The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)

Directed by William Dieterle. Starring James Craig, Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, Anne Shirley, Simone Simon, Jane Darwell, Gene Lockhart, John Qualen, H. B. Warner.

Film version of Stephen Vincent Benét’s Faustian short story makes for a sound RKO enterprise. Luckless New England farmer Craig is visited by Old Scratch (Huston), who offers him a deal—seven years of good fortune and prosperity in exchange for that little thing of his called a soul; seven years later, Craig refuses his end of the bargain and convinces statesman and orator Daniel Webster (Arnold) to defend him in a court of the damned. Craig’s prosaic portrayal and some bumpy storytelling in the expanded midsection (between the bargain and the trial) marginally diminish an otherwise first-class production, suggestively photographed by Joseph H. August and filled out by Bernard Herrmann’s Oscar-winning score. Huston is a sinisterly zesty delight whose appearances always brighten up the spirit while darkening the spell. If there’s ever any doubt over good vs. evil making for more fascinating characters in fiction, consider how bewitching temptress Simon vamps it up so deliciously while Shirley doesn’t manage much as Craig’s moralistic wife besides coming across as a second-rate Olivia de Havilland. Scripted by Dan Totheroh and Benét. Also known by several other titles, including Mr. Scratch, Daniel and the Devil, and (most commonly) All That Money Can Buy.

75/100