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Shortcut to Happiness
(based on the short story "The Devil & Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benét
and "Scratch" a play written by Archibald MacLeish)

Set in contemporary New York's literary world, this is a re-telling of Stephen Vincent Benét's short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "Scratch" a play written Archibald MacLeish.

This current version is the basic story about a down-on-his-luck writer Jabez Stone (play by Alec Baldwin) who sells his soul to The Devil (played by Jennifer Love Hewitt) for fame and fortune ultimately decides that he wants to get it back. The Devil sues Stone for 'breach of contract' and the penality is the permanent ownership of his soul. Jabez must enlist the help of Daniel Webster (played by Anthony Hopkins) to win Stone's soul back from the Devil or Webster could lose more than his client.

This new version was filmed in 2001 and was the directorial debut of Alec Baldwin who's also one of the producers through his Eldorado Pictures.

After years of delays based on disagreements, this $35 million dollar film was finally completed by film maker Harry Kirkpatrick (guess who....). Peter Dexter ("Michael" and "Mulholland Falls") wrote the screen story and the screenplay with Nancy Cassaro ("Tony N Tina’s Wedding") and Bill Condon ("Gods and Monsters" and the writer/director of "Dreamgirls: The Movie"). Bob Yari's Yari Film Group (2005 Academy Award winning Best Picture "Crash", "The Illusionist") is producing and distributing in association with Miracle Entertainment.

RKO Pictures and producer/director William Dieterle produced the 1941 critically acclaimed motion picture starring Edward Arnold as Daniel Webster and Walter Huston as the Devil (Mr. Scratch). The movie was nominated at the 14th Annual Academy Awards for 1941 under the original title "All That Money Can Buy". Walter Huston's performance was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actor category (Gary Cooper won for "Sergeant York") and composer/conductor Bernard Hermann won the Academy Award for Best Dramatic Musical Score against his music for another 1941 RKO Pictures nominated movie, "Citizen Kane."

ShortcutToHappiness.com

YARI FILM GROUP

alec Baldwin

MY OWN WORST ENEMY PRODUCTIONS

THE 1941 VERSION

AVAILABLE NOW
From The Criterion Collection
for RKO Pictures

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DVD Features:

• Available Subtitles: English

• Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)

• New transfer from restored elements

• Audio commentary by film historian Bruce Eder and author Steven C. Smith

• Video comparison between The Devil and Daniel Webster and William Deterle's "preview Version of the film, entitled Here is a Man

• Reading of Stephen Vincent Benet's short story by Alec Baldwin

• The Columbia Workshop's radio dramatizations of Stephen Vincent Benet's stories with music by Bernard Herrmann

• The music of the presented in an interactive essay by Christopher Husted

• Gallery of behind-the-scenes photos and promotional materials

• New essay by author Tom Piazza (Blues and Trouble: Twelve Stories)

Made by
DEVIL PRODUCTIONS LLC
in association with
EL DORADO PICTURES