Great Character: George Spigott / The Devil (“Bedazzled”)

If you want to enjoy a kitschy bit of late 60s cinema, you could do worse than the 1967 film Bedazzled. With a screenplay by Peter Cook, based on a story by Cook and Dudley Moore, the comedy duo also starred in the movie:

Here’s the summary of the movie from IMDb:

Stanley is a short order cook, infatuated with Margaret, the statuesque waitress who works at Whimpy Burger with him. Despondent, he prepares to end it all when he meets George Spiggott AKA the devil. Selling his soul for 7 wishes, Stanley tries to make Margaret his own first as an intellectual, then as a rock star, then as a wealthy industrialist. As each fails, he becomes more aware of how empty his life had been and how much more he has to live for. He also meets the seven deadly sins who try and advise him.

Here is the movie’s trailer:

And here is Spigott doing what he does best: screw with people.

Some of the character’s best sides.

You see, a soul’s rather like your appendix: totally expendable.

All we need to do now, then, is get it witnessed. Sloth would be best. He’s a lawyer.

Now, then, what’d you like to be first? Prime Minister? Oh, no, I’ve made that deal already.

There was a time when I used to get lots of ideas… I thought up the Seven Deadly Sins in one afternoon. The only thing I’ve come up with recently is advertising.

George Spiggott: Everything I’ve ever told you has been a lie. Including that.
Stanley Moon: Including what?
George Spiggott: That everything I’ve ever told has been a lie. That’s not true.
Stanley Moon: I don’t know WHAT to believe.
George Spiggott: Not me, Stanley, believe me!

It’s tempting — pun intended — to think of Spigott as a Nemesis, but he certainly comes across to me as a Trickster, the classic mythological form of a magical character who can grant wishes… but the living embodiment of the saying, “Be careful what you wish for.”

Any fans of the original Bedazzled?

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