All That Money Can Buy (1941)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I gave a ten minute presentation upon this movie and the original short story by Stephen Vincent Benet. I had an audience of roughly twenty people: faculty and students. Afterwards many of them came up to me to tell me how many they enjoyed the movie.Walter Huston, in the role of the Devil, chewed up the screen with his cigar smoking and his wicked smile. Old Lucifer has never been so much fun; and he's an American original in this film as Benet intended.Edward Arnold, a hail and hearty character era from the 30's and 40's, played a robust and earthy Daniel Webster, Senator from Massachusetts. His duel with the Evil One in a court room full of the damned from American history is priceless.An all-star cast does an outstanding to keep this film compelling and timeless.

In 1840 in New Hampshire, the unfortunate farmer Jabez Stone (James Craig) is a poor but good man that lives a simple and hard life with his beloved wife Mary Stone (Anne Shirley) and his mother "Ma" (Jane Darwell). One day of bad luck, Jabez curses and tells that he would sell his soul to the devil to have a better life; immediately after the devil appears posing of a man named Mr. Scratch (Walter Huston). He offers seven years of good fortune and money to Jabez for his soul and the farmer signs the contract. Soon Jabez improves his life and after a hailstorm, his crop are the only one not damaged. Jabez borrows money to his neighbors and soon Mary gets pregnant. When she delivers the baby Daniel, she asks her prominent friend Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold) to be his godfather. Meanwhile Jabez is charmed by the gorgeous Belle (Simone Simon) and he hires her as a maid and soon she becomes his mistress. Jabez does not know that Belle was sent by Mr. Scratch and soon he becomes an evil man. After seven years, Mr. Scratch returns to collect his soul and offers an addition period for the soul of his sin. Jabez realizes that he is doomed but Daniel Webster offers to defend him in a trial. What will happen to Jabez and his family?"The Devil & Daniel Webster", a.k.a. "All That Money Can Buy", retells the timeless German classic story of Faust, a man that sells his soul to Mephistopheles. The film has not aged after more than seventy years. The dance of Belle with her guests is eerie and seems to be the source of inspiration of the dance in "Carnival of Souls". Walter Huston and Edward Arnold have great performances in the roles of Mr. Scratch and Edward Arnold respectively. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): Not available on Blu-Ray or DVD

Jabez (James Craig) makes a deal with the devil who takes the form of Mr Scratch (Walter Huston). Jabez will have success and wealth for 7 years in return for his soul. After 7 years has passed, Mr Scratch offers another deal - Jabez can save himself if he sacrifices his young son. Well........Jabez doesn't like this deal and Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold) steps up to the plate on his behalf and goes head to head with the devil.The story sounds good but it is mostly boring. Nothing happens for an hour. Things only get interesting with the introduction of Belle (Simone Simon). There are only a few good scenes and nearly all of these involve Belle - from the moment we first see her sitting in front of the fireplace where we just know that she is a wicked abomination conjured up by the devil, to the moment at the party where she fills the room with guests that aren't really there, to her end appearance as she rides away to somewhere over the mountains. She has an unworldly aura and her world is the world of the dead. She is all that is good about the film.James Craig is unconvincing and impossible to care about in the lead role. Most of the rest of the cast are also uninspiring. Especially annoying is the boy Lindy Wade. I would definitely have sacrificed the brat in order to have 7 more years of success and wealth.Whilst the story has a good idea, the ending is pretty crass with a court case between Daniel Webster and the Devil. It's a chance to spout crap about living a good life and it will either make you puke or completely bore you. A more effective ending would have seen Jabez let off at the expense of the brat whose life is taken by the devil. Despite a final cheeky frame with Walter Huston, this film could have been much better.

A severely down-on-his-luck New England farmer (Lindy Wade) strikes a deal with "Scratch" (Walter Huston as the devil) to bring himself 8 years of good fortune and finds himself without conscience and ultimately almost without wife as he slides down that proverbial "slippery slope." Luckily he has earlier on earned the good-will of a plutocratic lawyer/politician named Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold) who is willing to argue before the most diabolical American court ever assembled to save Daniel Stone's soul.Overall it's a mildly pleasing and mildly disturbing film, too worried about its faux-provincialism to truly become interesting or to really present a morally complex story. While Walter Huston is delightful as the manipulative Scratch, with a very physical performance, his work isn't really matched by Arnold and the work from Wade and the actress playing his wife (Anne Shirley) is so poor that it undermines the film. Not only are their performances hollow, without any real emotional urgency or immediacy, but the roles are poorly written so that you doubt any actor could have done much with it. The wife character is looks and talks like she stepped out of a D.W. Griffith movie from 1912 moreso than some rural 19th Century atmosphere. As if to correct or compensate for the weird rigidity of the wife they've given Stone a mother who is so broadly written and performed that she barely seems feminine by any definition. These are some terrible duo, no doubt, and if written in a more sarcastic way I would imagine they would suffice to explain Danny Stone's flight from the paths of the righteous.Although Simone Simon is creepily beautiful we still cannot understand his total abandonment of his wife and all decent behavior. Apparently it's a heck of a lot of fun to ride in a sleigh with Simone Simon. I don't want to be too hard on the movie -- there's a lot of fun thanks mostly to Simon and Huston. But the movie's moral dichotomy is so rigid, the line between good and evil so definite, that I literally felt it had nothing to do with the real world. And sadly, even with such a rigid separation between bad and good behavior the writers weren't able to give Daniel Webster a final speech that would really absolve Danny Stone of his guilt or that would make us believe he had convinced a jury of traitors that Stone should go free just because they might empathize with his desire for a second chance at life. Simply put, we could understand Stone's desire for a second chance if his original mistakes and evil deeds made any sense in and of themselves.Wish I could have enjoyed it more -- there are many interesting expressionist scenes and some real intimation of the uncanny. Unfortunately all of this is attached to a story that is self-congratulatory and patriotic in a showy way. A few more real dark edges, with everything not being so clearly explained, would have made for a more powerful film.