Year: 1941
Director: William Dieterle
Country: US
Language: English
The four year period under George Schaefer was RKO Pictures' golden age. He sought to elevate the studio’s output and had brought Welles to Hollywood. Another great action Schaefer made was to back William Dieterle’s first independent production, a screen adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet’s short story The Devil and Daniel Webster. It followed in the footsteps of the controversial Citizen Kane, yet was not entirely overshadowed by it. Inheriting the services of several Kane alumni—editor Robert Wise, composer Bernard Herrmann, and special effects expert Vernon L. Walker, Webster proved to be an ambitious project.
A down-on-his-luck farmer (James Craig) makes a deal with the devil (Walter Houston) for seven years of prosperity. When Mr. Scratch comes to collect, orator and hero of the common man Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold) comes to the rescue
Dieterle's direction is daring and deliberate; his meticulous use of light and shadow make the overall narrative disturbing, unsettling and full of gloom. His cinematographer, Joseph August, makes every shadow on the screen seem remarkably important. Devil and Daniel Webster has an atmosphere reminiscent of German Expressionism. Indeed, many times the mood is darker than Cabinet of Dr.Caligari. Bernard Herrmann’s Oscar-winning musical score contains many terrific moments, the best of which comes during the barn dance scene where Mr.Scratch plays a chaotic fiddle tune.
The politics of this picture can certainly be traced back to attitudes of the late 30's and early 40's. Neighborliness, and mutual aid—community—as exemplified by the grange, are good. The Devil represents individualism; he allows people to indulge in their own whims at the expense of the community. Dieterle warns that the forces of self-interest will break the social contract that binds all men together. Walter Huston does a tremendous job as Mr.Scratch (aka "The Devil") making the character unsympathetic and captivating at the same time. His performance was the glue that held everything in the story together.
Unfortunately, the forces of good win all too easily. All it takes to beat the devil is a small speech about freedom from an American politician. If the joke was that America's past deeds surmount the deeds of the Devil then it would have made a remarkable point. However the Americans are a great good in this story, even when the Devil points out their history of slavery and genocide. The fictional Daniel Webster says "a man is not a piece of property" yet his historical alter-ego upheld the notion of slavery. I would have enjoyed a long debate about the problem of evil and American hipocrisy, but unfortunately we get a dose of sentimentalism and whitewashing that comes off as a tad condescending. A good film, but not a masterpiece. 3.5/5
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