{"id":39687,"date":"2018-07-09T05:16:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T10:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/?p=39687"},"modified":"2018-07-09T07:31:32","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T12:31:32","slug":"filmstruck-goes-to-the-devil-a-guest-post-by-jeff-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/2018\/07\/09\/filmstruck-goes-to-the-devil-a-guest-post-by-jeff-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"FilmStruck goes to THE DEVIL: A guest post by Jeff Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-1-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-1-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-1-copy.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-1-copy-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-1-copy-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/strong> (1941).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jeff here:<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the latest in our series of \u201cObservations on Film Art\u201d videos dropped on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.filmstruck.com\/us\/watch\/franchise\/1700000043\">FilmStruck<\/a>. The topic this time was continuity editing in <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Many of our faithful blog readers are surely familiar with the techniques and devices that make up the continuity system. The video is really intended to be a primer for the uninitiated. It illustrates some of the basic formal elements of classical continuity, such as the eyeline match, shot\/reverse shot, and the 180\u00b0 rule.<\/p>\n<p>In the video, I tried to highlight some of the reasons why the continuity system became common among popular cinemas around the globe. The tacit principles of the continuity system help ensure that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the story\u2019s dimensions of space and time are clearly communicated to the audience<\/li>\n<li>characters\u2019 and objects\u2019 positions remain relatively constant from shot to shot<\/li>\n<li>that eyelines and screen direction stay consistent<\/li>\n<li>the spectator\u2019s attention is guided to the most salient details in a scene.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The last may be the most important, if least understood. Several perceptual psychologists argue that one of the things that makes cinema a unique art form is its ability to produce attentional synchrony among viewers.<\/p>\n<p>Editing is not the only means of guiding attention, to be sure. Filmmakers use lighting, composition, figure movement, camera movement, and blocking to nudge us to look at particular areas of the frame. The continuity system, though, further harnesses these shifts of attention by yoking them to the timing of cuts. Cuts are often coordinated with natural attention cues in a scene, such as conversational turns, changes in where the characters look, and pointing gestures. As Tim J. Smith, Daniel Levin, and James E. Cutting put it, \u201cBy piggy-backing on natural visual cognition, Hollywood style presents a highly artificial sequence of viewpoints in a way that is easy to comprehend, does not require specific cognitive skills, and may even be perceived by viewers who have never watched film before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In its deployment of classical Hollywood editing techniques, <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em> doesn\u2019t do anything particularly special. Rather, in telling the story of how a New Hampshire farmer, Jabez Stone, sold his soul to the devil, it beautifully illustrates the clarity and efficiency of Hollywood craft at the height of the studio era. Indeed, the editing epitomizes the style of director William Dieterle as a whole: simple, direct, no fuss, no muss.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster <\/em>does add a few wrinkles to the usual Hollywood style. For example, it uses \u201ctrick film\u201d techniques dating back to the era of George Melies to highlight the magical powers of the diabolical Mr. Scratch.<\/p>\n<p>When Jabez throws an axe, it is initially seen as a blur heading straight for Scratch\u2019s head.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-2-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39701\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-2-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-2-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-2-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A combination of stop-motion substitution and rear projection shows the axe freeze in midair.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-3-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39702\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-3-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-3-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-3-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A traveling matte is then used as the axe bursts into flames.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-4-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39703\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-4-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-4-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-4-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the Criterion DVD contains deleted scenes from an earlier preview version of the film titled <em>Here is a Man<\/em>. This alternate version was, in fact, more formally adventurous than the one commonly seen by contemporary audiences. Each time something bad befalls Jabez during the first 20 minutes of the film, <em>Here is a Man <\/em>cuts to a few frames of photographic negative of Scratch. For instance, when Mary accidentally falls off a wagon, Dieterle cuts to Walter Huston smugly pursing his lips.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-5-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39705\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-5-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-5-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-5-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-6-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39706\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-6-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-6-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-6-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dieterle and his collaborators wisely removed these shots from the final version of the film. The opening scene shows Scratch with Jabez\u2019s name in a small book he carries with him.