In the old days, they produced a lot of movies that made light of a man's infidelity, such as "The Women" (1939), "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), and, of course, "Heaven Can Wait." Perhaps it was because a divorce was harder to get in those days, or maybe it was that women had a much harder time supporting themselves when they did get a divorce. But the moral of such stories seems to be that women should forgive their philandering husband because their indiscretions are not serious, that their husbands really loved them deep down, and that such men are really just like cute, little, mischievous boys. Such movies helped women accept the fact that they were stuck in a loveless marriage, and they undoubtedly assuaged any feelings of guilt men might have for having been unfaithful. Now that divorces are easier to get, and women are better able to support themselves, we don't see such movies any more. Instead, a modern movie is more likely to treat adultery as being as painful and insulting as it really is.
They may have cast creepy Laird Cregar in the role of the Devil, nattily attired, with the appropriate beard and mustache neatly trimmed, so as to make him look the part, but he is so kind and sympathetic that we can only wish most people were as considerate and caring as he is. The idea of giving us a Devil who is not really evil is to underscore the idea that adultery (on the part of a man, of course) is not really a sin. We don't believe that Henry Van Cleve should burn for eternity in the fires of Hell, but we don't believe he deserves a forgiving wife like Martha either.
They may have cast creepy Laird Cregar in the role of the Devil, nattily attired, with the appropriate beard and mustache neatly trimmed, so as to make him look the part, but he is so kind and sympathetic that we can only wish most people were as considerate and caring as he is. The idea of giving us a Devil who is not really evil is to underscore the idea that adultery (on the part of a man, of course) is not really a sin. We don't believe that Henry Van Cleve should burn for eternity in the fires of Hell, but we don't believe he deserves a forgiving wife like Martha either.