All That Money Can Buy (1941)

The first must-see film of the year.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Daniel Webster, played by Edward Arnold, is the real hero of this film. The historical Webster was a good politician and an even greater orator. He was famous throughout the USA for his powerful speeches delivered in a booming voice. Edward Arnold's Daniel Webster was a perfect foil for the devil in a court of law. The evil one is played by a grinning and cigar smoking Walter Huston. The action takes place in New Hampshire during the 1840's and revolves around a Yankee farmer who sells his soul for worldly possessions. This movie has a lush look to it, and its' entire cast is outstanding, including James Craig as the Yankee farmer Jabez Stone. This movie is a delicious slice of peach pie and Americana.

I couldn't believe what I saw when I finished this film. I can't believe I missed this one all these years.I have to say right off, Walter Huston to me, plays the best version of the devil I have ever seen on film. They call him Scratch. He is so darn creepy in this. Not in a horns and hell-fire typa way. Just in his sorta "salesmen" mentality throughout. He's got you with the contract so you better live up to it. He is most certainly the standout of this film.The other characters in this do their job well but I'm bettin' this was suppose to be a character driven film. Meaning lots of characters and it just evolves from their. Most will Jabez Stone and Scratch are the main characters in this but I wouldn't agree. There are plenty of memorable roles who keep this film so interesting until the very very end. James Craig you'll see wasn't a great actor but everyone around him makes this film what it is...a really subversive tale about sellin your soul to the Devil.I would seriously recommend this film to anyone who's religious. Like Rosemary's Baby, it will shake you to your core on your belief system. Wait for the very last frame of the film and watch what Scratch wants...hehe.For someone like me it comes down to this. The Devil isn't a person. The Devil is right and wrong in you. The Devil is...temptation.

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.

New Hampshire husband and farmer in 1840, deeply in debt and stressed to the breaking point, absentmindedly calls out to the Devil in his humble frustration; he's quickly visited by elfin-like codger Mr. Scratch, to whom he sells his soul in exchange for seven years of good luck. Walter Huston's Oscar-nominated performance as the exaggeratedly good-natured Beelzebub is the centerpiece of this wry fantasy-drama (one with spry moments and tongue occasionally in cheek). Adapted from Stephen Vincent Benet's story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (the film's reissue title), our hero naturally becomes selfish and greedy with his money, spoiling his young son instead of teaching him, and consorting with a devilish mistress in front of his wife. These latter scenes can practically be checked off a list, what with the farmer building an ostentatious mansion on the hill, alienating his friends and neighbors and mocking the church bells! Luckily, things pick up with a final supernatural trial in with Mr. Scratch plays prosecutor and battles hard-drinking, but lovingly honest, salt-of-the-earth defense lawyer Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold, in a sensational turn). Supporting cast including Jane Darwell, Simone Simon, George Cleveland, and H.B. Warner is first-rate as well...the only character who doesn't come off is the farmer, played by James Craig. Craig, handsome and fitfully animated, is well-enough an actor to handle this role, but all the best lines have been given to the other performers, leaving Craig's Jabez Stone a sketch, a writer's afterthought, without any dimensions or pathos. Bernard Herrmann won the Oscar for his superlative music score, which is matched by sumptuous cinematography and art direction. **1/2 from ****