"I'm the Horned One. The Devil. Let me give you my card."
--Lucifer (AKA George Spiggott, Evil Personified and part-time "Swinging London" nightclub impresario ) offering his services to hapless, lovesick and suicidal short-order cook, Stanley Moon.
In the version offered by screenwriter Peter Cook, who collaborated on the story with his comedic teammate, Dudley Moore, the Faust legend has gone pedestrian, and has gained a measure of poignancy. The film was released on DVD in the the USA just this Spring. .
Stanley Moon is a little man in a little job who is smitten with a waitress who works with him at a "Wimpy Burger" in London. He doesn't want money or to be able to spy on the Pope and his College of Cardinals as Marlowe's Faust did. He just wants a shot at the girl, so to speak. Stanley's social position doesn't matter to the Devil, for whom one soul is apparently good at another. In exchange for his soul, Stanley gets seven wishes. Each wish Moon makes--for wealth, intellect, fame and adulation, being near his love, et al, is thwarted by some clever, "wry twist" that prevents Stanley from fulfilling his goal of happiness with Margaret Spencer (the pretty and versatile Eleanor Bron). Try as he might, Moon can never come up with an iron clad wish that will get him what he desires. As his wishes dwindle, it looks as if he's headed to a very bad place.
The film works because is just not a series of vignettes or skits (as the remake is) but a story that actually has some theological meat to it. Screenwriter Cook did not forget that Lucifer's legendary status as a Fallen Angel. The Devil's desire is to collect so many billions of souls so he can get back into Heaven. (Hell must be getting on his nerves one suspects, and judging by the motley crew of helpers he has--personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins--it appears to be not so much fun to reign in Hell as serve in Heaven after all.) When he does make it back to the Pearly Gates and St. Peter and all, God has a little wry twist of His own awaiting.
So many of the Devil here tricks are petty--like tearing out the last page of various mystery novels for unsuspecting readers, or leading people astray with promises of phony lottery winnings or just releasing a pidgeon from a tower to do his "business" on an innocent by-stander, that the movie has fun with the core pettiness that often lies at the heart of bad deeds. Anger at life's indignites to seperate us from the better part of ourselves.
The movie is fun because it also pokes fun at the Establishment, which was a fairly new thing to do at the time in post-war Britain. Both Cook and Moore were the most famous members of an early Sixties comedy group, "Beyond the Fringe", which sent up the mores and sacred cows of Britain in a style that was clever enough to set then apart from all comers until the "Monty Python" troupe was formed a decade or so later.
One American commentator recently called Cook and Moore "the Abbott and Costello of the Mensa Society." Before they died (both sadly too early) the duo did several live shows on the West End and Broadway, hit comedy albums, and a couple successful television series' in Britain. They also appeared in several movies, none of which matches "Bedazzled". (Although they are quite funny in Bryan Forbes' "The Wrong Box" (1966) and make a welcome respite from the rather ordinary funny business in the multi-star racing film, "Those Magnificent Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies" (1969).)
Here's a clip from the film, featuring Stanley's wish to become a famous rock star so he can win Margaret's heart:
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