The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), produced and directed by William Dieterle.
(Aka All That Money Can Buy and Mr. Scratch, Daniel and the Devil and Here Is a Man).
After a long string of bad luck and imminent loss of his farm, Jabez Stone receives an interesting proposition from the infernal Mr Scratch -- Walter Huston as a jolly leprechaun -- to sell his soul in exchange for wealth and all that money can buy. For seven years. After that: why worry?
Which Jabez does, signing in blood and with the due date burned into the bark of a tree. His fortunes improve immediately, but we suspect how this is going to go.
I had long heard of this but never seen it before. I think it is more popular among film fans than general audiences. Buffs appreciate the director, cast and crew, cinematographer Joseph H. August (Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Portrait of Jennie (1948), They Were Expendable (1945)) and imaginative score by Bernard Herrmann, his second. Edited by Robert Wise.
While appreciating all that and the fantasy concept, I found it to drag. Jabez's self-degradation goes on and on. I would have liked a more appealing actor in that part. The home video version is the restored original cut, longer than was commonly seen before.
I did find much to like. Anne Shirley (Murder, My Sweet (1944)) looks like an RKO version of Olivia de Havilland. One night she gives her husband the most subtle "come hither" expression I have ever seen in film. Watch closely:
He gets the message: nine months later they have a baby.
Other intriguing aspects:
Edward Arnold gets a break from villain roles to play statesman Daniel Webster who argues for his client's soul before a jury of the damned.
I did not know: Webster was a New England folk hero, his "friend of the farmer and common man" persona imperfectly matching the historical character.
Thomas Mitchell originally had the part and filmed most of the movie in scene order until he suffered a serious crash in the horse carriage and was hospitalized. His injuries were particularly severe because he was trying to protect the child in the carriage with him.
The temperature rises sharply with the appearance of fire-spirit succubus Simone Simon (Cat People (1942), The Curse of the Cat People (1944), Le Plaisir (1952)). When introduced as the new house maid the other women say "She's what?" Later when Jabez has built his mansion she moves in with him and it is her house.
I did not spot this at first, but when Miser Stevens is paid off with new found "Hessian gold", he compares the coins with his own and with increasing dread finds them to be identical. We later discover he has made the same deal with the devil.
Miser Stevens is played by prolific character actor John Qualen, who I always think of as Muley in The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and Berger in Casablanca (1942).
The fairy tale becomes ever darker as Jabez's damnation grows on him, culminating in a nightmare danse macabre at the big house. We see the souls Mr Scratch collects: like small squeaking moths.
Available on DVD from Criterion with and informative commentary track on the production and score.