The Devil's Toy


1916

Film Details

Release Date
Mar 6, 1916
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Premo Film Corp.
Distribution Company
Equitable Motion Pictures Corp., through World Film Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Inspired by the poem "The Mills of The Gods" by Edward Madden (publication undetermined).

Synopsis

Wilfred Barsley, an untalented artist eager for success, sells his soul to the devil, who first has him kill his uncle for an inheritance. Then, the devil instructs him to commit the sickly, struggling artist Paul La France to a sanitarium and exhibit Paul's paintings as his own. After doing so, Wilfred becomes an overnight modern master, while Paul, during his convalescence, loses his memory and also his sweetheart, Helen Danver, who does not know that he has been hospitalized. Then, when Helen sees one of Wilfred's paintings and recognizes it as Paul's, she feigns an interest in the fake artist to get information about the real one. After she succeeds, she goes to Paul, and the sight of her restores his memory. Meanwhile, having returned to the vault where he had stashed his uncle's body, Wilfred dies when the door slams shut on him.

Film Details

Release Date
Mar 6, 1916
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Premo Film Corp.
Distribution Company
Equitable Motion Pictures Corp., through World Film Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Inspired by the poem "The Mills of The Gods" by Edward Madden (publication undetermined).

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

Edwin Stevens, who plays the devil, made that role famous in the play The Devil, by Ferenc Molnar, which had its premiere in Hungary in 1907, and in New York August 18, 1908.