Oh, God! You Devil
In 1960 New York City, Arthur Shelton (John Doolittle) prays at the bedside of his young son, Bobby, who is sick with scarlet fever. On the street outside the apartment building, God (George Burns), dressed as an elderly man in a baseball cap and a gray sweatsuit, writes the boy's name on a notepad and promises to watch over him, hoping at the same time that He's not making a mistake with this one. Twenty-four years later in Los Angeles, California, the same Bobby Shelton (Ted Wass) is a struggling singer-songwriter married to Wendy (Roxanne Hart), a supportive wife and social worker. After another record company flatly rejects his latest composition, Bobby agrees to play a wedding for $500.00. Dejected, he tells himself he would "sell his soul to the devil" to be a success in the music business. The devil (George Burns in a dual role), who is disguised as a cigar-smoking talent agent named Harry O. Tophet, receives Bobby's message while driving back from Miami after a personal assignment, and notices on his car computer that God has "watched over" Bobby since 1960. The devil, however, declares out loud that he has priority if a person directly asks for him. During the wedding reception, the devil/Harry O. Tophet appears and gives Bobby his business card, promising to book him at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden. Although Harry claims to represent "all the big names... sooner or later," Bobby is not familiar with the agent. Nevertheless, he is impressed when Harry orchestrates a series of pratfalls among the wedding guests. Harry then disappears before Bobby can say anything more to him. When Bobby comments that he is flipping out, he turns over Harry's business card and sees that it says on the back of it "You're not flipping out." Meanwhile, rock star Billy Wayne (Robert Desiderio) panics when he realizes that his seven-year contract with the devil expires at 12:00 midnight. At Astral Records, Bobby and his longtime talent agent, Charlie Gray (Eugene Roche), arrive for an appointment with executive Gary Frantz (Ron Silver). As they wait in the reception room, Harry arrives and forces Bobby to choose between the two agents. Bobby takes a chance on the determined old man and politely fires Charlie. When Harry proposes a $3.5 million recording deal for Bobby, Frantz and his colleague laugh. At the same time, Harry hands Bobby a seven-year representation contract and tells him that if he signs it, they will stop laughing at him. When the young musician hesitates, Harry suggests a trial period and extends the contract to 12 years. As soon as Bobby signs, his name on the signature line magically changes into "Billy Wayne," and Frantz suddenly agrees to the $3.5 million-dollar contract with the famous rock star. Although Bobby still thinks that he is himself, everyone else around him now recognizes him only as Billy Wayne. Meanwhile, the real Billy Wayne has been transferred into Bobby's body without any memory of his former life. When Bobby telephones his wife to tell her the good news about the recording contract, he realizes that another man has replaced him and that Wendy is also unaware of the switch. By now Bobby has long since discovered that his deal with Harry was actually a deal with the devil, who reveals much later that he had lied about the trial period; Bobby is now in this for the long run. When Bobby asks the devil if he can ask one question, he lets him do so. Bobby asks, "Why do I still think I'm me? And what happens when my contract runs out?", the devil replies, "That's two questions. I only said you could ask one." During his first concert, Bobby is initially hesitant in front of screaming fans, but soon becomes more comfortable on stage. As the tour continues, he relishes the experience of being a rock star with a private plane, female groupies and magazine cover photos. Back in Los Angeles, Bobby arrives by helicopter at his hillside estate, knowing that he still thinks that he is himself rather than a celebrity. He stops outside the loft apartment that he shared with Wendy and appears to be regretful. Five months later, the devil visits Bobby again and mentions that God has become bitter and that He rarely makes personal appearances on Earth. That night, Bobby is stunned to find out that Wendy is pregnant, but is relieved to discover that the child was conceived before the deal with the devil was made. Desperate to return to his wife, Bobby begs to be released from his contract, but the devil refuses. When he consults a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi about the unholy arrangement with the devil, the two religious leaders consider the musician to be mentally disturbed. On the street, Bobby encounters an itinerant Black sidewalk preacher who simply tells him to look for God in the desert. With a sudden urge to visit Las Vegas, Nevada, Bobby tells Gary Frantz to book his next tour at Caesars Palace. After the first concert, Bobby asks the casino operator to page "the Lord" for him. When God telephones the musician's suite, Bobby thinks at first that He is Harry after hearing His voice until God tells him to look out of his window. Bobby does and sees a rainbow appear out of nowhere and without any rain. God then reassures Bobby and mentions that he has been watching over him ever since 1960. However, the Almighty does not offer His immediate help and abruptly hangs up, but not before telling Bobby that it wouldn't hurt to give all praises to Him in the highest. Bobby does so and asks to see another rainbow, but after he waits all day, none appears. Finally, by nightfall Bobby gives up and goes out of his hotel room for the next concert, just barely missing another rainbow appear, again out of nowhere and without any rain, in the night sky. Waiting in his dressing room before the concert, Bobby attempts to free himself from Billy Wayne's life forever by committing suicide. He swallows several handfuls of pills with liquor. Meanwhile, in the casino, God and the devil meet face-to-face for the first time in a long time and play poker together for the soul of Bobby Shelton. If the devil wins, Bobby Shelton will die as Billy Wayne and be remembered with other fallen rock superstars such as Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. During the game, seemingly out of nowhere, God raises the stakes and wagers the billions of souls that are on His list and that He is currently watching over. If the devil wins, all of them are his along with Bobby. If God wins, the devil will never be allowed to ever interfere in their lives, even if they directly ask for him or even if they beg for him. The stakes are too risky for the devil and he folds, conceding Bobby's soul. As God presents His weak card hand, the devil realizes too late that his opponent was bluffing all the time and had nothing. When he asks why he folded, God says, "I put the fear of Me into you." In the dressing room, Gary Frantz finds Billy Wayne's body unresponsive on the floor, while Bobby Shelton gets up and slips out of the room, surprisingly unnoticed by anyone. After a doctor declares Billy dead, Bobby finally feels that he has been released from the rock star's life. Meanwhile, God tears up Bobby's contract to the devil. The devil asks God to play double or nothing, but God refuses him, saying that He got what He wanted. When the devil then asks God why He took such a big risk for Bobby, God says that he wouldn't understand and besides, He had to take him down a peg because he had been getting a bit cocky lately. Later, a wise-cracking God, who bears a strong resemblance to the devil, presents himself to Bobby and explains that He had promised his father that He would look after Bobby when he had scarlet fever as a child in 1960, adding that Arthur Shelton's prayer for his son was very convincing. God both tells Bobby to go back to his wife and also assures him in no uncertain terms that next time He will not bail him out. Unaware that her actual husband has been away for the past few months, Wendy welcomes Bobby home that evening. He tells her that he has had a life-changing experience. Five years later, Bobby rushes to the bedside of his sick daughter and softly sings to her the same song that his father had sung to him when he was sick as a child. Suddenly, Bobby hears the voice of God singing the same verse of the song that he had just sung. When Bobby asks "God?", God then reassures him by telling him "Sing", which he gladly does.
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