"A Woman's chastity is a sty in the Devil's eye," is an old Irish proverb manufactured by Ingmar Bergman for his film. In fact the film does start in Hell with the Devil suffering from a sore eye. And the trouble is a woman's chastity.

The woman is a pastor's daughter, twenty years old, lovely, and engaged to be married. The Devil tells his chief advisors that as his weapon to fire at the girl's virginity he has decided on Don Juan. So Don Juan, the greatest lover of all time, returns to the earth, accompanied by his bawdy servant Pablo. They manage to get themselves invited for the night by the absent-minded clergyman. Don Juan attacks with alternating subtlety and boldness.

But he fails, for though she is tempted, she really will only give herself because she pities his suffering. Pablo, on the other hand, is successful with the pastor's wife.

A watchdog demon sent along tells the pastor that his wife is in bed with Pablo. The pastor locks the demon in a cupboard, but does discover his wife's infidelity. It opens his eyes to life, however, and it brings the pastor and his wife together.

Don Juan, repelled, falls in love with the girl. Plucked by to Hell by a bestyed and stymied Devil, he is made to listen to the girl in bed on her wedding night. It is only when the girl tells a white lie to her husband that the Devil's eye heals.

"A seldom-shown, strikingly atypical film by Ingmar Bergman, this is a broad, rather heavy farce in which Don Juan is sent by the devil to seduce that paragon of Swedish respectability, a country parson's daughter. The first part of the film, set in a stylized hell, is a witty, arch symposium on seduction techniques, as Don Juan is briefed for his mission by a panel of legendary rakes, but Bergman reverts to his customary naturalism for the earth-level sequences, and the action turns turgid."

"The Devil's Eye continues my line of comedies. The studio had bought the rights to a dusty Danish comedy called The Return of Don Juan. [Producer Carl Anders] Dymling and I entered into a shameful agreement. I wanted to direct The Virgin Spring, which he detested. He wanted me to direct The Devil's Eye, which I detested. We were both very satisfied with our agreement through which both could be made, and each one of us felt that we had fooled the other. In reality I had only fooled myself."