Douglas Winter is the owner of a small-town newspaper called the Courier.\u00a0 A larger newspaper called the Gazette is using its financial muscle to squeeze the Courier out of business.\u00a0 It\u2019s able to buy up all the advertising and even hire away the courier\u2019s Linotype operator.\u00a0 Winter is at his wit\u2019s end and out of money to pay the bills.\u00a0 His girlfriend and co-worker Jackie Benson tells him not to lose faith but he\u2019s given up and in fact heads over to a bridge to jump over the side and end it all.\u00a0 But while he\u2019s there he meets a Mr. Smith who convinces Winter to join him at the local bar for a drink.\u00a0 While there he discusses Winter\u2019s troubles at the courier.\u00a0 Smith informs him that he\u2019d like to bankroll him and also help out as both the Linotype operator and a reporter.\u00a0 Having nothing to lose Winter agrees.\u00a0 When they arrive at the courier Smith impresses both Douglas and Jackie with his skill with the Linotype.\u00a0 He also informs them that he has an amazing nose for news and will be able to scoop the reporters at the gazette without any difficulty.\u00a0 And in fact, this proves to be the case.\u00a0 His first scoop is a bank robbery story which he Linotypes apparently as it is occurring.\u00a0 From there he makes scoop after scoop and before you know it the Courier is the leading newspaper and the Gazette is hurting for business.<\/p>\n
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The owner of the Gazette offers to buy the Courier, but winter turns him down.\u00a0 The next scoop is that a fire has burned down the Gazette and out them out of business.\u00a0 Now that things are going well Winter wants to hire back his old Linotype operator, but Smith informs him that he\u2019s modified the machine and only he now can handle it correctly.\u00a0 Also, Smith tells Winter that he wants to bring the courier to a higher level of success but in order to do it he needs Winer to sign a business agreement that among other things promises to assign his immortal soul over to smith when he dies.\u00a0 Winter recoils at the suggestion but after Smith mocks him for believing in such supernatural claptrap Winter agrees and signs the paper.<\/p>\n
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After this Smith shows his true colors and makes sexual advances on Jackie.\u00a0 She slaps his face and Smith tells her she\u2019ll be sorry.\u00a0 Now Smith admits to Winter that he is indeed the devil and anything he writes on the Linotype automatically comes true and he has written that Jackie will be in a car crash and if Winter does not commit suicide then Smith will see to it that she dies.\u00a0 Smith tells Jackie that he is leaving town and asks her for a lift to the train station and while they are driving the accident happens.\u00a0 But in the meantime, Winter writes a story on the Linotype stating that the agreement between Winter and smith was nullified and that Jackie would be fine, and Smith would disappear.\u00a0 So, everybody lives happily ever afterward, and winter has the Linotype disposed of and settles down to running a normal newspaper again.<\/p>\n
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Burgess Meredith is Mr. Smith, and this is basically a tour de force by him.\u00a0 It\u2019s of course a ridiculous story but Meredith invests it with his particular brand of acting zeal so that it keeps your interest and renders it very enjoyable.\u00a0 But whenever he\u2019s not on the screen the story seems kind of flat.\u00a0 For Burgess\u2019s work I\u2019ll give this a B+.<\/p>\n
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