“The fascination of The Devil and Daniel Webster derives above all from its formal aspects. The splendid photography of Joseph August is inspired by the rural American picture of the 19th century, and in particular by the paintings of Grant Wood. However, until the first images such a figurative world appears refreezed, filtered as it is through a sensibility Neue Sachlichkeit. The sequences of the devil’s apparition always appear in full light and they do not play much -as one would imagine- on an expressionistic position of the shadows, more so on the unrealism of the light (the first apparition of Belle is memorable framed by the luminous smoke which comes out of the fire). August employs a lot of wide-angled lenses and gauzes or filters, as in the lovely sequences in Jabez’s new house, where the image becomes flou and sparkling Even more remarkable is the score composed by Bernard Herrman for the film, which boasts a sound track of an exceptional quality for that period (it is enough to consider the exceptional presence of certain sounds: like the rattle of the golden coin at the beginning)”. (Alberto Boschi)