Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

utgard14 WW2 short from MGM about the Devil (Edward Arnold) conspiring with Hitler to wreck the U.S. economy. He plans to do this by making Americans buy things on credit, ignore rationing laws, and cash in their war bonds. That Devil sure is a stinker! The point of this short was to make American at home think about how they could help the war effort by keeping the economy strong.I love patriotic WW2 shorts like these. It avoids being too preachy and delivers its message in a clear and entertaining way. Edward Arnold is terrific. Just the year before he was fighting Satan in The Devil and Daniel Webster, now here he is playing him and doing a wickedly delightful job. It's a great short that anybody who enjoys WW2-era material should love. Also features Esther Williams in one of her earliest roles.

Neil Doyle Five months after WWII's Pearl Harbor, Americans were cautioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to curb their spending and to buy war bonds while he encouraged paying off debts and mortgages in a responsible manner.To thwart this common sense talk, we have EDWARD ARNOLD as The Devil, spreading his own version of what Americans should do so that they will be defeated by the enemy. In a phone call from his friend Adolf, he outlines his own plan after advising one of his associates to "put more heat on the 7th level".In an illustration of encouraging spending, we see Joe Smith (STEPHEN McNALLY) and his young wife (ESTHER WILLIAMS) going on a buying spree using credit for things they can't really afford. After admonished by storekeeper HOWARD FREEMAN, who turns on FDR's radio speech when the couple want to buy a new radio, they see the error of their ways.It's a sardonic morality tale, benefiting mostly from the relish with which Arnold plays his Devil role. His laughter is full of dark menace as his huge close-ups convince us that he wants his evil plan to work, happily engaged in causing a "Roman holiday of spending" and encouraging a man to cash in his $300 war bonds.In the end, of course, the Devil is outmaneuvered by smarter Americans who refuse to get caught up in black marketing, hoarding and cashing in their bonds--and the American spirit wins.Good little propaganda film spotlights Arnold at his best--or should I say "worst" (as The Devil).

theowinthrop A nice little short subject, sometimes rerun on TURNER CLASSICS, it gives Edward Arnold his one chance at playing Satan. Coming only a year after Arnold faced Satan (Walter Huston) in ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY, here Arnold had his chance to be compared to Huston, Laird Cregar (HEAVEN CAN WAIT), Claude Rains (ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER), and others. It's also his only chance to be seen wearing a full beard on camera (pointed at the tip, and with eyebrows reminiscent of Eric Campbell's opposite Chaplin, but subtler). We see Arnold in an office behind a large desk, not quite as fashionable as Cregar's but (under the circumstances) respectable. He rises from his desk and introduces himself as the Devil, and explains how he can help people with all sorts of goodies like armaments, propaganda machines, goose stepping soldiers. Soon there is a phone call and he answers, and it is his good chum Adolf, asking for more assistance to defeat the Allies. And Arnold soon is explaining that he can help by encouraging economic suicide - inflation.The idea (seen dramatized in the short) is how by hoarding or buying to much and encouraging manufacturers to continue doing "business as usual", the public undercuts the war effort. It is an interesting theory, and has some validity. Presented here, with Esther Williams in her first role as a housewife caught in the realities of wartime economics, it is thoroughly understandable.Today, of course, it is Arnold's wonderful chuckly Devil that makes us like the short. As has been said on several of the other reviews, it is an interesting time piece of our own propaganda machine at wartime at work.Curiously, although Hollywood did not know it, the issue of "guns or butter" (as it was referred to by Herman Goering) was playing an odd role in of all places Germany. While the U.S. and England were sacrificing much to help their armed forces (and Japan even more), Germany acted as if nothing was happening until late in 1944! Albert Speer mentioned in his memoirs that the German economy was still producing luxury items until late that year - apparently it was in an effort to keep the German population under the assumption everything was going well (despite the heavy bombardments? - Hitler and his advisers had blinders on much of what they were observing). It was only when France (not Italy but France) was lost, and Hitler nearly killed in an assassination plot, that the Nazis started a belt-tightening policy that really was tight.

MartinHafer This is a must-see film for fans of the Golden Age of Hollywood like myself. Part of it is because of Edward Arnold's wonderful performance as the Devil (second for pure entertainment value, perhaps to Laird Cregar's rendition of Satan in HEAVEN CAN WAIT). Plus, the film is such a wonderful time capsule of WWII and the efforts to enlist the support of the people at home in the war effort.The film starts with Old Scratch receiving a phone call from Adolf Hitler and they thank each other for the support! Then the Devil discusses how greed and hoarding are helping Hitler in his plans for global domination (just think,...buying that EXTRA pound of coffee might just lead to the fall of the Western World!). The performance of Edward Arnold is just hilarious (you don't actually see Adolf on screen).Then the film cuts to Joe Smith, a "typical American" who doesn't think twice about hoarding--reasoning that no one will miss it if he keeps just a few extra odds and ends. Well, Joe finally realizes that he, too, has fallen into the Devil's plans and the only way to defeat Satan AND his #1 sidekick is to stop hoarding and give 100% to the war effort! The film is just a lot of fun and a great piece of American history. Well worth seeing!