Okay this one is an oddball.\u00a0 What we have here is a sort of morality play mixed into a fantasy.\u00a0 In the first half of the nineteenth century in the southwest corner of New Hampshire there lived a farmer named Jabez Stone.\u00a0 He has a wife and a widowed mother and not much else.\u00a0 Bad luck follows him and prevents him from ever catching up on his debts.\u00a0 One day when disaster strikes, again, he cries out that he\u2019d sell his soul for some good luck.\u00a0 And the Devil (played amusingly by Walter Huston) shows up and talks him into the deal.\u00a0 He provides him with a pot of \u201cHessian\u201d gold and seven years of guaranteed good luck for the price of his soul.<\/p>\n
(Spoiler Alert \u2013 Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)<\/strong><\/p>\n And indeed, Jabez gets all the good luck for which he could ask.\u00a0 When his neighbors\u2019 crops are destroyed by hail, his are spared.\u00a0 He loans money to his neighbors and when they can\u2019t pay him back, he makes them sharecroppers working his fields.\u00a0 He builds a huge mansion on the hill and alienates his wife and mother and all his old friends.<\/p>\n Jabez\u2019s wife Mary is a good friend of the famous American statesman, Daniel Webster (played by Edward Arnold) and she finally calls Webster in when she decides that something terrible has happened to her husband.\u00a0 Jabez has changed from an honest friendly religious man into a greedy, hateful sinner.\u00a0 He\u2019s driven away all of their friends and taken up with a Jezebel named \u201cBelle\u201d whom the Devil has sent to keep Jabez from repenting.<\/p>\n On the seventh anniversary of his contract Old Scratch (as the Devil is called in that neighborhood of New England) comes to claim Jabez Stone\u2019s soul.\u00a0 By this point Jabez realizes the wrong he\u2019s committed and is repentant but he knows his contract is binding.\u00a0 But at this point Daniel Webster confronts the Devil and demands a jury trial.\u00a0 Webster will represent the defense and the Devil gets to pick the judge, and jury.\u00a0 The jury is made up of notorious criminals of the early American era including Gen. Benedict Arnold the infamous traitor of the Revolutionary War.\u00a0 But the Devil stipulates that if Jabez is found guilty Daniel Webster\u2019s soul will also be collected.<\/p>\n Webster uses all his gifts as an orator and appeals to the jury\u2019s remorse for not fulfilling their birthrights as free Americans and lovers of life.\u00a0 He reminds them of the simple joys of living a virtuous life and how each of them regrets the road he has taken.<\/p>\n Finally, the jury asks the Devil to see the contract and when he hands it over Benedict Arnold tears it up and throws it away.\u00a0 The judge and jury disappear into smoke and Daniel Webster gives the Devil the bum\u2019s rush out of Jabez\u2019s barn.\u00a0 The two victors return to the farmhouse in time to enjoy a homecooked breakfast with Jabez\u2019s wife and mother and young son.<\/p>\n His neighbors arrive to alert Jabez to the fact that his mansion on the hill is in flames.\u00a0 He smiles at them and tells them he\u2019s glad and that all their debts to him are cancelled and to prove it he tears up his promissory notes and invites them to breakfast.\u00a0 The movie ends on a comical note with Old Scratch sitting on a country fence, finishing up a pie he stole from Ma Stone and looking into his little book of prospects and then peering out into the audience and smiling and pointing at you!<\/p>\n As I said this is an oddball film.\u00a0 The bulk of the film is a melodrama about a good man going bad through greed and pride.\u00a0 I suppose the supernatural story is meant to be a metaphor for how circumstances can make even good people lose perspective on the what\u2019s really valuable in life and let the pursuit of money destroy the good things they have.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I can recommend this movie unless I compare it to something like the movie, \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life.\u201d\u00a0 That movie also shares a supernatural framing of the dangers of losing perspective on what makes life worth living.\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t like that better movie then you probably won\u2019t like this lesser tale.\u00a0 That won\u2019t guarantee you\u2019ll like this one but it gives you an idea of what kind of movie this is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Okay this one is an oddball.\u00a0 What we have here is a sort of morality play mixed into a fantasy.\u00a0 In the first half of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237,4],"tags":[3603,43,38,1355,1564],"class_list":["post-18232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","tag-edward-arnold","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-walter-huston"],"yoast_head":"\n