General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Devil and Max Devlin

The Devil and Max Devlin is a 1981 American live-action comedy-fantasy film from Walt Disney Productions in which a dead, dishonest Los Angeles landlord strikes a deal with a devil's agent: he may return to Earth if he can trick three innocent people into signing their souls over to the devil within two months. It was directed by Steven Hilliard Stern, written by Mary Rodgers and Jimmy Sangster, and stars Elliott Gould as Max Devlin and Bill Cosby as Barney Satin, the devil's "souls manager".¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Production	Walt Disney Productions; directed by Steven Hilliard Stern; written by Mary Rodgers and Jimmy Sangster; produced by Jerome Courtland¹
Release	Listed as March 6, 1981 by Disney; D23 gives February 6, 1981; the AFI Catalog records a Los Angeles opening on February 11, 1981³^•²^•¹
Rating and length	PG; 95 minutes per AFI and D23, 96 minutes on streaming listings¹^•⁴
Principal cast	Elliott Gould (Max Devlin), Bill Cosby (Barney Satin), Susan Anspach (Penny Hart), Adam Rich (Toby Hart), Julie Budd (Stella Summers), David Knell (Nerve Nordlinger)¹
Budget and gross	Budget listed at $9 million; IMDb reports $16 million gross in the United States and Canada and worldwide¹^•⁵
Critical standing	17% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 12 reviews; 26% on the Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 ratings⁶
Milestones	Feature film debuts of Julie Budd and Adam Rich; early working title was Miracle Max¹

Spoilers

Plot

Max Devlin, the ruthless landlord of an Los Angeles apartment building, is struck by a bus and descends to Hell, where Barney Satin, Souls Manager of the Devil's Council, offers him a bargain: Max can return to Earth if, within two months, he convinces three innocent people to sign their souls over to the devil.³^•⁷ Back on Earth with special powers, Max makes his targets' dreams come true and tricks them into signing "contracts".²

The three targets are Stella Summers, an aspiring singer-songwriter; Nelson "Nerve" Nordlinger, a high school student who wants to race motocross; and Toby Hart, a young boy whose mother, Penny, becomes Max's romantic interest.⁸^•⁹ Having secured all three signatures, Max learns that Barney lied and intends to harvest all four souls, including his own; he risks eternal damnation by burning the contracts and freeing the others.²^•¹⁰

Production

An early working title was Miracle Max, and the film was one of two Walt Disney Productions features postponed from the 1979 production schedule to 1980. Principal photography was planned for late April 1980 with a budget in the $6 to 8 million range; a Disney press release noted that it started on April 14, 1980, and a June 1980 Daily Variety article listed the budget at $9 million. Director Steven Hilliard Stern finished one week ahead of schedule and almost $1 million under budget.¹

Locations and the Hell set. Filming took place in the Los Angeles area at the Universal Studios Tour and Amphitheatre, the Troubadour nightclub, the Music Center, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Indian Dunes, and Venice Beach; a Disney soundstage was converted into the "devil's inner sanctum".¹ The Hell set was built from huge plaster stalagmites and stalactites, with bursts of flame supplied by 20 butane furnaces. Over four days of filming there, the special-effects department consumed 150 gallons of butane fuel and 36,000 pounds of dry ice for the low-lying smoke effect.²

Cosby's devil makeup. Disney makeup artist Bob Schiffer gave Bill Cosby a red iridescent wig with ears and horns sewn into the base, a heavy mauve base color on the face, and a special red water-soluble makeup from Germany on top.²

Music. The film features the songs "Roses and Rainbows" by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager and "Any Fool Could See" by Marvin Hamlisch and Allee Willis.² Buddy Baker composed the original score.¹¹

Release and reception

The release date shifted during production: a Hollywood Reporter item of August 13, 1980 announced a December 19, 1980 Los Angeles release, but by September 1980 the date had moved to February 1981, with the reissue of The Aristocats taking the Christmas 1980 slot. The film opened in Los Angeles on February 11, 1981.¹ Disney's own page lists March 6, 1981, and D23 gives February 6, 1981.³^•²

It was rated PG, and one retrospective account describes it as only the third PG-rated film Disney had released after decades of G-rated output.³^•¹² The film marked the feature debuts of singer Julie Budd and television actor Adam Rich.¹

Box office and reviews. IMDb lists a $16 million gross in the United States and Canada and worldwide against a $9 million budget, but Ron Miller, Disney's production chief at the time, later said the film lost money.⁵^•¹³ Critics were largely negative: on Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 17% on the Tomatometer from 12 reviews and 26% on the Popcornmeter.⁶ The Washington Post called it "a misbegotten new diversion from the Disney studio" and found the plot hard to enjoy, while Time Out wrote that the script "has its moments, especially when Cosby is around as the Devil's aide", but that the film subsides into "structural flaws and heartwarming sentiment".⁹^•¹⁴

Place in Disney history

Mary Rodgers' screenplay, based on her original short story, contained would-be swear words such as "Hell", "damn", and an incomplete "son-of-a-bitch", and the combination of the subject matter and Cosby's villainous role drew complaints. According to one Disney-history account, so many letters of protest arrived after the March 1981 release that Ron Miller began exploring the idea of separate distribution banners at Disney; another account lists the film as one of three that pushed Disney to set up Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures to produce films for mature audiences.¹⁵^•¹⁶

Home video. The film was released on video in 1981 and first released to DVD in November 2000 by Anchor Bay, which had leased a number of Disney's lesser-known catalog titles; Anchor Bay issued a special edition in 2002.²^•¹²^•¹⁷ As of 2026 it is available digitally to buy or rent on Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, and Fandango At Home, but it is not on a subscription streaming service in the United States and is not on Disney+.⁴^•¹⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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