The Devil and the Deuce

BACKSTORY: Mickey, a charming con man, is murdered and goes to Hell. Frank, the hit man who murdered Mickey, also winds up in Hell. Lucy (as in Lucifer), a supervising Satan’s assistant, teams Mickey and Frank in an assignment to go to the surface and destroy a priest, Father Collins.

FADE IN: St. Bart’s Church is a shelter for teenage runaways and the homeless located in a whore-pimp-wino infested street similar to Forty-Second Street, pre-gentrification. Frank is working on Vickie, one of the better-looking hookers while Mickey is in Collins’ office rummaging through his desk looking for compromising info on the priest. Back on the street Frank whistles at Vickie whose instincts tell her to pass on this customer, pulls out a switchblade, holds it in front of her while behind his back one of Frank’s hands metamorphoses into a large animal claw with long, sharp nails.

But before either one can do anything, Mickey arrives, grabs Frank’s claw and spins him around and both metamorphose in to large, hair-covered, dog-like beasts. They engage in battle until they are interrupted by Lucy, who has emerged from the netherworld to check up on his two devil’s minions. Here we get the backstory and more details about Collins and the mission.

Lucy decides that since they can’t work together, he changes the mission to a contest between Mickey and Frank to see who will compromise Father Collins first—with a reward for one and punishment for the other. Mickey seeks out Dave, his old partner-in-scams, who will need considerable convincing that Mickey is not dead and holes in Mickey’s story keep popping up.

There is a romantic interest as Collins’ niece, Colby, is an old flame of Mickey’s from middle school, but who is on to Mickey as he was voted boy most likely to do serious time.

Frank gains access to the shelter by tempting Myra, a former addict and caretaker at the shelter. Myra’s weakness leads to her murder by Frank. With time running out, Mickey decides to switch sides; instead of tempting Collins, tries to protect him and Colby from Frank: REDEMPTION!

All the characters and threads come together as Frank’s attempt to compromise Collins fails; Lucy tries to take the now-human Mickey back to Hell, but he is rescued by Vickie who is also redeemed; and in a final climatic duel, the good guys triumph in a CLIFF-HANGER!

Vickie connects with Dave, Mickey connects with Colby, and the latter pair are married in a HAPPY ENDING! Except, in the final frame, the ghost of Frank sets up a SEQUEL!

And all of this is handled with a LIGHT TOUCH!