The 400 Tricks of the Devil

This fantasy/horror feature has plenty of good visual effects, as you would expect from a Georges Méliès movie. It features quite a variety of backgrounds, camera tricks, and other devices from the French movie pioneer's seemingly endless bag of tricks. There isn't really much to the story itself, so it seems clear that the plot was mainly a vehicle to set up the special effects.

The story has the devil choosing to torment a couple of travelers, in a variety of imaginative ways and places. There is quite a bit of action, although most of it simply displays Méliès's camera skill, rather than advancing the story. This may well have been one of the features for which he wrote a narrative designed to be read when the feature was screened, since it isn't always immediately clear what the purpose is for some of the scenes. But in any case, the story logic is not supposed to occupy as much of the viewer's attention as are the interesting visuals.

The themes are similar to those in many earlier Méliès features, and he seemed to enjoy coming up with diabolical sights and bizarre antics. Since there isn't a lot of brand new material here, it probably doesn't rank among his best features, but it's another good demonstration of his creativity and skill.

Merry Frolics Of Satan, The (1906)

*** (out of 4)

aka Les Quatre cents farces du diable

Entertaining 14-minute film from the French master has two gentlemen being haunted by Satan as they travel from one hotel to the next. Before long Satan throws them into a special carriage and takes them on a trip to Hell. The actual story here really doesn't mean too much because the real highlight here are all the special effects and various tricks that pop up. This here, thanks in large part to the title, remains one of Melies most popular films and it's understandable as there's a lot of fun to be had here. As with many of his longer movies, this one here features some narration and it's also hand colored, which is a big plus. The colors look great and they are used with quite a bit of imagination. Some of the best stuff in the film deals with Satan, painted red of course, popping out of various places and scaring the men. Another major plus is when we actually get to Hell and various other demons take form.

Visionary Director Georges Melies' THE 400 TRICKS OF THE DEVIL is about the fantastic journey of Crackford and his companion, John, through Europe, into Mount Vesuvius, into outer space, and ultimately winding up in Hell itself.

Considering the year in which the Director made this film, it's a marvel of special effects, slapstick humor, and acrobatics. The sets and props are simple, but add to the overall dream / nightmare atmosphere of the film, especially the magic train, the cadaverous horse and carriage, the trip through stars and comets, and the depths of the inferno. Mr. Melies saves the part of Satan for himself.

Highly recommended for lovers of fantasy, horror, and historical films in general...

Two men are in a carriage being pulled by a skeletal horse. Satan comes along and begins messing with them...pushing the carriage into a volcano and then tossing it into space (this version of space looks much like it did in the director's earlier effort, "Le Voyage Dans la Lune" (1902). Then, the men fall out of the carriage and fall to Earth--crashing through the ceiling of some mansion and ruining the dining room. Soon Satan arrives and pulls one of them into Hell, where imps and pretty girls run about the place. Soon, they attach the guy to a rotisserie and roast him...and the film ends.

This is an enjoyable but disjoint and occasionally confusing film. And, as usual, the director, Georges Méliès, plays the Devil. It's clever and fun....and similar to a few of his other films. Worth seeing but far from a must-see picture.

The 400 Tricks of the Devil aka The Merry Frolics of Satan.

I guess I expected more out of this one from the title and some of the visuals are great but it's rather boring overall to me. We have the typical Melies-styled mechanically operated scenery which is neat to watch, the usual camera tricks where it appears people and furniture is to large for the trunks they are going into and out of and the fun imp frolics but this one seemed to be too long and drawn out in most of the scenes - for me it needed a bit faster paced scenes.

Worth watching in-spite of my mediocre review.

6/10