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With: Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, Jane Darwell, Simone Simon, Gene Lockhart, John Qualen, H.B. Warner, Frank Conlan, Lindy Wade, George Cleveland, Anne Shirley, James Craig
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Written by: Dan Totheroh, Stephen Vincent Benet, based on a short story by Stephen Vincent Benet
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Directed by: William Dieterle
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
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Running Time: 107
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Date: 10/17/1941
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All That Money Can Buy (1941)
Soul Feud
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Composer Bernard Herrmann's Oscar-winning first score provides eerie atmosphere for this excellent, high-class genre film featuring amazing special effects, spooky photography and Walter Huston as the Devil, called "Mr. Scratch." Farmer Jabez Stone (James Craig) trades his soul for seven years of prosperity. When his time is up, Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold) comes to the rescue. Simone Simon co-stars as a temptress sent to seduce the poor farmer. The film was also released as The Devil and Daniel Webster. Director Dieterle was an actor in Germany before moving to the U.S. in the early 1930s. He also directed The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).
DVD Details: The Criterion Collection released the film on LaserDisc in 1991 and on DVD in 2003, as The Devil and Daniel Webster. Now its official Blu-ray release reverts to its alternate title. I'm not sure what the reason is. The new, restored transfer, made partially from the original camera negative, is superb, sharp and with soft film grain. The audio track is uncompressed mono, also superb. It includes the commentary track from the DVD, by film historian Bruce Eder and Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith, and another extra from the DVD, a reading of Stephen Vincent Benet's short story by Alec Baldwin (34 minutes). There's a comparison between the 1941 pre-release version and this, final 1943 version (5 minutes), an episode of "Observations on Film Art" (released in 2018 on the Criterion Channel), with scholar Jeff Smith (13 minutes), radio dramas of the original short story and its counterpart "Daniel Webster and the Sea Serpent," both with Bernard Herrmann music (30 minutes each), a restoration demonstration (6 minutes), and a trailer (49 seconds). The liner notes includes an essay by author Tom Piazza and a 1941 article by Stephen Vincent Benet. Recommended.
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