User Reviews

In Italy there's a group who loosely gather, with a character like Greenstreet acting as gaffer, they will be sailing to Mombasa, there's lots of chatter, lots of blather, plus a couple from England who are gate-crashers. It's a tale that's rather cobbled and contrived, put together on the hoof's how it's devised, Jennifer Jones is quite a star, rest of the cast are below par, as you watch you might just need to be revived.

It's not the highlight of the director's career nor the leading actor for that matter, and you suspect it was more fun to make than to watch, as a band of rogues prepare to sail in search of falconic uranium reserves in British East Africa.

Pleasant enough piffle – a mildly diverting comedy-adventure hybrid – Beat The Devil has a belated reputation as the last word in dry drollery, an arch in-joke to whose hidden hilarity only the select and sophisticated few are privy. Humphrey Bogart didn't think so, saying `Only the phonies think it's funny. It's a mess.' But one of the movie's formidable champions, Pauline Kael, picked up on his line and trumped it: `Yes, but it may be the funniest mess of all time.' Bogart may be the shrewder critic here; after all, he sank his own dough into the venture, which went down like the ill-starred freighter upon which the cast put to sea. Only latterly has it has it acquired dubious `classic' stature.

Beat The Devil (directed by John Huston, who co-wrote the script with the up-and-coming Truman Capote) improvises a loose, comic riff on the international adventure genre. Thankfully, it's not unhinged or absurd enough to be a dreaded `spoof,' and emphatically not one (as it's become a commonplace to assume) of the noir cycle. In narrative, point of view and look (there's no coherent visual style), Beat The Devil bears not the slightest resemblance to film noir, which, by this point, was slyly starting to parody itself anyway.

The plot's McGuffin concerns uranium deposits in central Africa, which draw a disreputable and multinational crew of opportunists who hope to strike it rich by sticking it to their various motherlands. The joke lies in that these bumblers keep getting taken in by one another's cover stories, pretensions and lies – and falling for one another's spouses. It's not a bad joke, but it needs a bit more rigor to flesh it out from a skit to a feature film.

Of course it's funny, if haphazardly. A blonde Jennifer Jones, juggling an English accent as if with a mouth full of prunes, comes straight out of screwball comedy (who knew?), and Gina Lollobrigida (when not waylaid by her own attempts at English) occasionally matches her. Peter Lorre, looking much like the short and rotund Capote of the future, again displays his instinctive flair for subversive comedy (his past in sinister parts limited what might have been a long and enjoyable career). And Robert Morley, crisp as a toasted if unusually thick crumpet, serves up every line like a butler bearing a decanter of vintage port. Bogart, on the other hand, can't persuasively hide his age and infirmity, and his role as debonair lover and man of action demands superhuman suspension of disbelief (maybe he was just thinking of all the money he was going to lose).

Yet having fun doesn't have to mean that plot is irrelevant, some boring old rule made to be broken. Part of the movie's folklore is that Capote stayed up all night writing the next day's pages; maybe so, but didn't he or Huston know where they were going? Once the characters wade up on the North African shore to be apprehended by `Arabs' (surely, Bedouins?), there's no more pretense of a cohesive script or a halfway satisfying storyline. Finding a plausible way out of all the intrigue, however tongue-in-cheek it might have been, wouldn't have killed the laughs, now, would it?

The plot, if you can call it that, concerned a group of six stranded adventurers in an Italian port whose plan is to buy up some East African land that supposed1y contains uranium… Double-crossing quickly becomes the name of the game as Bogart and his fellow conspirators (including Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Gina Lollobrigida, and a seemingly endless parade of bizarre characters) outdo each other in inspired crazy way…

Bogart, trying desperately to maintain his composure, delivered such priceless lines as: 'I'm only in on this because the doctor told me I needed plenty of money. Without money I become dull, listless, and have trouble with my complexion." But his lines weren't the only offbeat ones… In a room where he's being questioned after being captured, while a firing squad goes about its routine work outside, he is asked straight-faced, "Now tell me, do you really know Rita Hayworth?"

The film is one of those rare items that viewers either seem to love or hate, no middle ground accepted… and declared that only the "phonies" thought it was really funny… Many reviewers thought the whole thing was a tasteless joke and decried the waste of time, talent, and money…

In any case, Bogart gave an immensely satisfying performance in his tongue-in-cheek role and the film itself has now become a regular attraction in Bogart film retrospectives… It is also an excellent example of how much Bogart had matured as an actor, since it is not easy to overcome apparently inept material and still give a performance with some meaning and substance

Hadn't seen this film in a long time and I'm glad to have caught it again. It's at the apex of black-and-white barely tongue-in-cheek comedies with a stellar cast that had a blast making the film.

Jennifer Jones, beautiful as always, seems barely able to stay inside her role, laughter threatening to break out at any moment. Humphrey Bogart has a recurrent quizzical "Am I really doing this?" expression.

Tied in with a gang of bumbling crooks seeking a fortune in uranium in Africa, illicitly of course, Bogart, married to a cute Gina Lollabrigida, falls in love with a faux English gentleman's wife as fast as his spouse goes for the supposed representative of the landed gentry. Of course cuddling and sweet words substitute for sex.

