Oh, God! You Devil (1984) is a dark comedy/fantasy motion picture starring George Burns, Ted Wass, Ron Silver, and Roxanne Hart.
Directed by Paul Bogart and produced by Robert M. Sherman, the screenplay was adapted by Andrew Bergman.
Oh, God! You Devil is the third and final installment in the Oh, God! series, based on the novel of the same title by Avery Corman.
The film was #1 at the box office and George Burns received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actor.
Synopsis
Burns plays the dual roles as both God and Satan. The Satan character, Harry O. Tophet, is definitely lively, taking pleasure in petty acts of PG-rated malice (such as making a waiter fall into a pool).
The story tells of a struggling rock singer/musician, Bobby Shelton (played by Wass), who cannot get a break. His wife, Wendy (played by Hart), is going to have a baby and that makes him more depressed and desperate over his situation. He announces that he would sell his soul to get ahead. Tophet suddenly appears and offers Shelton a deal—seven years of unprecedented fame and fortune in exchange for his soul—which is cynically accepted.
Shelton discovers that Tophet is true to his word, but he finds that fame, fortune and groupies are empty pleasures and not worth the consequences. He loses Wendy along the way and is miserable.
When the lonely and despairing rock star announces that he made a horrible mistake, God, who has been watching over Shelton, appears and offers to help get his soul back. God, in all his infinite wisdom, is as determined to help Shelton regain his soul as Tophet is to ensnare it. Shelton is bewildered and confused over having caused a fight between God and the devil.
Tophet offers Shelton's place in eternity as the prize in a poker game, God takes the bet and raises it up by betting all existence if Tophet wins, Tophet mistrusts God's offer and withdraws from the game; it turns out that God had nothing in his cards but by now Tophet has lost the game due to his own fear of God. In the end, Shelton finds that he prefers happiness in a simple life with his loving wife and daughter.
Cast
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