One of the great screwball comedies and one of the least known perhaps because, apart from a couple of Marx Brothers movies, Sam Wood wasn't really known for comedy. "The Devil and Miss Jones" is basically a fairy-tale and a delightful one. 'The Devil' is Charles Coburn, at his very best, as the world's richest man, a curmudgeon who goes under cover in one of his department stores to ferret out agitators and, naturally, is humanized by the experience and in particular by Miss Jones, played splendidly by the great Jean Arthur. Unfortunately, the romantic lead is that dullard Robert Cummings but the terrific supporting cast includes Spring Byington, Edmund Gwenn and S.Z. Sakall. Woods simply takes a back seat here and lets them get on with it, helped by a wonderful script from Norman Krasna.
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