1926: Faust (99th)

What else happened this year? I read that book about 1927, so I know a lot of things that happened here… but… from before then? I just looked it up, Emperor Hirohito came to the throne after his father died. That’ll do it.

What is the plot - in one sentence? We follow the Devil (aka Mephisto), as he tries to corrupt the soul of a godly man in order to win a bet with an angel, and take control of earth.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He makes a deal with the Faust, an old alchemist. Using magic, Faust becomes young, gains power and treasure, but falls in love with a local girl, which nulls the devils’ contract – love happening is proof of the divine, the angel tells him. That sounds like a shitty get-out, you may be thinking, and I’d agree.

What is the meaning of the title? It’s the name of the main bloke of the story.

Here's Mephisto, there's the youthful Faust, and there's a mouse pointer that I can't be bothered to edit out.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? When Faust is able to youth himself and travel around the world, he kidnaps a princess, and she’s not that into it, it seems. There’s a funny bit where Faust, bored, is offered by the devil ‘a drink, a game of dice, or an orgy?’ to take his mind off things.

There's a very confusing logic leap regarding the main woman in the movie. Her name is Gretchen, and Faust falls for her. Her brother, returned from some distance place, asks her if she has any lovers... within 3 minutes of the movie he has put her in the stocks for having one.

Because of this, she spirals, leading to her baby freezing to death, but only after being rejected for help from judgemental people. For this she’s burned at the stake. the whole thing takes about 4 minutes but is probably the most important part of a 2 hour movie.

Any thoughts? There are some cool camera effects - a giant skeleton blowing fire and pestilence over the town, for one, and some nice special effects. A lot of the models - the four horsemen of the apocalypse, some fake elephants – have all aged charmingly. There are a lot of very clever cuts, and the devil (a fat bloke with a feather in his hat) does some fun appearances and magic.This is a surprisingly light story for a movie where a baby freezes to death and a town dies of the plague.

I also have no idea what was going on with Gretchen’s aunt and the devil, as they flirt away like Mugatu and his assistant in Zoolander

Faust calls the devil his servant at various times, and it seems he does have him at his beck and call. I know he’s working on a bet to corrupt a pure soul (Faust’s) but surely he’s got other things to do, too?

Would you recommend this? Eh, I guess so, I’m always amazed by how many interesting cuts and special effects there are in these 1920s movies. It really puts modern cgi heavy movies to shame. I will recommend it, it was weird, was pretty fun, but I don’t think I’ll watch it again to be honest. So, yeah?

Final thoughts? I’ve been very surprised by how often boobs show up in movies from the 1920s also, and I’m not complaining.

The whole ending annoyed me – I felt sorry for Mephisto. He makes a bet that the Devil can’t corrupt a Godly Man, but the fact that he’s a godly man is enough to make him lose the contract, despite him being a party animal for the first part of the movie. That’s the very definition of a bad deal. Also, she’s burned at the stake, and Faust’s old again at the movie’s end, so it’s not like Faust gets what he wanted anyway

This is the 99th one of these - the rest can be found right here, baby