1941’s All That Money Can Buy takes the traditional Faust story and sets it in rural New Hampshire in the early 19th century. The original Stephen Vincent Benet story this is based on did so in order to incorporate famous real-life senator and lawyer Daniel Webster, as he defends in a court of the damned the soul of a farmer who made a pact with the devil.
This is an interesting and rather odd film that often feels a bit unsettled. Even then, that often works to its advantage. There are some moments that feel Lynchian in a production that is largely so aw-shucks as to be potentially mistaken for the output of Frank Capra. That this film was released under three different titles, with at least one significantly different element between two of those versions, only reinforces my suspicions of conflicting points-of-view behind the scenes.
Regardless of the version one sees, there is at least a united front presented in the opening credits, with a long scroll of names first listing those “in front of the camera…”, followed by those “in back of the camera”. And this is a very solid cast, with Walter Huston given free reign to play a very mischievous Mr. Scratch, Edward Arnold in a career-defining turn as Webster and Simone Simon in a small role as a literal nanny from Hell. There’s also many character actors you may recognize if you’ve seen many films from this era, such as Gene Lockhart, John Qualen and Brute Force’s Jeff Corey. Alas, the central characters of the story are, as a whole, rather uninteresting couple, played by James Craig and Anne Shirley. At least “Ma” in the family is a strong and interesting personality, as portrayed by Jane Darwell.
When we first see Craig’s farmer, he is a having a sudden streak of bad luck. Their pig breaks a leg when the family dog decides to chase it, Shirley gets injured when their wagon collapses and a bag of seed corn rips open and dumps its contents into the mud. In the version I saw, each of these misfortunes is attributed to Huston, as suggested by brief shots of his face shown in negative. The first sign of weaknesses in Craig’s character is his loud exclamations of “consarnit!” with each additional tragedy, which I wouldn’t have thought was ever a swear word, except for the sharp reprimands from his Darwell. Soon, he’s yelling he would sell his soul for two cents, only for those coins to suddenly appear in his hand.
That seems like a lousy deal, but the real one offered by Huston is just as bad in the long run. The old trickster claims there has been stolen money under the property the entire time, and Craig just needed a friend to point it out to him. One stomp on the floor, and gold coins pour up out of a hole in the boards. With youthful exuberance, Craig rushes into the house with a large amount of this “Hessian gold”, but neither Shirley nor Darnell are very impressed. Mom doesn’t even break stride as she sets the table: “Well, I hope it does us more good than it did the Hessians.”
Craig is able to buy their mortgage off Qualen’s strict moneylender. He starts making loans himself to fellow farmers, who first think him very generous. Their opinion of him changes remarkably when a devastating hailstorm demolishes everybody’s crops but his, with the destruction ending exactly at his property line. Given New England’s infamous history with accusing people of witchcraft, I’m surprised that didn’t come up. Those ruined farmers largely end up working begrudgingly for Craig, putting the man on the road to becoming even less popular than Qualen. As Scratch foresaw in his first encounter with Craig: “Once you’re lucky, you don’t have to work for other people. They work for you.”
There are a great many little touches in this film that have me mentally cataloging it as horror. Much of that feeling is attributable to the strange sound design elements concocted by composer Bernard Herrmann. I am quite familiar with his scores, especially the work he did for Hitchcock, and nothing in those would lead me to think him likely of underscoring some otherworldly moments with an suitable drone. Supposedly, it is a recording of the hum of telephone wires in San Francisco.
Though her appearance is brief, Simon is especially memorable as the nanny ostensibly sent by Huston to keep an eye on his investment. Really, I think she was just there to sow discord, as she and Craig are eventually living in a mansion within view from his original house, which is where his wife and mother still reside. Yikes! When we first see her, she’s sitting in front of the family hearth, backlit by light rays illuminating smoke or fog as if she’s in the opening credits of The Thing. When Craig sees her there and asks where she’s from, she says as a matter of fact, “Over the mountain”. Later, another character asks if she’s French and she replies, “No. I’m not anything”. The winking way she says that is surprisingly creepy.
All That Money Can Buy was released under different titles for various reasons that under disputes. Whether viewed as that title, or as The Devil and Daniel Webster or the rather baffling Here Is a Man, this is a film that isn’t great, but is uniquely compelling. Highly recommended to anybody who found anything of interest in this assessment.
Dir: William Dieterle
Starring Walter Huston, Edward Arnold, Jane Darwell
Watched on Criterion Collection blu-ray