Davenport Films: Bearskin

Bearksin is one of my favorite Davenport films. For one, it presents a classic American trope: the honorable, noble, and willing-to-take-a-chance hero outwits the devil. For another, in this case, the soldier who agrees to the devil's bargain is Robert Westenberg from Broadway's Into the Woods! He plays the wolf/prince--so I suppose playing a Bear was good preparation.

The soldier agrees to wear the Bearskin for 7 years. He'll turn into a dirty, ragged, disgusting, smelly, bearskin-wearing outcast. But..if he does it, he'll be rich for the rest of his life. 

"You've got yourself a deal," the soldier says matter-of-factly. 

Towards the end of his trial, he, naturally, comes across a sweet young woman with  two horrible sisters. She is, naturally, kind to the outcast. When he returns, cleaned, washed, and rich, he, naturally, asks for her hand in marriage. The jealous sisters, reportedly, later kill themselves, leaving the frustrated devil to proclaim that "he got two souls for the price of one...so I won."

Like many of Davenport's films, Bearskin does a fine job of underscoring the action with subtle humor. 

"He is human," the father protests when the other daughters are appalled by Bearksin. "He told me so himself." 

Of course, one always has to wonder about a father who promises one of his daughter's hand to a dirty, enigmatic stranger for cash.

I contend that the tellers of these tales--before the tales got overly didactic--were well-aware of the inconsistencies and dark corners. That was part of the charm.  

However, the Bearskin tale also has a very neat arc. Davenport's is one of the films I showed in my folklore course to address common fairy tale tropes and motifs. It combines them smoothly. As the films prove, the tropes work whatever the setting: Europe or Appalachia.