this film is most successful on a purely visual level, with one fascinating, almost gothic image after another. "Gothic" is an apt adjective, since Benet's original story was, of course, yet another of an endless succession of...

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This has to be one the most priceless films about the American experience, mixing metaphor and history. The story begins in one chilling scene in which the shadow of the Devil taunts the noble statesman Daniel Webster - you'll never be President if you stick to your pieties, warns Old Scratch. Switching gears, the Devil sets his sights on easier game - a barely solvent New Hampshire farmer named Jabez Stone, the sort of angry everyman who would sell his soul to the devil if things got too rough. (It's the middle of the 19th century, with the every-man for himself mentality that would nearly destroy the Union within the ten years). Stone's greed and desperation get the better of him, and he sells his soul for 7 years of boundless riches and good fortune - with advance paid from a sack of lost Hessian gold. Stone becomes wealthy, but also becomes less of the likeable guy and good neighbor his small New Hampshire town loved - replacing the hated Miser Stephens as the hamlet's chief...

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