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Highly Overrated But Still Good

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER is a fun, light-hearted slice of comic fantasy that must have helped to assuage some inherent anxieties about the state of the world when it was released in 1941. It's an adaptation of the famous storyline about a poor farmer who sells his soul to the devil in return for seven years of prosperity. However, when the devil comes calling, the farmer enlists the help of a lawyer to help him break the deal.In the case of a film like this, everything is so professionally achieved that it becomes difficult not to just sit back and be swept along by the story. Walter Huston is a delight as the sinister antagonist, "Mr. Scratch", and Edward Arnold more than proves his worth as his adversary. Simone Simon is lovelier than she was in CAT PEOPLE. The cinematography is efficient, there are a few amusing effects scenes which still work today, and finally Bernard Herrmann provides a perfectly ominous, mystical, and dramatic soundtrack. What's not to like?

WARNING: SOME SPOILERS POSSIBLE!!!I saw this movie the first time at about age 11 when it was shown on TV in the mid-1950s one night and I have never forgotten it! This is a first-rate movie based on an age-old premise, but handled extremely well in all respects.The black and white cinematography was common for movies of that era, but was a perfect vehicle for this story. Color would have taken away the focus and starkness of this age-old tale. The story is played out simply but in a manner in that the events do not drag its pace and the viewer can only feel the trap closing slowly on rusty hinges. The casting is spot-on perfect, especially the two antagonists, which recalls the verbal battle between Spencer Tracy and Frederick March in "Inherit the Wind", made two decades later. Veteran actor Walter Huston is quintessentially cast as the wandering hobo with the ancient coin purse. As the father of great director John Huston, and grandfather of actress Angelica Huston, he acquits himself quite well indeed. His handling of the pivotal character is neither sensational nor campy, and one tends to forget that this is an actor playing a part as one is drawn into the danger and low-grade suspense that never quite lets go.The sets, props, costumes, and background music all contribute to an overall eerie and atmospheric rendering of post-revolutionary New England rural life. It may have been filmed on a Hollywood sound stage (location filming was rarely done in the 1940s), but all of this is forgotten as the story envelopes the air space around the viewer.What impressed me most of all was the handling of the dead souls in the story. They were portrayed as a completely powerless mass of former humanity, who had become puppets by their own folly during their lives. They had all committed the same capital error as young Jabez Stone and were forever stuck in an eternity of paying for that single mistake, but were totally unable to warn the desperate but naive farmer of his own impending folly. The filmmakers did a perfect job of grouping most of the masses into a filmy gray and almost blurry moving image, without any individuality, only just able to "whisper" with their voices. I can remember it giving me goose flesh while I was watching it, driving home to me the message of impending doom awaiting one after a life time of trying to find the "easy way" to riches or out of trouble.I highly recommend this movie. It accomplishes its story telling without profanity or abject violence. It only very vaguely implies the off screen temptation of adultery that will float over the heads of most children and be lost in the plot line. This is a true family film that delivers a few strong moral lessons in greed, incivility, and the virtue of hard work,all accomplished without being preachy. Watch it as a family group with some hot apple cider, popcorn, candy, and fresh apples and nuts for snacks. Very highly recommended, as a perfect example of the kind of movies made in Hollywood in its "Golden Era".

Shades of Citizen Kane! This little-known gem was made at RKO about the same time as Citizen Kane, and utilized the same outstanding composer, Bernard Hermann, and the same incisive editor, Robert Wise--and every so often a shadow, a rapid cut, a mood will echo the Orson Welles classic.Though not in the same league, this little-seen gem is a classic unto itself, as Webster battles the devil for a man's soul. Angelica Huston's grandfather, Walter, gives the definitive portrayal of a modern rustic Satan ("Scratch"), fiendish craftiness personified, who tempts Jabez Stone with "All That Money Can Buy" (one of the original release titles of the film). James Craig, usually wasted as a second fiddle in MGM romantic roles, here gives his definitive performance as a justifiably Jabez, a jumpy hero, and Edward Arnold, Jane Darwell and Anne Shirley are memorable in this strange early American saga, an often haunting mix of distinctive cinematography, haunting music and memorable performances.

New Hampshire husband and farmer in 1840, deeply in debt and stressed to the breaking point, absentmindedly calls out to the Devil in his humble frustration; he's quickly visited by elfin-like codger Mr. Scratch, to whom he sells his soul in exchange for seven years of good luck. Walter Huston's Oscar-nominated performance as the exaggeratedly good-natured Beelzebub is the centerpiece of this wry fantasy-drama (one with spry moments and tongue occasionally in cheek). Adapted from Stephen Vincent Benet's story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (the film's reissue title), our hero naturally becomes selfish and greedy with his money, spoiling his young son instead of teaching him, and consorting with a devilish mistress in front of his wife. These latter scenes can practically be checked off a list, what with the farmer building an ostentatious mansion on the hill, alienating his friends and neighbors and mocking the church bells! Luckily, things pick up with a final supernatural trial in with Mr. Scratch plays prosecutor and battles hard-drinking, but lovingly honest, salt-of-the-earth defense lawyer Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold, in a sensational turn). Supporting cast including Jane Darwell, Simone Simon, George Cleveland, and H.B. Warner is first-rate as well...the only character who doesn't come off is the farmer, played by James Craig. Craig, handsome and fitfully animated, is well-enough an actor to handle this role, but all the best lines have been given to the other performers, leaving Craig's Jabez Stone a sketch, a writer's afterthought, without any dimensions or pathos. Bernard Herrmann won the Oscar for his superlative music score, which is matched by sumptuous cinematography and art direction. **1/2 from ****