The Devil and Daniel Webster

1941 · 105 min · dir. William Dieterle

The Devil and Daniel Webster is a 1941 American supernatural horror film directed by William Dieterle and starring Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, James Craig, and Simone Simon. Based on the 1938 play adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benét's 1936 short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster", the film deals with the theme of the deal with the Devil: A farmer sells his soul for good luck and prosperity, but becomes desperate when the time of his pact is about to end. He asks the lawyer Daniel Webster to help him find a way out of the pact's terms. The play by Benét was in turn based on the libretto created by Benét for an opera adaptation of his short story with composer Douglas Moore, a project he began writing in 1937. Benét and Dan Totheroh adapted the play into the film's screenplay. Synopsis from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.