All That Money Can Buy

gatester · Post by **gatester** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:28 pm

Does anybody know the true story behind its demise? I have the original cut version called: "Daniel and the Devil" an Embassy/Janus Laserdisc 86 min. (the disc says 109 min.)

Then the was shown on Bravo: "Devil and Daniel Webster" 105 min. which has a Criterion logo at the beginning.

TCM showed another "Devil and Daniel Webster" with RKO logos front & back. This appears to be complete.

Whats the story?

Hal Erickson · Post by **Hal Erickson** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:34 pm

The TCM version appears to be complete. However, I believe that the original "end" title is missing (another one appears at the end), because the exit music doesn't quite match with the sequence of closing titles.
The 1952 reissue print used a generic "End" title that was also seen in several 20th Century-Fox TV prints prepared in the 1950s (such as DANCING MASTERS and AFFAIRS OF CELLINI).
The official studio cast list of ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY credits several actors playing RKO studio personnel--gatemen, electricians, gaffers etc--suggesting that the opening "spotlight" title may at one time have been preceded by a prologue in which the camera tracks through the studio (just speculation here).

gatester · Post by **gatester** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:23 pm

Well that answers alot, thanks!

I guess Hollywood never learned to its detriment to save the pieces it cuts out of movies. I mean to say they shouldn't have cut the movies in the first place, but to do so & throw away the pieces borders on lunacy. If Hollywood was a big toe, it would never stop clipping the toenail until it was a bloody pulp.

sethb · Post by **sethb** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:41 am

You would think that Hollywood would have learned its lesson about "cutting and tossing" with the 1954 version of A STAR IS BORN, but I guess not. And I suppose the cuts probably "seemed like a good idea at the time." Also, we need to remember that the big studios were businesses and not museums, so they probably saw no reason or need to preserve the original negative in its original form.

In all fairness, when some cuts in pre-Code films were demanded by censor boards upon a film's subsequent reissue (like HORSEFEATHERS or KING KONG), the studio probably just tossed the cuts, figuring that they would never be commercially viable. Fortunately, the uncut original films have sometimes survived (BABY FACE, KONG), but more by accident than design. SETH

Ray Faiola · Post by **Ray Faiola** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:18 pm

Hal Erickson wrote:suggesting that the opening "spotlight" title may at one time have been preceded by a prologue in which the camera tracks through the studio (just speculation here).

No, it's just a turning spotlight. It was Dieterle's logo for his indy productions that RKO released. I have a print of SYNCOPATION with the same logo.

I also have the Astor Pictures DANIEL AND THE DEVIL reissue pressbook. It was Astor that inflicted the damage on the film with their artless cutting.

My 16mm print is the Astor reissue but it has a white-lettering-on-black inserted title card reading THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER.

gatester · Post by **gatester** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:54 pm

According to Variety, It was issued once as "Here is a Man". That was I assume after it was called: "All That Money Can Buy". more uh unusual happenings.