The Devil with Hitler

The board of directors of Hell want Satan to resign and replace him with Hitler. The Devil refuses to go and insists that Hitler isn't all bad and that he will prove it by having him perform a good deed. Heading up to Germany Satan gets himself in with Hitler and then sets about getting him to do good, while at the same time having to deal with Mussolini and the Japanese General Suki Yaki.

Odd running time aside, it's a streamline feature running about 43 minutes, this is an odd film. Its a very odd feeling watching the Devil run around trying to prove Hitler isn't all bad, especially when he uses examples of Hitler's cruelties that are actually much worse in retrospect than what was known when this film was made. In its way the film is almost an exercise in bad taste as a result of the revelations that followed.

But lets not dwell on the bad, lets talk about the good, this is an amusing little comedy. For the most part this is a series of set pieces and running gags concerning Satan masquerading as Hitler, the backstabbing and double dealing of the Axis "allies" and the insanity of Hitler. While many of the jokes will not be new to anyone who's seen comedies of the period, especially the Three Stooges classic rips at Hitler, they are funny and will produce smiles if not chuckles and giggles. The performances are right on target and engender a great deal of good will simply because they are so silly. And while some of the gags do go on much too long with out a really big pay off (they were stretching even to fill 43 minutes) it never wears out its welcome.

Worth a look if you run across it.

Hell's Board of Directors wants to replace the Devil (Alan Mowbray) with Adolf Hitler! The Devil has to prove that Hitler isn't fit to rule Hell, so he sets out to get Hitler to commit one good deed. What a bizarre curio this is. It's all broad slapstick poking fun at Hitler, as well as Mussolini and Suki Yaki. Sensitive types will no doubt find it in poor taste. That didn't bother me. I just thought it was pretty corny. I did find the weird premise interesting. Just not that funny. If you enjoy WW2 films and shorts, and I assume you do or you probably wouldn't be watching this, then you should find this one interesting. Just don't expect to laugh a lot.

Of academic interest as it illustrates just how "dumbed down" a propaganda film from this era could be and still somehow wring out a few laughs from its target audience of potential war bond buyers. You could forgive the moronic writing, the unbelievably bad acting, and the generally offensive tone if it was even remotely funny or had some other redeeming quality. Unfortunately such is not the case.

"The Devil With Hitler" and "Nazty Nuisance" are a pair of short films produced by the Hal Roach studios early in WWII. Both seem to think it would be great fun to spoof axis leaders Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito. The premise is the denizens of hell threatening to replace the devil with Hitler unless he can somehow reform Hitler. Don't expect the witty "nothing sacred" black comedy of "Springtime for Hitler" in "The Producers"; these Roach films show little sign of wit or of wisdom.

As ill-conceived as all this might sound, it had been done fairly successfully by Chaplin in "The Great Dictator" (1940), in several Three Stooges shorts, and in a number of cartoons-the best being Donald Duck's "Der Fuehrer's Face (1942).

None of that stuff is very funny (except Donald's) but at least could technically be classified as comedy. If amusement value is the criteria, then "The Devil With Hitler" should not even be included in that classification (incredibly it is even less funny than "Nazty Nuisance"). The only things even remotely amusing are two little Hitler caricatures which run in the opening credits.

These entries borrow heavily from the comedy technique of Julius Streicher and rely on racist and ethnic humor about Asians and Italians instead of clever writing. The actors who populate this low budget disaster, (Adolf-Bobby Watson) (Benito-Joe Devlin) (Suki Saki-George E. Stone) (devil-Alan Mowbray)-are a bunch of B-movie character actors with no recognizable comedic talent. Even they seem embarrassed to be in this mess of poor physical comedy and extremely (and I mean extremely) lame jokes.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I wish that people who write reviews for the movies listed on IMDb would keep in mind the era in which they were made and the mood of the audiences for which they were intended. This is a comedy, folks. Who were the big comedians of the time? The Three Stooges; Abbott and Costello; Laurel and Hardy; Bob Hope. Slapstick; improbable situations; pratfalls; weird accents; implausible plots; all of these staples of comedy were used to good effect in this short amusing movie. The fact that it was produced by the great Hal Roach should give anyone with movie viewing experience an inkling that the makers wanted to give their audiences a few laughs. In the second year of WWII, there was very little escapism for the people of America. The leaders of Germany, Italy and Japan must have seemed Hell-spawned when the average citizen read about their daily antics in the newspapers of the day. Making them the subjects of comedy actions worthy of the Three Stooges was just another way to point out their stupidity in an insane world. After all, most good comedy is rooted in the truth, and when you watch this delightful little piece of fluff, put your mind in neutral and prepare to be entertained. Hal Roach would not have had it any other way.

Delightful short, a wartime spoof in which Adolph Hitler (Bobby Watson, a frequent interpreter of the role) is seen so much as being the embodiment of evil that Satan's minions plot to have their master deposed and put the Fuehrer in his place! However, Alan Mowbray as "The Devil Himself" contrives to come up to Earth as the latter's butler (the actor had actually played many such parts throughout his career, most notably in TOPPER [1937]) and trick him into doing one good deed! Nowadays the film will probably be deemed politically incorrect – especially its demeaning depiction of the Japanese, personified here by one Suki Yaki – but it is so disarmingly funny that one can easily overlook this. Among the comic highlights are Hitler's disastrous bath-tub rehearsal of his speech for an upcoming Nazi rally (in which he ends with his current butler sitting on top of him!), the extended night-time sequence in which he shares a bed with Suki Yaki and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (who keeps referring to Hitler as "The Hit"), each having planted a bomb under the other's pillow, and the predictably explosive climax in a munitions factory. The film was produced by slapstick mogul Hal Roach and, of course, director Douglas would soon go on to have a versatile career capped by the sci-fi classic THEM! (1954). Incidentally, THE DEVIL WITH Hitler would be followed by an equally short sequel, NAZTY NUISANCE (1943); subsequently, the two films would be strung together and released as a feature!