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The Devil
(1908) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 570 feet
Directed by D.W. Griffith
Cast: Harry Solter [Harold Thornton], Claire McDowell [his wife], Florence Lawrence [the model], Arthur Johnson [the wife’s companion], Mack Sennett [a waiter], George Gebhardt [the Devil]
American Mutoscope & Biograph Company production; distributed by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company. / From the play Az ördög; vigjátek három felvon (The Devil) by Ferenc Molnár. Cinematography by G.W. Bitzer. / © 25 September 1908 by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company [H116154]. Released 2 October 1908. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The play was previously filmed as The Devil (1908). The production was shot on 12 September 1908.
Drama.
Synopsis: [Biograph Bulletin, Number 175, 2 October 1908, page ?] A BIOGRAPH PORTRAYAL OF PSYCHIC FORCE / “There’s the Devil to pay.” Don’t worry, the Devil is a good collector, and never misses discounts. In the ever-existent psychomachy in the human being, Satan attacks the weaker side, the flesh, and has in most cases an easy task in overthrowing the soul. In this picture we have attempted to show in the material that conflict by personifying that which is evil and sinister in our natures by figure of the traditional Satan; hence, in this subject, the Devil is intended to illustrate psychic force. Herold Thornton, a successful artist, is so deeply in love with his wife that apparently no power natural or supernatural, could swerve him from the path of honor. But, alas! he is human, and in his employ is a very beautiful girl as model. This girl has loved her employer with a suppressed, hopeless passion, which needed but a breath to fan it into a blaze. In justice to her, it must be said that she didn’t realize the strength of this feeling, smothering it with admiration for the artist’s devotion for his wife. Ah, but the Devil knows how to play the game, and his promptings are fascinatingly impressive that few can resist. But who is the Devil? He is the embodiment at our evil inclination warring with the pure. So it was that at his prompting the artist falls, as does his model. They are discovered by the wife, who in turn is prompted by the Devil to “get even”, which she heeds. She is surprised by her husband in a private dining-room of a cafe in company with a gentleman friend. In frenzy he leaps at his wife’s throat — and the Devil laughs. He would have sent her to im then and there, but for the intervention of the waiters. In terror, the poor woman rushes to her home. She is followed by the crazed husband. In vain she pleads, but the Devil prompts: “Kill”. Taking a revolver from the dresser-drawer he moves deliberately toward the terrified wife — and the Devil laughed. A shot and a body and soul part; snother sot, and — “There was the Devil to pay” — and he collected. The subject, while thrilling, is most ingeniously handled with photographic quality of the highest order, showing a stereoscopic effect never before attained.
Survival status: Print exists in the Library of Congress film archive (paper print collection) [35mm paper positive].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 25 March 2012.
References: Barry-Griffith p. 40; Spehr-American p. 1; Usai-Griffith-1 pp. 124-126 : Website-AFI.
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