Scratch’s presence is everywhere, even in scenes where Huston is absent. As malevolent as his character is, Huston is magnetic, capable of convincing even the most earnest person to commit a cardinal sin. Scratch/Satan/the Devil/what-have-you retains a charm throughout out the film, enticing the viewer to root for his cause, only to draw back because of his sinister intentions. Scratch, who is equally at home with religious metaphysics and a casual conversation doused in beers. Walter Huston seems to be relishing his role as Mr. Dieterle and screenwriters Dan Totheroth (1934’s The Count of Monte Cristo, 1938’s The Dawn Patrol) and Stephen Vincent Benét (adapting his own short story) deftly navigate the verbal gymnastics necessary to appease the Hays Office and Benét’s authorial intent – inadvertently painting numerous scenes with thick coats of dread.
The idea of danger, of the Stone family’s destruction by Satanic means, grips every scene – even when Walter Huston is nowhere to be found. Scratch’s toothy grin and puffs of cigar smoke emanating from his mouth, as well as Belle’s calculated sensuality. If there is menace in The Devil and Daniel Webster, it lurks beneath Mr. Rather than have Scratch announce himself as Satan and provide a grisly demonstration of his powers, he (and Walter Huston) adopts the persona of a genial salesman or an offbeat, out-of-the-way neighbor more articulate than anyone for miles.
Even in a film that celebrates virtue, depictions and mentions of Satan, hell, damnation, sin, and much more are instead in the form of allusions and roundabout dialogue. But the film keeps its focus on Jabez – even as Webster assists in the metaphysical-legal drama that concludes this movie.Īt this time in American film history, the Motion Picture Production Code, enforced by the Hays Office, restricted the content of wide-release movies. Webster’s presidential ambitions are no secret, and Scratch has been pestering Webster for a deal. Unbeknownst to Jabez, Webster, too, has been speaking to Scratch. Jabez signs the contract, soon becomes one of the wealthiest men in America, and makes new friends far and wide – including U.S. Scratch offers Jabez seven years of good luck and a fortune of Hessian gold in exchange for his soul. And I would for about two cents!” Two pennies magically appear in his left hand and, backed by jarring lighting, enters cigar-puffing “Mr. On the verge of foreclosing on his farm, on a day where nothing goes right, Jabez exclaims: “Consarn it, that’s enough to make a man sell his soul to the Devil. Money is tight, and virtue often comes with a price tag unaffordable to the poor. Jabez (James Craig) and Mary Stone (Anne Shirley) tend to the family farm, with Jabez’s devout mother (Jane Darwell) sometimes dropping by, reminding her son and daughter-in-law to live virtuously.
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A long winter is soon to make way for the spring. We open in the village of Cross Corners, New Hampshire, 1840. If only to invite devastation and suffering later on. And as some desperate peoples discovered, it is an easy thing to compromise one’s values. His hardships in the opening minutes of the film must have resonated with a nation and a world consumed by economic depression over that last decade. Despite the title, this is not Daniel Webster’s story, but Jabez’s.
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO V FOR VENDETTA MOVIE
Otherwise, this movie proved successful with audiences and critics, despite RKO’s fears that keeping “Daniel Webster”, who they must have thought as too antiquated a political figure from American history, would repel moviegoers. This development is partly due to the cost overruns for reshoots after the horse pulling the carriage driven by actor Thomas Mitchell (the film’s original Daniel Webster) lurched, fracturing Mitchell’s skull – don’t worry, Mitchell was able to continue his long career as a character actor. This was the first film of that new contract, but neither the production company nor the RKO deal lasted beyond The Devil and Daniel Webster. Dieterle used the profits of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) to form his own production company, and signed an exclusive contract with RKO Pictures to distribute the new production company’s films.
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