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-7-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-7-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-7-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-7-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When ruinous things start happening to Jabez, viewers naturally infer that Scratch caused them. The oddball moments in <em>Here is a Man<\/em>, unlike the other effects shots, don\u2019t really add any new information and are heavy-handed in their symbolism.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Long and the Short of It: Adapting Stephen Vincent Ben<\/strong><strong>\u00e9t to the Silver Screen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-8-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39709\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-8-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-8-copy.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-8-copy-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-8-copy-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beyond offering good examples of editing craft,\u00a0<em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em>\u00a0is of interest today for other reasons. One involves some of the creative choices made by Stephen Vincent Ben\u00e9t and Dan Totheroh in adapting the former\u2019s short story, first published by <em>The Saturday Evening Post <\/em>in 1936. The second issue I\u2019ll explore has to do with the way the film speaks to political issues of its moment. It seems endorse a collectivist vision of society as a counter to the excesses of unrestrained capitalism.<\/p>\n<p>Most film adaptations use books for their source material, and most screenwriters face the challenge of condensing the book\u2019s narrative to fit the running time of a typical feature film (roughly about two hours). In the case of <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em>, Ben\u00e9t and Totheroh faced the opposite problem.\u201cThe Devil and Daniel Webster\u201d runs less than twenty pages in a Hythloday Press collection of Ben\u00e9t\u2019s short stories. So how do you stretch Ben\u00e9t\u2019s relatively slim tale to fit a 107 minute running time? Ben\u00e9t and Totheroh did what most screenwriters do when they confront the same dilemma. They add incidents, invent new characters, and develop new subplots, adding this material to the existing story spine.<\/p>\n<p>Some print editions of Ben\u00e9t\u2019s story break it into five parts with each new segment introduced with a Roman numeral. Part I introduces Daniel Webster via the tall tales told about him in the New England area. It also provides exposition to Jabez\u2019s blighted existence, and the deal he makes with the devil. After breaking his plow on a stone, Jabez angrily proclaims, \u201cI vow it\u2019s enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devil. And I would, too, for two cents!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Part II covers the seven-year period of prosperity Jabez enjoys as well as his interest in contesting the mortgage held by the mysterious stranger. This section also establishes the stranger\u2019s mystical powers as Jabez hears the voice of his neighbor, Miser Stevens, coming from a moth-like creature that the stranger captures in a bandanna.<\/p>\n<p>Part III describes Jabez\u2019s recruitment of Daniel Webster for his defense and the preparations for trial. Parts IV and V depict the trial itself. The former introduces the judge and jury, and portrays Daniel\u2019s passionate defense of Jabez. The latter tells of the jury\u2019s verdict and Daniel\u2019s banishment of Mr. Scratch from New Hampshire.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most striking things about Ben\u00e9t\u2019s original story is how much of it focuses on the trial itself. Approximately half of the story covers Webster\u2019s initial deliberations with Mr. Scratch, his demand for a trial, and the legal proceedings. In contrast, these story events account for less twenty percent of the film\u2019s running time.<\/p>\n<p>In expanding the story to feature length, Ben\u00e9t and Totheroh add new incidents, characters, and subplots to the early and middle sections of the screenplay. Consider, for example, Ben\u00e9t\u2019s economy in his prose description of Jabez\u2019s misfortunes:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><strong>If he planted corn, he got borers; if he planted potatoes, he got blight. He had good-enough land, but it didn&#8217;t prosper him; he had a decent wife and children, but the more children he had, the less there was to feed them. If stones cropped up in his neighbor&#8217;s field, boulders boiled up in his; if he had a horse with the spavins, he&#8217;d trade it for one with the staggers and give something extra.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Years of toil and trouble for Jabez are compressed into three sentences. When Jabez breaks his plowshare, it becomes simply the proverbial straw on the camel\u2019s back, coming at a time when his wife and children are sick and even his horse has a rheumy cough.<\/p>\n<p>In their script, Ben\u00e9t and Totheroh create a handful of new vignettes to illustrate Jabez\u2019s rotten luck. In the film\u2019s first scene, Jabez\u2019s pig breaks its leg after being chased by the family dog. Later, Jabez\u2019s wife, Mary, takes a tumble off their wagon when trying to stop her husband from selling the family\u2019s calf. Still later, a fox gets into Jabez\u2019s henhouse. In the film, Jabez\u2019s breaking point comes not with the plow, but after he spills precious seed in a puddle just outside his barn. Unlike the story\u2019s description of blight and corn borers, these brief episodes not only visualize Jabez\u2019s tribulations, but also contain their own short dramatic arcs.<\/p>\n<p>Another way Ben\u00e9t and Totheroh expand the original story is to add depth and specificity to its secondary characters. In the original, Miser Stevens never appears as anything more than an insect that\u2019s escaped from Scratch\u2019s collecting box. In the film, he is much more fully fleshed-out character, especially as embodied by the wonderful character actor, John Qualen.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-9-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39711\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-9-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-9-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-9-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ben\u00e9t and Totheroh\u2019s screenplay uses Stevens to create important story parallels. Like Scratch, who possesses a mortgage on Jabez\u2019s soul, Stevens holds the mortgage to the Stone farm. Yet, Stevens also has made a Faustian bargain with Mr. Scratch. His death at Jabez\u2019s party lingers over the rest of the film, a vivid reminder of what\u2019s at stake during the trial.