Don’t misunderstand, there are some very fine — even brilliant — things in The Devil and Daniel Webster and the last 30 minutes are as good as anything Dieterle ever did. The weird dance at the housewarming party (where that final stretch starts) is creepy in the extreme — actually achieving the sense of something genuinely, unsettling unreal. Mr. Scratch collecting a soul (depicted as a moth trapped in a handkerchief) is startling, but the big scene — the trial with a “jury of the damned” and H.B. Warner (DeMille’s Jesus in the 1927 King of Kings) as the otherworldly judge — is the stunner, a truly astonishing set-piece of atmosphere. It’s something else, too, in that it serves as a reminder of what a very fine actor Edward Arnold could be when not constrained (however appealingly) as an ill-tempered businessman. For these things and the flashes of wonderment throughout the film, this is an essential — even if other aspects don’t quite measure up.
The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Devil and Daniel Webster Sunday, Sept. 20, at 2 p.m. in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.
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