Hollywood at its peak had a love/hate relationship with the so-called "fantasy" genre. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. Thankfully this did not stop the studios from continuing to try. Looking at films like this, one is tempted to borrow the nomenclature of the modern economists who, when forced to admit that they have no idea why a particular thing happened, will simply call it a "Black Swan" event. This film therefore if one of RKO's Black Swans, a film with modest ambitions that, from the very first scene to the very last, draws in the viewer and takes him on a wild ride. Other reviewers here have talked about plot, and that is covered. Most readers I suspect would be familiar with either the original Daniel Webster tale or Faust itself. Or at least should be. The acting is stellar, especially Huston who, in his own way, delivers a screen presence here as memorable as a Welles or a James Earl Jones. His portrayal of Old Scratch, his body language, is a sight to behold. The real credit here goes to William Dieterle, who clearly had a "vision" of how this film should look and feel before even the first reel was in the camera. It is an astonishing experience, almost the mid-point between a dream and a stage-play. Hollywood produced maybe 10 fantasies of this calibre in this period (including Death Takes a Holiday and Here Comes Mr. Jordan). They all deserve to be seen, and remembered.
The Devil and Daniel Webster
(1941)
One of Hollywood's Black Swans -- a lost masterpiece
9 November 2013