Les Quatre Cents Farces du diable

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.

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.

The copy of "The 400 Tricks of the Devil" I watched had no sound at all. That means no music for atmosphere and mood. That severely hampers a silent film, because then it is truly silent. Now you have nothing to listen to except the various sounds of your environment and maybe your own breathing.

This was another Georges Melies film. By this point his motion pictures are getting longer and more complex; meaning that they are getting harder to decipher without dialogue or a helping bit of text. The film is an updated comedic adaptation of the Faust legend. At the beginning the devil shows the main character, perhaps a scientist, some magic balls that, if thrown to the ground, produce whatever you fancy. The scientist doesn't know he's dealing with the devil even after the devil refuses money for the magic balls.

Watchable on YouTube.

"The Merry Frolics of Satan" is a fairly enjoyable fantasy adventure from early cinema magician Georges Méliès. As historian Richard Abel ("The Ciné Goes to Town") points out, these spectacles from Méliès were becoming increasingly elaborate and expensive to produce, especially by comparison to the smaller costs of his competitor's films, such as those by Pathé. As with some of his other pictures around this time, "The Merry Frolics of Satan" was produced specially for music-hall screenings. In this case, it was for the Chatelet's stage féerie "The Merry Deeds of Satan", from which this film is based (Abel).

In the film, Satan, disguised as a person, leads some misfortunate people on a hellish journey, including via a train the size of a child's amusement ride and a phantom carriage pulled by an apocalyptic skeletal horse. In the end, they're roasted by performers dressed in pig-like costumes. "The Merry Frolics of Satan" has its moments, including the phantom-carriage ride where movement is simulated by a moving backdrop of space stuff. This scene has become famous for having been used in many documentary clips on Méliès and early cinema. The print available from Flicker Alley is also hand-colored and tinted and includes narration. Yet, Méliès, unfortunately, also seemed to be relying more on theatrical tricks and less on cinematic ones as he had in his earlier spectacles. Stop-substitution splices and multiple-exposure photography remained the basis for his single-scene trick films, but his longer multi-scene fantasy adventures seemed to be becoming increasingly theatrical. The preference to use trap doors here instead of stop motion and editing for appearances and disappearances seems to evidence this increased theatricality.

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.