<\/p>\n<p>Ben\u00e9t\u2019s story also treats Jabez\u2019s wife and children quite impersonally. The characters are never named. The references to them mostly add narrative weight to Jabez\u2019s sense of burden. In contrast, the film version not only give these characters names and individual traits, but also uses them to highlight changes Jabez undergoes once he becomes a wealthy landowner. Jabez and his wife, Mary, frequently argue about disciplining their son, Daniel. Jabez indulges Daniel, spoiling him but offering little in the way of love. Similarly, after becoming successful, Jabez also falls short of what we\u2019d expect of a caring husband.<\/p>\n<p>In the middle parts of the film, Jabez becomes crueler and harder. He starts treating trespassers on his land more harshly. He even fires a weapon at one in an effort to scare him away. His anti-social attitudes make him an outcast among the citizenry of Cross Corners.<\/p>\n<p>As was the case with Jabez\u2019s family, the film gives the townspeople more life and personality. Early on, they serve to motivate Daniel Webster\u2019s presence in the story, welcoming him to Cross Corners and serving as a receptive audience for the Senator\u2019s political views. Later, the townspeople act as a foil for Jabez, establishing an important thematic contrast between his <em>laissez faire<\/em> mindset and their more communitarian values.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, Ben\u00e9t and Totheroh also invent several new characters for the film adaptation. Of these, the most important is Belle. Loosely allied with Mr. Scratch, Belle is ostensibly Daniel\u2019s nanny, but is implied to be Jabez\u2019s mistress. Belle supplies a sexual temptation not present in the original story, and this complements the temptations of wealth and power. In this respect, the character anticipates the <em>femme fatales<\/em> found in the cycle of films noir that appear later in the forties, especially as played by Simone Simon at her most fetching.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-10-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39712\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-10-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-10-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-10-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although Dieterle was best known for costume pictures rather than film noir, the photographic style of <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster <\/em>sometimes displays the kind of dark, moody look we associate with noir\u2019s Germanic influence. Consider, for example, the shot of Scratch\u2019s entrance into Jabez\u2019s barn. The mists, the backllight, and the gnarled tree in the background all foreshadow the darkness that will soon take hold of Jabez\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-11-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39713\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-11-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-11-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-11-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the case of <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em>, tracing the film\u2019s lineage back to German expressionism is fairly easy. Prior to becoming a director, Dieterle was an actor in dozens of German silent films, including F.W. Murnau\u2019s <em>Faust<\/em> (1926). Murnau\u2019s adaptation of Goethe\u2019s play not only shares its narrative conceit with Dieterle\u2019s film, but is also one of the most strikingly photographed of his twenties masterpieces.<\/p>\n<p>Looking both backward and forward, <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em> might seem like a link between German Expressionism and American film noir. Like German films of the 1910s and 1920s, Dieterle\u2019s film contains some of the fantasy elements found in canonical titles like <em>The Student of Prague<\/em> (1913), <em>Der Golem<\/em> (1915), or <em>The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/em> (1920). Dieterle&#8217;s curious afterlife fantasy <em>Six Hours to Live<\/em> (1932), discussed in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/2018\/06\/27\/more-bologna-bounty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an earlier entry<\/a>, has a strong affinity with Gothic and Expressionist imagery. Like films noir of the forties, the cinematographic style of <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em> captures the story\u2019s dark, fatalistic tone.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-12-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39714\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-12-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-12-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-12-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-13-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39715\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-13-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-13-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-13-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the look of the final trial scene displays the same sort of stylization seen in the dream sequence of <em>The Stranger on the Third Floor<\/em> (1940), a film often seen as a key noir progenitor.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-14-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39716\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-14-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-14-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-14-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-15-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39717\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-15-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-15-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-15-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-16-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39718\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-16-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-16-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-16-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-17-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39719\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-17-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-17-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-17-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Still, Dieterle also retains the folksy Americana that was an appealing part of Ben\u00e9t\u2019s original story. Some of the characters, like Ma Stone or Squire Slossum, seem like they\u2019ve wandered into the story from one of Frank Capra\u2019s small towns or John Ford\u2019s rural comedies. This combination makes <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em> a true original. Indeed, it might count as an almost singular example of \u201ccracker barrel noir\u201d if the term itself didn\u2019t seem like a complete oxymoron.