Beat the Devil

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Beat the Devil
1953 film poster
Directed by	John Huston
Produced by	John Huston
Written by	James Helvick (novel) John Huston Truman Capote
Starring	Humphrey Bogart Jennifer Jones Gina Lollobrigida Peter Lorre Robert Morley Edward Underdown Ivor Barnard Marco Tulli Bernard Lee Saro Urzì
Music by	Franco Mannino
Cinematography	Oswald Morris
Editing by	Ralph Kemplen
Distributed by	Romulus Films
Release date(s)	November 24, 1953
Running time	89 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Beat the Devil is a 1953 film directed by John Huston.^[1] The scereenplay was written by Huston and Truman Capote, and loosely based upon a novel of the same name by British journalist and critic Claud Cockburn, writing under the pseudonym James Helvick. It was intended by Huston as a tongue-in-cheek spoof of The Maltese Falcon (1941), also directed by Huston, and films of the same genre.

The script, which was written on a day-to-day basis as the film was being shot, concerns the adventures of a motley crew of swindlers and ne'er-do-wells trying to lay claim to land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port to travel aboard an ill-fated tramp steamer en route to Mombasa.^[2] The all-star cast includes Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre and Bernard Lee.

This Huston opus does not easily fit into the standard set of film categories; it has variously been classified as a "thriller," a "comedy," a "drama," a "crime" and a "romance" movie. It is above all else a parody of the Film Noir style^{[citation needed]} that Huston himself had pioneered and as such has developed cult status in the ensuing years.

A quartet of international crooks -- Peterson, O'Hara, Ross and Ravello -- is stranded in Italy while their steamer is being repaired. With them are the Dannreuthers. The six are headed for Africa, presumably to sell vacuum cleaners but actually to buy land supposedly loaded with uranium. They are joined by others who apparently have similar designs.

Cast

• Humphrey Bogart as Billy Dannreuther
• Jennifer Jones as Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm
• Gina Lollobrigida as Maria Dannreuther
• Robert Morley as Peterson
• Peter Lorre as Julius O'Hara
• Edward Underdown as Harry Chelm
• Ivor Barnard as Maj. Jack Ross
• Marco Tulli as Ravello
• Bernard Lee as Insp. Jack Clayton
• Mario Perrone as Purser on SS Nyanga
• Giulio Donnini as Administrator
• Saro Urzì as Captain of SS Nyanga
• Aldo Silvani as Charles, Restaurant Manager
• Juan de Landa as Hispano-Suiza Driver

Reception

Film still image of Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida and Humphrey Bogart

The movie was not well received critically (although it was to become a National Board of Review winner) and was to mark the closure of the "quest movies" period in Huston’s career. Despite its disappointing performance, Beat The Devil has gone on to garner mild cult status.

Humphrey Bogart never liked the movie, perhaps because he lost a good deal of his own money bankrolling it, and said of Beat the Devil, "Only phonies like it." Roger Ebert notes that the film has been characterized as the first camp movie. In the biographical film dramas Infamous (2006) and Capote (2005), Truman Capote, portrayed by Toby Jones and Philip Seymour Hoffman, reminisces about life during the filming of Beat the Devil.

Beat the Devil is in the public domain because of unrenewed copyright, and is freely available and distributed over the internet as seen below.

See also

• List of films in the public domain in the United States

References

External links

• Beat the Devil at the Internet Movie Database
• Beat the Devil at AllRovi
• Beat the Devil (film) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]