The 400 Tricks of the Devil

A carriage pulled by a skeletal horse is making its way to hell. The man in the carriage has signed a deal with the devil and must face the music. The backgrounds and the carriage itself are great fun. Of course, it's really cruel and deals with that old time religion. I don't know what this guy did, but he ain't gonna like where he's going. There are some pretty solid pyrotechnics which make it fun.

This Georges Méliès film is another imaginative fantasy. It's effects-driven, not story-based. The visuals are everything. What plot there is merely serves as a structure to base the visual wizardry around. It features a couple of travellers who are persecuted by the devil. They are taken on a carriage ride through the cosmos led by a skeletal horse.

It's quite common material for a film from the 1900's. For some reason stories featuring Satan were common-place. Anyway, this one is very nice to look at. The ride through outer space is hypnotic and dream-like with an array of intergalactic attractions passing the stagecoach by. The colour tinting of course helps a lot. It's very effectively used here and is quite explosive in the scene with the volcano with an eruption of deep red. It's a trip worth taking.

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

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.

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...