THE DEVIL & DANIEL WEBSTER

Though this Golden Age Hollywood classic includes a heavy supernatural element and plenty of horror, it may be more appropriate for Thanksgiving viewing than at Halloween. In the tradition of classic folklore and fable, it tells a moral story of seduction, terror and redemption, with a message to be proud of what you are and thankful for what you have.

As he said in a New York Times article (reprinted in the insert booklet), Stephen Vincent Benet came up with the idea while researching Webster, and couldn't help thinking of this colorful figure in the guise of folklore, picturing him in the same league as Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed. He wondered how Webster would fare in a courtroom arguing a case against the Devil himself, and soon crafted this Faustian tale of a poor New Hampshire farmer who is taken advantage of during hard times. The story was a hit when it appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, and was even adapted as an opera before being optioned by RKO Studios.

God-fearing Jabez Stone (James Craig) is down on his luck, having suffered from a string of hardships to the point where he's ready to chuck in his seed grain to pay the rent. But an old goat named Mr. Scratch (Walter Huston) shows up in the Stone's barn with a tempting offer: seven years of riches in exchange for Jabez' soul. With a fortune in lost Hessian gold suddenly popping up from the barn's floorboards, it appears that Stone's problems are over. He pays off his mortgage, starts to make a name for himself in local politics, and even befriends the famous politician Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold) when the man is visiting the area. Webster even becomes the godfather of Stone's newborn son. But Stone's newfound wealth goes to his head. He takes advantage of his fellow farmers, just as he had been taken advantage of himself. He builds a big new mansion, though his estranged wife Mary (Anne Shirley) and mother refuse to move in, and takes up with a feline new servant named Belle (Simone Simon, looking demonically beautiful).

At wits end, Mary turns to Webster for aid, and the New England lawyer comes to help his friend just in time. Scratch is about to take payment on his deal, but Webster believes he can find a way out of the contract, and makes a dangerous wager in order to take the case to trial in a supernatural courtroom.

Brimming with All-American pioneer spirit, folksy philosophy and charm, director William Dieterle brings all his cinematic talent to bear on the material. Significant contributions come from Bernard Hermann, who turns in one of his best early scores, and especially from cinematographer Joseph August, who worked with Dieterle previously on THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. August's deft use of multilayered shadows in his compositions help build tension throughout the film, reaching mad crescendos during the horrific party scenes in which Stone's house is invaded by eerily waltzing dead that prefigure those in CARNIVAL OF SOULS. These three talents combine to deliver cinema poetry of great eloquence, abetted by a first rate cast.

Produced in the wake of RKO's success with CITIZEN KANE, DEVIL & DANIEL WEBSTER has had a troubled history, which is fully detailed in this edition's various supplements. Produced and finally released under a variety of titles, most often as ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY, the film did mediocre business in a series of releases throughout the next decade or so. By the early 1950s, release prints had been cut by over 20 minutes, severely undermining its effectiveness, and though it turned up from time to time on television, existing prints blurred and washed out the subtle imagery. Criterion restored much of the discarded footage for a laserdisc release in 1991, with the old footage standing out due to its inferior condition. This DVD release presents the film in its original 106-minute length for the first time in over 60 years, with image and sound digitally cleaned up, and it looks and sounds beautifully. Only an occasional white scratch no pun intended appears to betray the film's age.

Many of the extras for this disc were originally gathered for the LD release, but appear here in more organized fashion, along with a host of new features. Criterion's producer/house commentator Bruce Eder contributes a newly recorded commentrak, doing his usual great job of filling in details of the production history while offering an examination of the film's aesthetics. Midway through, Eder is assisted by Bernard Hermann biographer Stephen C. Smith, who discusses the film's Oscar-winning score (only Hermann's second). Hermann's music is also the subject of an interactive essay by Christopher Husted of the Hermann Estate. Hermann's music can also be heard during the disc's presentation of two radio episodes of COLUMBIA WORKSHOP, which dramatize both this story and "Daniel Webster & the Sea Monster".

A section is devoted to presenting clips from the film's preview screening version under the title HERE IS A MAN, which includes creepy insert close-ups of Huston's leering Scratch shown in negative, which imply that Scratch is bringing misfortune on Stone from the start. Another new feature is a fine reading of Benet's short story recorded especially for Criterion by Webster's fellow New Englander Alec Baldwin.

In all, yet another definitive release of a classic film on DVD from the folks at Criterion.