The Devil and Daniel Webster (film)
The Devil and Daniel Webster | |
---|---|
Joseph H. August | |
Edited by | Robert Wise |
Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
Production company | William Dieterle Productions |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 107 mins |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Devil and Daniel Webster is a 1941 supernatural film based on the 1938 play adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benét's 1936 short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster".[1] The play by Benét was in turn based on the libretto created by Benét for an opera adaptation of his short story with composer Douglas Moore, a project he began writing in 1937.[1] Benét and Dan Totheroh adapted the play into the film's screenplay.[1]
The film's title was changed to All That Money Can Buy to avoid confusion with another film released by RKO that year, The Devil and Miss Jones, but later had the title restored on some prints. It has also been released under the titles Mr. Scratch, Daniel and the Devil and Here Is a Man. The film stars Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, James Craig, and Simone Simon.
The film deals with the theme of the deal with the Devil. A farmer sells his soul for good luck and prosperity, but becomes desperate when the time of his pact is about to end. He asks the lawyer Daniel Webster to help him find a way out of the pact's terms.
Plot
In 1840 in
As time passes, Jabez's increasing wealth begins to change him. He ensnares his desperate neighbors with onerous financial contracts, slowly alienating his devoted wife, Mary, and his pious mother. Later, as the townspeople celebrate the harvest in Jabez's barn, Mary gives birth to their first child, whom they name Daniel in honor of Mr. Webster, but minutes later, Jabez discovers the local girl they had hired as a maid has vanished, replaced by the beautiful and sinister Belle, sent by Mr. Scratch. She bewitches Jabez, driving a wedge between him and Mary. As Daniel grows, he too falls under Belle's influence, and she turns him into a spoiled, disobedient brat.
In a few more years, Jabez is one of the wealthiest men in the country. He has built a lavish mansion and throws a huge ball, but it ends in disaster. After a nightmarish dance between Belle and Miser Stevens, whose ruthless standards of debt repayment were a driving force in Jabez's decision to accept Scratch's offer, Jabez finds Stevens dead on the floor. He, too, had signed a pact with Mr. Scratch, and his time was up. Now desperate and realizing that his own time is almost up, Jabez tries to erase the deadline that Mr. Scratch burned into the tree outside the barn, but Scratch appears and again tempts Jabez, offering to extend his deal in return for the soul of his son. Horrified, Jabez flees and chases after Mary. He begs her forgiveness and pleads with Webster to help him find some way out of his bargain with the Devil. Webster, the most renowned lawyer in the country, agrees to take his case. Mr. Scratch again offers an extension in exchange for Jabez's son, but Jabez declines. He then begs Webster to leave before it is too late, but Webster refuses to go.
When Mr. Scratch appears to claim his due, Webster must wager his own soul before his opponent will agree to a trial by jury. Mr. Scratch chooses the jury members from among the most notorious villains of American history, including Benedict Arnold and Stede Bonnet, with John Hathorne, one of the magistrates of the Salem witch trials as the judge. Webster begins by stating that he envies the jury because, as Americans, they were present at the birth of a nation, but they were fooled like Jabez Stone, trapped in their desire to rebel against their fate. Webster explains that it is the eternal right of everyone, including the jury, to raise their fists against their destinies. They took the wrong turn, just as Stone did, but Stone's soul can be saved. Hathorne asks the jury for its verdict, and in response, the foreman tears up the contract, releasing Jabez from his deal. Webster then kicks out the now-powerless Mr. Scratch, but as he is ejected, the fiend promises that Webster will never become president.
Cast
- Edward Arnold as Daniel Webster
- Walter Huston as Mr. Scratch
- James Craig as Jabez Stone
- Anne Shirley as Mary Stone
- Jane Darwell as Ma Stone
- Simone Simon as Belle
- Gene Lockhart as Squire Slossum
- John Qualen as Miser Stevens
- H. B. Warner as Justice John Hathorne
- Alec Craig as Eli Higgins
- George Cleveland as Cy Bibber
- Lindy Wade as Daniel Stone
- Jeff Corey as Tom Sharp (uncredited)
- Carl Stockdale as Van Brooks (uncredited)
Production
After the success of
The story had been adapted to the stage in 1939 at the
Benét was invited to write the script for the film adaptation, along with Dan Totheroh, the younger brother of Roland Totheroh, who worked as Charlie Chaplin's top cinematographer from his silent short films to Monsieur Verdoux (1947). There were some differences between the short story and the film. In the original story, Webster regrets Benedict Arnold's absence; in the film, Arnold is present and Webster objects, citing him as a traitor and therefore not a true American, but his objection is dismissed by the judge, and Asa the Black Monk is made up[clarification needed] for the film, along with John Smeet, who appears in a deleted scene. The writers also removed Scratch's other predictions involving Webster's last speech and his sons' deaths in the Civil War. Mr. Scratch, Walter Huston's character, is more soft-spoken in the story and the character of Belle, played by Simone Simon, appears in the film but not in the original story.[3]
Thomas Mitchell was the original choice to play Daniel Webster, but he suffered a skull fracture while filming the carriage scene and was replaced by Edward Arnold.
Bernard Herrmann was chosen to compose the film, having composed music for Charles R. Jackson's 1938 radio adaptation that had aired on Columbia Workshop. Herrmann was introduced to the cast and crew by Dieterle, whom he found to be a very sophisticated director. In addition to his original music score, Herrmann also incorporated several traditional folk tunes, including "Devil's Dream", "Springfield Mountain" and a diabolical version of "Pop Goes The Weasel" played on the fiddle by Mr. Scratch. Herrmann collaborated with sound engineer James G. Stewart to ensure that the music and sound worked well together. To create the creepy sound heard when Mr. Scratch first appears in the barn, Herrmann sent a recording crew to San Fernando to record the sound of telephone wires.[4] Hermann’s original music score won an Academy Award.
Alternative versions
The original release was 107 minutes long. It was a critical, but not a box-office, success, recording a loss of $53,000 on its initial run.[5] It was later rereleased under the title The Devil and Daniel Webster, reducing the running time to 85 minutes with edits that were crudely done. The film was restored to its full length in the 1990s and has been issued in that form on home video formats, and the title has remained The Devil and Daniel Webster. The restored portions were sourced from inferior prints of the movie, but the quality has since improved. A preview print titled Here Is a Man was found in the estate of the director and served as the basis for the film's restoration and DVD release.
Parodies
.
Awards and honors
Preservation
The Devil and Daniel Webster was preserved and restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The restoration's funding was provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation in collaboration with Janus Films, the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress. The restoration premiered at the UCLA Festival of Preservation in 2022 under the title All That Money Can Buy.[6]
See also
- Politics in fiction
- Shortcut to Happiness, a 2003 modernised remake
References
- ^ ISBN 9780895796660.
- ^ Roger Ebert (May 8, 2005). "A landscape of nightmares". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
- ISBN 0786413646.
- ISBN 0-520-07123-9.
- ^ Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p. 166
- ^ "All That Money Can Buy | UCLA Film & Television Archive". cinema.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-24.
External links
- The Devil and Daniel Webster at IMDb
- The Devil and Daniel Webster at AllMovie
- The Devil and Daniel Webster at the TCM Movie Database
- The Devil and Daniel Webster at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Devil and Daniel Webster at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Devil and Daniel Webster, an essay by Bruce Eder at the Criterion Collection