I don't know what to say that I didn't already say in the main post, so please click through to that and read away.
Like Resnais' Night and Fog, William Deterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) is a film I consider important not for the artistic form -- though Deterle is no slouch in producing a lovely film -- but in message. This Faustian tale isn't just about one man trying to win his soul back from the Devil, but makes hints that the entire nation need do so.
Always continues to need to do so.
So watch The Devil and Daniel Webster, and then check out this week's Lost in Criterion podcast on iTunes or LostinCriterion.com, and like us on Facebook.