Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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.

This is the classic Stephen Vincent Benet story of a man who has nothing but bad luck. Because it's hard to feed his family and no prospects in sight, he makes a deal with the devil (Scratch, played by Walter Huston). He will have successful crops and live like a king for a period of time, but, like Faust, he must pay for it with his immortal soul. Unfortunately, his happiness is tainted and he has that day of reckoning coming. The man's name is Jabez Stone and he feel helpless. But take heart. One the scene is the great lawyer/politician, Daniel Webster. It will be his job to find a way to oppose the devil in court. The jury is made up of ghosts of murderers, traitors, thieves and other evil kinds. This is not going to be easy. One of the most delightful films you will ever see. Just watching Walter Huston, with that sly smile and twinkling eye (covering incredible evil) is worth every minute.

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.

Hollywood at its peak had a love/hate relationship with the so-called "fantasy" genre. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. Thankfully this did not stop the studios from continuing to try. Looking at films like this, one is tempted to borrow the nomenclature of the modern economists who, when forced to admit that they have no idea why a particular thing happened, will simply call it a "Black Swan" event. This film therefore if one of RKO's Black Swans, a film with modest ambitions that, from the very first scene to the very last, draws in the viewer and takes him on a wild ride. Other reviewers here have talked about plot, and that is covered. Most readers I suspect would be familiar with either the original Daniel Webster tale or Faust itself. Or at least should be. The acting is stellar, especially Huston who, in his own way, delivers a screen presence here as memorable as a Welles or a James Earl Jones. His portrayal of Old Scratch, his body language, is a sight to behold. The real credit here goes to William Dieterle, who clearly had a "vision" of how this film should look and feel before even the first reel was in the camera. It is an astonishing experience, almost the mid-point between a dream and a stage-play. Hollywood produced maybe 10 fantasies of this calibre in this period (including Death Takes a Holiday and Here Comes Mr. Jordan). They all deserve to be seen, and remembered.

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 ****