The Devil
About The Devil
Harold Thornton, a successful artist, loves his wife. His model loves him and has kept it quiet. The Devil pushes the artist and the model together. The wife finds them. The Devil then pushes her to get even. Thornton finds her in a private dining room of a café with another man. He goes for her throat. Waiters pull him off. She runs home. He follows, takes a revolver from a dresser drawer, and walks toward her. The Devil laughs.
Cast & crew
More about The Devil
D. W. Griffith directed and is credited with the scenario. The AFI lists it as based on Ferenc Molnár's play Az ördög (The Devil), produced in Budapest in 1907. G. W. Bitzer photographed it. Biograph copyrighted the one-reeler on 25 September 1908, H116154, and released it on 2 October 1908. The length is 570 feet. Harry Solter plays Harold Thornton. Claire McDowell plays his wife. George Gebhardt plays the Devil. Florence Lawrence plays the model. Arthur V. Johnson plays the wife's companion. Mack Sennett is the waiter.
Themes
Making
Griffith compresses Molnár's three-act play into 570 feet: a studio, a café, and a bedroom, with Gebhardt's Devil stepping in to prompt each turn.
Look
G. W. Bitzer photographed the artist's studio, the café dining room, and the bedroom where Thornton takes out the revolver.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print is in the Library of Congress film archive.
Notes
- Jeanie Macpherson is also on the cast list, without a named part.
- Griffith himself appears in the film.
- A period synopsis calls the Devil "the embodiment of our evil inclination warring with the pure.
- The café scene is stopped by waiters. The gun comes out only after the couple are home.
- A print is in the Library of Congress.
Scenes
- The wife finds Thornton with the model, then is herself found in a private dining room.
- Waiters drag Thornton off his wife's throat.
- He takes a revolver from the dresser and advances while the Devil laughs.
Influenced by
- Ferenc Molnár's Az ördög (1907)