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Things That Make a Country a Country, and a Man a Man: Ben<\/strong><strong>\u00e9t\u2019s Tale as Allegory<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-18-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-18-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-18-copy.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-18-copy-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-18-copy-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the other things that interests me about <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em> is the degree to which both the story and the film can be read as allegory. Ben\u00e9t\u2019s original narrative certainly makes American identity a central theme. The opening paragraph proposes that, if you go to Daniel Webster\u2019s gravesite and call his name, you\u2019ll hear his deep, rolling voice ask, &#8220;Neighbor, how stands the Union?\u201d Ben\u00e9t adds, \u201cThen you better answer the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and coppersheathed, one and indivisible, or he&#8217;s liable to rear right out of the ground.\u201d This description not only foreshadows the oratorical power that Webster will display when Jabez goes on trial, but also the sacrifices Scratch prophesies. These include Webster\u2019s loss of two sons in combat and a missed opportunity to become president.<\/p>\n<p>Later, Webster will challenge Scratch on the grounds of his nationality, saying \u201cno American citizen may be forced into the service of a foreign prince.\u201d Scratch responds that he is an American, and further that he was present for \u201cthe first wrong done to the first Indian\u201d and when the first American slave ship set sail for the Congo. Moreover, when Scratch assembles his jury, he selects a group of black-hearted souls whose dark deeds affected the course of the nation\u2019s history. Among them is the pirate Edward Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard. There\u2019s also Walter Butler, the architect of the Cherry Valley massacre; Simon Girty, who burnt men at the stake; and Governor Thomas Dale, who Ben\u00e9t claims \u201cbroke men on the wheel.\u201d Overseeing the proceedings is Judge John Hathorne, a magistrate in Salem who supervised some of the witch trials.<\/p>\n<p>The larger significance of these passages is hard to ignore. Jabez may be on trial within the narrative, but Ben\u00e9t seems to put America itself on trial. The plaintiff and defendant, thus, come to symbolize the <em>yin\u00a0<\/em>and <em>yang<\/em> of America\u2019s soul. Webster represents the virtues that define the American ethos: grit, pluck, ingenuity, and liberty. Scratch, on the other hand, associates himself with the nation\u2019s original sins: genocide, slavery, cruelty, torture, and theocratic inquisition. Webster emerges victorious in the legal battle, but as he says in his summation, our citizens\u2019 hard-won freedom came at a cost of suffering and tribulation. Successes and failures are all part of the great journey of humanity. Says Webster, \u201cAnd everybody had played a part in it, even the traitors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dieterle\u2019s film preserves all of these elements of Ben\u00e9t\u2019s short story, but adds a couple of wrinkles of its own. First, General Benedict Arnold is added to the film\u2019s panel of jurors, even though he is pointedly absent from the original. In the story, Webster observes that he misses Arnold\u2019s company and is told that the General is engaged in other business. Benedict Arnold is not only fully present in the film version, but is even featured prominently during the trial scene in several medium close-ups.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-19-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39721\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-19-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-19-copy.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-19-copy-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Webster even singles out Arnold in his impassioned defense of Jabez\u2019s character. Using Arnold\u2019s betrayal of his country as a cautionary tale, the orator asks the jury to give Jabez the second chance that the devil denied to them.<\/p>\n<p>The other, even more important, change made by Ben\u00e9t and Totheroh is the subplot concerned with the formation of the Grange. Officially known as the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, the Grange was founded in 1867 to promote the interests of farmers and rural communities. But Webster died in 1852. As an addition to the screenplay of <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em>, the Grange seems to be a historical anomaly.<\/p>\n<p>So why this anachronistic subplot? The simple answer is that it sharpens the conflict between Jabez and the other townspeople. Not only is he differentiated in class, but he\u2019s set apart by his personal values. The less obvious answer involves the film\u2019s historical context. Released in 1941, the story of a lone holdout resisting the pressure of others in his community likely would evoke broader geopolitical issues. The plea for unity in the face of existential evil would seem to suggest <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em> works as an allegorical critique of American isolationism on the threshold of World War II.<\/p>\n<p>Like other allegories, this type of reading follows a pattern of metaphorical substitution. The Grange becomes a stand-in for the Allied Powers. Scratch represents Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, and other Axis leaders. And, as discussed above, Stone and Webster symbolize America itself.<\/p>\n<p>Dieterle\u2019s earlier career in Hollywood also offers some additional warrant for this interpretation. He was a German Jew who emigrated to the U.S. in 1930. His relocation was less about fleeing the Nazis than it was the opportunity to work for Warner Bros. Still, Dieterle bore witness to the corrosive effects of Nazi ideology, and his directorial assignments show a loose affiliation with anti-Fascist politics. He helmed <em>The Life of Emile Zola<\/em>, a Warners biopic that depicts the French author\u2019s involvement in the Dreyfus affair. