La main du diable 1943
La main du diable 1943 - Director: Maurice Tourneur
Pierre Fresnay, Josseline Gaël and Noël Roquevert
A man arrives at an isolated mountain inn clutching a small box. During a momentary power-cut the box suddenly goes missing, and its owner is stricken with terror. To satisfy the curiosity of the guests at the inn he begins to tell his tragic story. The man, Roland Brissot, was once a struggling artist whose only talent was for painting pictures that no one wanted to own. One day, he meets an Italian chef who persuades him to buy a talisman from him for one sou. The chef assures Brissot that the talisman, a severed hand in a box, has magical properties, conferring on its owner a talent he can only dream of. Sure enough, on returning to his studio with the box, Brissot finds that he has become a great artist, and his paintings soon make him a wealthy man. One year later, Brissot is visited by a small man in a suit who offers to buy back the mysterious talisman for one sou. If he refuses to sell, the stranger says he will call back the next day, but will expect the artist to give him two sous in exchange for his soul. If again he refuses, the price of his soul will rise to four sous, and will go on doubling on successive days, right up to infinity. The artist hesitates but decides he must keep the talisman. If he loses his talent for painting he will lose everything - his reputation, his livelihood and his wife. As the days pass and the price of his soul increases inexorably, Brissot realises that sooner or later he must pay up and surrender the talisman, or else be damned forever...
Pierre Fresnay, Josseline Gaël and Noël Roquevert
A man arrives at an isolated mountain inn clutching a small box. During a momentary power-cut the box suddenly goes missing, and its owner is stricken with terror. To satisfy the curiosity of the guests at the inn he begins to tell his tragic story. The man, Roland Brissot, was once a struggling artist whose only talent was for painting pictures that no one wanted to own. One day, he meets an Italian chef who persuades him to buy a talisman from him for one sou. The chef assures Brissot that the talisman, a severed hand in a box, has magical properties, conferring on its owner a talent he can only dream of. Sure enough, on returning to his studio with the box, Brissot finds that he has become a great artist, and his paintings soon make him a wealthy man. One year later, Brissot is visited by a small man in a suit who offers to buy back the mysterious talisman for one sou. If he refuses to sell, the stranger says he will call back the next day, but will expect the artist to give him two sous in exchange for his soul. If again he refuses, the price of his soul will rise to four sous, and will go on doubling on successive days, right up to infinity. The artist hesitates but decides he must keep the talisman. If he loses his talent for painting he will lose everything - his reputation, his livelihood and his wife. As the days pass and the price of his soul increases inexorably, Brissot realises that sooner or later he must pay up and surrender the talisman, or else be damned forever...
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