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.

The Devil With Hitler has to be viewed in retrospect not so much for what it was poking fun at but more so for what wasn't known at the time regarding the full extent of the concentration camps and other atrocities. It is primarily Adolf(Bobby Watson), Benito(Joe Devlin) and Suki Saki(George E. Stone) in a series of Three-Stooges routines, with the premise that the Board of Directors of Hell has put the Devil (Alan Mowbray)on notice they intend to replace him with Adolph Hitler unless he can get Hitler to commit a good deed. As with nearly all of the Roach "streamliners" of the time, it has several double entendres which leads one to believe the censors were either asleep, didn't expect such from the "Our Gang" leader, or, more likely, it went over their heads. In addition to Hitler, speaking of the Rudolph Hess 'trip" to England as one in which..."I lost my Hess", Hitler is heard bragging about his skills as a two-handed house painter by claiming..."I could switch hands and never miss a stroke." I choose not to explain the original source( or activity described) of that line.

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.

This is a film making fun of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. I would imagine in 1942 it was received with lots of laughs in the USA, the UK and where our troops were when they were able to watch a film. I see a ton of lukewarm or outraged reviews that Hollywood would make light of the evil characters in real life. This is probably a newer social phenomenon as Hitler has been caricatured ever since he became dictator. Charlie Chaplin was one of the first I know of, but other memorable Hitler parodies I can think of are Monty Python (John Cleese) in the early 1970s did a hilarious Hitler, 1960s (and later remade in 2000s) Mel Brooks (The Producers), as well as all the Hitler cartoons made during the war by Warner Brothers, Paramount and Disney. I even think Mel Brooks embellished a joke from this film about Hitler's artistic side. While some may have been offended by all of these at the time about making fun of evil people or maybe they are Hitler admirers (there are a lot of those on IMdb), there was no internet around to vent about it and the majority of viewers found it funny. Likewise, here. A Hal Roach production, there is a lot of slapstick in this one. Luckily the slapstick is much like the 1920s and 30s slapstick which is funny and not the typical slapstick in pictures when this was made in the 1940s and later. Bobby Watson I found very funny, this would be his first Hitler role out of many probably because of this film's quality. My favorite scenes were of the American insurance salesman, a really funny running joke! All in all, if you like to watch a funny Hitler, catch this film. I watched it on Youtube. 8 out of 10 rating as far as short (44-minutes) B comedies go.

I caught 'The Devil With Hitler' a while ago on TCM, and, expecting to see something absolutely dreadful like 'Hitler's Children', found myself delightfully surprised. What a ridiculously irreverent little flick!] Bobby Watson mugged hysterically as Hitler, and, while many of the jokes were pretty lame or corny, or light- or, all three put together- the general atmosphere of silliness made this an awful lot of fun. There were lots of amusing little B-grade Marx Bros.-wannabe touches throughout, like Hitler continuing his interest in the painted arts: here, he has a white room, which he paints black. (I can only imagine that, later, off-screen, someone paints it white again, so he can repeat the process ad infinitum!) This ain't no high-grade satire, this certainly isn't a good movie. But I got a lot of laughs and giggles from the proceedings, certainly worth 44 minutes of my time.