The Devil and Max Devlin (1981) Disney/Comedy RT: 95 minutes Rated PG (mild language, mildly scary images and themes) Director: Steven Hilliard Stern Screenplay: Mary Rodgers Music: Buddy Baker Cinematography: Howard Schwartz Release date: March 6, 1981 (US) Cast: Elliott Gould, Bill Cosby, Susan Anspach, Julie Budd, Adam Rich, David Knell, Sonny Shroyer, Chuck Shamata. Box Office: $16M (US)
Rating: ** ½
The Disney comedy The Devil and Max Devlin is one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen and I don’t mean the David Lynch kind of weird. It’s supposedly a family movie, but what parents in their right minds would bring their young children to a movie with Satanic themes? It has a few scenes set in Hell that might scare the you-know-what out of small children.
On the other hand, the fact that it’s a Disney movie will likely keep anybody over the age of 12 out of the theater. By the time kids reach that age, they would much rather see Damien Thorn than Bill Cosby in a film dealing with the Devil.
So who is The Devil and Max Devlin for? I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps the same folks that helped Oh, God earn $51 million at the box office? That could be it. The working theory appears to be the following: if people liked George Burns as God, they’re going to love Bill Cosby as the Devil…. or maybe not. Burns reprised his role two more times while Cosby went on to bigger and better things like Leonard Part 6 and Ghost Dad as well as a popular sitcom.
There’s something else weird in The Devil and Max Devlin, but I’ll get to that in a moment. First I’ll answer the question I’m sure many of you are asking. Is the movie any good? It’s not too bad. It has its amusing moments, but it never goes above and beyond the call of duty. It’s all rather silly and innocuous. It would be altogether forgettable if not for the movie’s stranger aspects.
Max Devlin (Gould, The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark) isn’t a very nice man. He’s the landlord of a rundown apartment building in Los Angeles and treats his tenants horribly. One day while chasing down a tenant who’s behind on his rent, Max gets run over by a bus and descends directly into Hell. Met by Barney Satin (Cosby), one of the Devil’s closest associates, he offers Max the chance to resume his life on Earth. All he has to do is convince three innocent young people to sell their souls. He has three months to complete the task or else face eternal damnation. Naturally, the wicked man takes the deal.
16YO Stella Summers (Budd) is an aspiring singer. She’s very talented, but suffers from terrible stage fright. Teenage nerd Nerve Nordlinger (Knell, Spring Break) wants to be a champion motocross racer, but nobody will give him a chance. 11YO Toby Hart (Rich, Eight Is Enough) wants his widowed mother Penny (Anspach, Blume in Love) to remarry so she can be happy again. He spends a lot of time playing matchmaker. These are Max’s three targets.
Now here’s the other weird thing about The Devil and Max Devlin. Max suddenly appears next to Toby at a carnival and offers to pay for everything. He spends the day with the boy and even has the kid call him “Uncle Max”. This is the first time they’ve met. I ask you, what’s wrong with this picture? A grown man hanging around with a young boy and buying him stuff, what does that look like? I’ll tell you, it looks like a great big red flag. Then Toby’s mother scolds him for playing matchmaker NOT for talking to and bringing home a stranger. On top of that’ she starts dating the guy. Can you say “Mother of the Year”? How did this get by quality control at Disney?
So what’s Max’s plan? He will insinuate himself in their lives and use his limited magical powers to make their wishes come true. He makes Stella a singing star, Nerve a champion cyclist and Toby a happier boy by becoming his new father figure. All the while, Barney keeps popping up to remind Max time is running out for him to get his targets to sign on the dotted line. Then the strangest thing happens. Max starts to develop a conscience. He realizes he likes doing nice things for people like buying new playground equipment for Penny’s daycare center. Now he wants out of his deal with the Devil.
Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern, The Devil and Max Devlin is a reasonably entertaining comedy. It features decent performances from both leads although it’s admittedly bizarre seeing Cosby play such a role. I’ll always think of him as the guy behind Fat Albert, my all-time favorite Saturday morning cartoon (right next to Hong Kong Phooey). Gould could have had a decent run as one of Disney’s top leading actors. He makes a perfect grumpy character, one destined to experience a complete change of heart about life and other people by the end. Just the same, it’s still hard to get around the fact he’s manipulating kids into something self-serving and evil.
Budd looks and sounds like a young Barbra Streisand, but she’s not much of an actress. She becomes a star even though she appears to know only one song (” Any Fool Can See”, music and lyrics by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager) that she sings repeatedly throughout the movie. Rich is okay in the obligatory cute kid role, but I can see why he didn’t successfully cross over from TV to film. Anspach is pretty good as the caring mom who seems to lack common sense.
The ending of The Devil and Max Devlin is disappointingly simplistic. I would have thought there’d be more of a struggle between Max and Barney for the souls of the three kids (as well as Max’s soul). Since it’s technically a movie for children, there’s only so much the writers can do without scaring the hell out of the little ones.
The Devil and Max Devlin is one of Disney’s first PG movies. In 1981, it was still a shock to hear characters say “damn” in a so-called wholesome family movie. I give credit to the filmmakers for trying something bold and unusual like this. It might be a strange movie, but it’s also a memorable one. Who could forget something this weird?
