Screen
Two film adaptations have been made:
An Academy Award-winning 1941 film first released under the title All That Money Can Buy, starring Edward Arnold as Daniel, Walter Huston as Mr. Scratch, James Craig as Jabez Stone, and Simone Simon as Belle.
Shortcut to Happiness is a modernized version set in the publishing world, starring Anthony Hopkins as a publisher named Daniel Webster, Alec Baldwin as a best-selling (via the devil) but terrible author named Jabez Stone, and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a female version of the devil. This version was made in 2001, but was halted before completion, before finally being completed and given a limited release in 2007.
An animated TV film loosely based on the story, The Devil and Daniel Mouse, was released in 1978.
Phil Reisman, Jr. adapted the story for a live televised performance of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" on the Breck Sunday Showcase (NBC, February 14, 1960, 60 min), starring Edward G. Robinson (Daniel Webster), David Wayne (Mr. Scratch), and Tim O'Connor (Jabez Stone). A color videorecording of the production aired two years later on Breck Golden Showcase (CBS, April 30, 1962).[3]
Radio
Each of these adaptations used the original story title, unless otherwise indicated:
Charles R. Jackson's adaptation aired on Columbia Workshop (CBS, Aug. 6, 1938, 30 min), with music by Bernard Herrmann.
Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, and James Craig reprised their 1941 film roles in the "All That Money Can Buy" episode of Cavalcade of America (NBC Red Network, October 20, 1941, 30 min). Howard Teichmann and Robert L. Richards abridged and adapted the screenplay.
Jean Holloway's adaptation aired on Hallmark Playhouse (CBS, June 10, 1948, 30 min); cast: John McIntire (Daniel Webster), Alan Reed (Mr. Scratch), Frank Goss (Jabez Stone).
Edward Arnold again played Daniel Webster for The Prudential Family Hour of Stars (CBS, Sept. 18, 1949, 30 min).
Walter Huston again reprised his 1941 film role in the "All That Money Can Buy" episode of Theatre Guild on the Air (NBC, April 30, 1950, 60 min); Cornel Wilde and Martha Scott co-starred.
Stage
Benét adapted his story as a play, The Devil and Daniel Webster: A Play in One Act (New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1938), and also as a folk opera, The Devil and Daniel Webster: An Opera in One Act (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939), music by Douglas Moore (Moore and Benét had earlier collaborated on an operetta, The Headless Horseman [1937], based on Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" [1820]).
Archibald MacLeish, a friend and associate of Benét's in the 1930s and until his death in 1943, also adapted the story as a play: Scratch (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971). On Broadway very briefly, Scratch starred Will Geer in the title role and Patrick Magee as Webster. Originally conceived as a musical collaboration with Bob Dylan, the collaboration fell apart due to creative differences between Dylan and MacLeish. The show opened at Broadway's St. James Theater on May 6, 1971, and closed two days later.[4]
