As most of his previous work has displayed, Méliès was a massive fan of adding portions of his illusions act into his films and “Le Diable Noir” is no different.

Although there is a story happening in this film, the major focus is on the disappearing and reappearing objects from around the room with the newly added feature of items magically multiplying.

As for the aforementioned story within the film, a man checks into a room which an imp was playing in moments prior to his arrival. After a bit of back and forth between the guest and the transporting furniture, the imp makes himself visible to him. The man attempts to catch the imp but ultimately fails when the imp catches the bed on fire. Having been caught by the inn’s staff putting out the fire himself, the man is removed from the building while the imp reappears to take back the bed he was originally sleeping in to begin with.

The funnest party about this particular film is that the guest upsets one of the staff members from the start when he attempts to grope one of the ladies who is attempting to leave the room. She shuts him down immediately and leaves the room. This shows viewers that the staff has already had enough of this guest and prove this by immediately kicking him out once the fire takes place.