This film has become a favorite with cultists. It's a matter of tastes, for I have yet to really like it. But every now and then I do give BEAT THE DEVIL another chance to see if it is better or worse than I have believed. It always remains somewhere stuck at the point of neutrality that I began at.
For a film that starred Bogie, Lollabrigida, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre, and was directed by John Huston, and had a screenplay by Truman Capote based on a novel by James Helvick (Claude Cockburn), it should have been better than it was. But it is like the bits are better than the whole. Morley and his entourage walking around the deck of the freighter to Africa in the morning, soaking in the sea air, while he disses Mrs. Chelm (Jones) is very amusing - but it is less than one minute of the film. The reassuring First Officer saying not to worry to the passengers, than they hear an explosion, and he returns to inform them that the boat is sinking is amusing too. But the tempo of the amusing segments are split by long periods of characters running around doing rudimentary actions. Pauline Kael was right when she said that the odd thing about this film is that if you see it from the start to end, every one of the scenes look like they belong in the center of the film. Bogart's production company took the loss at the box office. He blamed Huston, and never worked with him again.
Bogart was wrong to say it was a "mess" that only phonies would claim to like. He had a contempt for certain types of intellectuals. But it was certainly in need of some pruning and strengthening in the script. Capote obviously enjoyed spoofing some of the situations. Witness the business of the limousine driver (after the accident) being denied a demand for compensation for the loss of the limousine, and making an impassioned speech sounding from a left wing play. But he probably was not quite ready to do a complete script. He might have made the transition scenes briefer than they became. What remains does hold your attention, but it does not make for a consistently satisfying movie experience.
For a film that starred Bogie, Lollabrigida, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre, and was directed by John Huston, and had a screenplay by Truman Capote based on a novel by James Helvick (Claude Cockburn), it should have been better than it was. But it is like the bits are better than the whole. Morley and his entourage walking around the deck of the freighter to Africa in the morning, soaking in the sea air, while he disses Mrs. Chelm (Jones) is very amusing - but it is less than one minute of the film. The reassuring First Officer saying not to worry to the passengers, than they hear an explosion, and he returns to inform them that the boat is sinking is amusing too. But the tempo of the amusing segments are split by long periods of characters running around doing rudimentary actions. Pauline Kael was right when she said that the odd thing about this film is that if you see it from the start to end, every one of the scenes look like they belong in the center of the film. Bogart's production company took the loss at the box office. He blamed Huston, and never worked with him again.
Bogart was wrong to say it was a "mess" that only phonies would claim to like. He had a contempt for certain types of intellectuals. But it was certainly in need of some pruning and strengthening in the script. Capote obviously enjoyed spoofing some of the situations. Witness the business of the limousine driver (after the accident) being denied a demand for compensation for the loss of the limousine, and making an impassioned speech sounding from a left wing play. But he probably was not quite ready to do a complete script. He might have made the transition scenes briefer than they became. What remains does hold your attention, but it does not make for a consistently satisfying movie experience.