I know that this film has a wonderful reputation and the other reviews are all very favorable, but somehow I couldn't get very excited about this film. Perhaps I felt the material was just too familiar, perhaps the movie just opened up the trauma I experienced when I was forced to read "Faust" while in college (this was 25 years ago and I STILL cringe at the thought of reading all 25,000 lines of Goethe's rambling tale). All I know is that I wasn't caught up in the story and to me, with a few exceptions, seemed rather unremarkable. Here are the exceptions. First, there were some very nice performances--Walter Huston was very good as was Edward Arnold. Second, the film had very nice cinematography and just looked lovely--with a nice mythical quality about it. On the down side, the main character seemed like an idiot and I didn't care that the Devil was going to get his soul. The film did nothing to create sympathy for the jerk. In addition, the film really went on too long and the wonderful courtroom scene was way, way too short. Overall, an interesting time-passer but it hardly seemed like a classic to me.
Review of The Devil and Daniel Webster
