This is an amazingly "advanced" film for its time. Visually it is all about light revealing and concealing elements of the scene. Lighting changes the shape of the frame over and over, splashing patches of the scene here and there while leaving other parts totally black. Characters are often shot in close-up and illuminated fiercely, making the image strikingly two-dimensional. But at the same time the film makes use of Fox's "authentic" appearing studio sets and painstaking decor to create a convincing world in depth for a quite unconvincing plot. The movie climaxes with a battle scene that seems to owe more to Soviet film (Eisenstein et al.) than to "classical Hollywood". Taken together, these techniques would have made the film quite cheap and quick to make as well as very exciting to watch. Seen today, it articulates a strong case for the artistic aspirations of Fox Studios and for William (Wilhelm) Dieterle, a director who was involved with more than his fair share of interesting and unusual projects over forty years.
Acting in the film is quite low-key for this sort of melodramatic romance during the early thirties in Hollywood. (Compare the dialog delivery here with any John Ford Fox film of the period). The soundtrack, which does not use a musical score, is notable for the way in which the accents and tonality of the characters' voices seem foregrounded (Bela Lugosi's cameo as a military prosecutor is a case in point). The scenario seems to have deliberately toned down Jekyll-Hyde aspects in the representation of the lead character (the "devil" of the title, played by Victor Jory), which makes the sadistic revenge he takes at the end something of a surprise and pretty much eliminates any psychological tension in the character for the rest of the film. On the other hand, Loretta Young is a kind of renewable revelation in early sound films: she has an immediate, relaxed screen presence that perfectly suits the medium, and which in this case makes Jory appear even more awkward and stilted than usual. The very last shot in the film seems to me to be held long enough so that we are intended to be aware of the ironies of this particular "happy ending". It shows the stiffly posed couple of Young and Jory beside a memorial to the Really Good Man whose martyrdom in the big battle scene has removed all obstacles to their love. No kiss, no blissful fade-out - just two miserable people at attention waiting until they can be uncomfortably alone together.
Acting in the film is quite low-key for this sort of melodramatic romance during the early thirties in Hollywood. (Compare the dialog delivery here with any John Ford Fox film of the period). The soundtrack, which does not use a musical score, is notable for the way in which the accents and tonality of the characters' voices seem foregrounded (Bela Lugosi's cameo as a military prosecutor is a case in point). The scenario seems to have deliberately toned down Jekyll-Hyde aspects in the representation of the lead character (the "devil" of the title, played by Victor Jory), which makes the sadistic revenge he takes at the end something of a surprise and pretty much eliminates any psychological tension in the character for the rest of the film. On the other hand, Loretta Young is a kind of renewable revelation in early sound films: she has an immediate, relaxed screen presence that perfectly suits the medium, and which in this case makes Jory appear even more awkward and stilted than usual. The very last shot in the film seems to me to be held long enough so that we are intended to be aware of the ironies of this particular "happy ending". It shows the stiffly posed couple of Young and Jory beside a memorial to the Really Good Man whose martyrdom in the big battle scene has removed all obstacles to their love. No kiss, no blissful fade-out - just two miserable people at attention waiting until they can be uncomfortably alone together.