“Hell hath no fury like the Fuhrer”
Satan (Alan Mowbray) is summoned to a board of directors meeting in hell. The board sees what Adolph Hitler (Bobby Watson) is doing on Earth and believes that he is more evil than Satan. They want to replace Satan with Hitler as the head of Hell. Satan is furious that the board wants to replace him. He is determined to prove that he is worse than Hitler. To save his job he tells the board that, if they give him 48 hours, he can make Hitler perform a good deed. The board agrees to let him try.
On Earth, Satan manages to get Hitler’s valet, Julius (Sig Arno), fired so he can take his place and be close to Hitler. Benito Mussolini (Joe Devlin) and Suki Yaki (George E. Stone) are waiting to have a meeting with Hitler. Mussolini is the dictator of Italy and Suki Yaki is a representative of Japan. Along with Hitler they are the leaders of the Axis powers.
Hitler has a group of prisoners brought to him. One of the prisoners is Linda Kraus (Marjorie Woodworth). She refuses to talk. Another prisoner, Walter Beeter (Douglas Fowley), is actually an insurance salesman who is trying to get Hitler to buy and insurance policy. He tries to come to her defense but Hitler orders that all the prisoners be killed.
Beeter not only sells Hitler an insurance policy but also sells one to Mussolini and Suki Yaki. The three leaders try to kill each other to collect on the policies. Satan continues to try to get Hitler to perform a good deed by trying to get him to pardon both Linda and Beeter and set them free.
“The Devil With Hitler” was released in 1942 and was directed by Gordon Douglas. It is a 44-minute comedy propaganda short produced by Hal Roach Jr. A sequel, “The Nazty Nuisance” was done the next year.
The entire movie is a mass of slapstick skits with cartoonish depictions of Hitler, Mussolini and a Japanese character called Suki Yaki. The actual leader of Japan was Emperor Hirohito. Everyone has horrible accents, and they are all done as stereotypes with lots of derogatory tropes. All the comedy is of the “Marx Brothers” or “Three Stooges” quality. Propaganda for laughs.
It’s not great by any means but may have been a morale booster for Americans at the time. The film was released less than a year after Pearl Harbor, so Americans were more than ready to see the Axis leaders look stupid and inept.