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1938. Thanks to its timely exploration of anti-Semitism, <em>Zola<\/em> burnished Warner Bros. reputation as Hollywood\u2019s most socially conscious studio.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-20-alt.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39722\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-20-alt.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-20-alt.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-20-alt-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That same year, Dieterle directed <em>Blockade<\/em> (1938) for producer Walter Wanger. Although it is mostly a routine espionage thriller, the film is now remembered as one of the few films Hollywood made about the Spanish civil war. As scripted by John Howard Lawson, who later was blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten, <em>Blockade<\/em> is now seen as an emblem of the Popular Front. Most film historians associate it with anti-Fascist politics, even though the film pointedly avoids identifying the Loyalist and Nationalist sides of the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike these previous projects,\u00a0<em>The Devil and Daniel Webster <\/em>positioned Dieterle as both producer and director. The creative decisions involved in the addition of the Grange subplot would seem more directly under his control. The film\u2019s thematic emphasis on collective interests seems to suggest this political subtext in much the same way that Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s <em>Lifeboat<\/em> (1944) is sometimes viewed as a parable of democracy\u2019s failure in the face of dictatorship.<\/p>\n<p>In highlighting this allegorical dimension of <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em>, I don\u2019t wish to suggest that it makes the film inherently more interesting. Indeed, like other allegorical interpretations, it seems a bit reductive and simplistic. More importantly, if taken too far, these types of interpretive strategies quickly become wrongheaded and even silly (i.e. Belle as a stand-in for Vichy collaboration).<\/p>\n<p>Yet, I also can\u2019t help but feel that <em>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/em>\u2019s invocation of American identity offers something important to a contemporary audience. If, like me, you bristle every time you hear \u201cAmerican interests\u201d referenced as the reason to abandon the Paris Accords or to potentially withdraw from NATO, then you have a sense of the film\u2019s relevance to our moment.<\/p>\n<p>The whole arc of the Grange subplot seems to invert much contemporary political rhetoric insofar as it dramatizes the social benefits of the Commons and the individual tragedy of self-interest. In the parlance of our times, Jabez is a risk-taker, mortgaging his immortal soul for the promise of earthly riches. Yet, when we see the resulting inequality in Dieterle\u2019s film, we recognize the situation for what it is. For Jabez, Miser Stevens, and other capitalist mountebanks, it is, quite literally, a deal with the devil. And that, consarn it, is a lesson that all modern viewers can take to heart.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>A handy introduction to the continuity system can be found in Chapter 6 of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/eBook-Online-Access-Film-Art-ebook\/dp\/B01AAYZVBI\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1530579470&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Film+Art\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Film <\/em>Art<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about the role of editing in guiding viewers\u2019 attention, see Tim J. Smith, Daniel Levin, and James E. Cutting, \u201cA Window on Reality: Perceiving Edited Moving Images,\u201d <em>Current Directions in Psychological Science<\/em> 21, no. 2 (2012): 107-113. A PDF of this essay can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/pdfs.semanticscholar.org\/5240\/f8c124e0ccfe08ebe123dc412b747088bec0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Vincent Ben\u00e9t can be found in many places around the web, including <a href=\"http:\/\/gutenberg.net.au\/ebooks06\/0602901h.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.\u00a0Lotte Eisner\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Haunted-Screen-Expressionism-Influence-Reinhardt\/dp\/0520024796\/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1530579986&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=The+Haunted+Screen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt<\/em> <\/a>(1974, University of California Press) remains a useful introduction to the movement\u2019s lighting and visual motifs. For more on the interpretation of films as political allegories, see my book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Haunted-Screen-Expressionism-Influence-Reinhardt\/dp\/0520024796\/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1530579986&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=The+Haunted+Screen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds<\/em><\/a> (2014, University of California Press).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-21-copy-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39724\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-21-copy-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-21-copy-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-21-copy-1-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DDW-Figure-21-copy-1-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The Devil and Daniel Webster<\/strong> (1941).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). Jeff here: Last week, the latest in our series of \u201cObservations on Film Art\u201d videos dropped on FilmStruck. The topic this time was continuity editing in The Devil and Daniel Webster. Many of our faithful blog readers are surely familiar with the techniques and devices that make up the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,58,228,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1940s-hollywood","category-technique-editing","category-filmstruck","category-hollywood-aesthetic-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39687"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39727,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39687\/revisions\/39727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}