Robert Morley, always funny, is the putative leader of a gang that can't get their act together with Peter Lorre shedding his customary menacing stare for a busman's holiday as a gangster with a sense of humor.

The action ranges from beautiful Italy to a placid sea voyage aboard a rickety tub commanded by a rum-soaked moron whose Italian expletives are not understandable but who cares? The main characters, shipwrecked, wind up on an African shore where they're greeted by what today are embarrassingly stereotyped Arabs (I cringed at one of the European's comic invocation of Islam but then the movie has to be taken on its own terms and time, right?).

The resolution is lame - the characters all look ready to leave the set and get drunk before undertaking a new film. But this is one of the best spoofs of the noir genre and what makes it fly is the ensemble of first-rate actors in roles neatly the opposite of those they were usually seen performing.

Rent it! (Please)

"Beat The Devil" is one of Bogart's more unusual films. Scripted by none other than Truman Capote and John Huston, it is a very entertaining, offbeat noir satire (quite a description). Upon first viewing a lot of the humor may get lost, but view it a second time, and you can not help but laugh out loud at many of the jokes.

The cast is absolutely top notch. Bogart is perfect as Billy Dannreuther, a man who has a friend that will line him and his associates up with some land in Africa that is rich with uranium. It's always nice to see Bogie prove that he had a great sense of humor, and didn't mind poking fun at himself. Jennifer Jones, who, for some reason, always reminded me of Vivien Leigh (in "Streetcar")in this picture is terrific as Mrs. Chelm. But it is Robert Morley who steals the picture for me. Sometimes menacing, sometimes charming, he is a delight to watch.

Huston and Capote have done a great job of blending the different genres without letting them get all caught up in each other. I do wish that the final scene was written a little better, but the movie is still a lot of fun.

Caution - because the film was allowed to enter the public domain, there are a lot of really lousy prints out on the market, even on DVD. If you want this film for your own collection, do yourself a favor and spend a couple of extra dollars and buy a good print.

7 out of 10

The above is a line from "Black Widow" that I've always liked. I guess it was called to mind because "Beat the Devil" is a black comedy. Well, it's an odd comedy anyway.

The 1953 film had absolutely everything going for it, including Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollabrigida, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley, directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Truman Capote. What more could you ask for? I don't know, but something.

The story concerns crooks stuck in Italy while they wait for a steamer to be repaired that is to take them to Africa. There, they will buy land that has uranium on it, though no one knows that. They're allegedly selling vacuum cleaners. Also traveling on this steamer are a British woman (Jones) and her husband. He supposedly is landed gentry in England, but is he? The crooks wonder what he's up to, and the wife keeps changing her story.

There is a lot of humor to be had in this film - the situation is funny, the denouement is wonderful, there is some witty dialogue and there are clever situations that go on during the film that are amusing. The problem is that nobody cares.

The film, which looks like it cost about a dollar to make, is too disjointed, and there are long sections where nothing interesting happens.

One of the posters, who really liked the film, commented that people don't like it because the actors aren't going for laughs. Well, I'm not one of those people. Acting 101 says you don't go for laughs - you play the situation and the characters for real and the laughs happen. That doesn't mean, however, that you pace it like it's Long Days Journey. Bogart had wonderful timing no matter what, and it's evident here, particularly in the car scene on the way to the restaurant, where the character's glibness is apparent. The problem isn't in any person, it's in the direction. I don't believe Huston had a sense of comedy. He could be brilliant, but this was not his thing.

Still, "Beat the Devil" is worth seeing, but it's hard to keep your attention on it.

As Hollywood production became ever more individualised, with writers-directors and producer directors working independently of the studios, there were many pictures which attacked Hollywood conventions themselves. In Beat the Devil writer-director John Huston gives us a farcical take upon the recurring heist-gone-wrong subgenre. The style now known as film noir may not have been fully defined and discussed until the 60s, but any keen-minded cinemagoer can recognise a trend. And if a trend can be recognised then it is open to parody.

It looks however as if Beat the Devil may have begun life as a serious thriller. All the business about criminals going after uranium mines in Africa seems fairly original, and is certainly not an archetypal noir plot. And really there is no grand satire here, and no lampooning of specific genre clichés. The story's premise is essentially serious, yet is written with comedy characters and comical mishaps along the way. It's if Huston and his co-writer Truman Capote simply gave up on following it through and instead decided to have a bit of fun with it.

Nevertheless, Huston shoots this one with the same thoughtfulness and precision as he would a drama. As always, he favours set-ups which keep multiple actors in shot together, background and foreground, minimising on cuts between them. With some neat movements he is able to bring the right person to our attention at the right moment, for example the scene in which we first see Humphrey Bogart and Gina Lollobrigida. Bogart paces back and forth in the foreground moving in and out of shot, while Lollobrigida is in mid-shot but sat in the same place, meaning the two of them take turns to be the focal point without lots of editing or obtrusive camera-work. Another neat touch is when the major approaches Bogart at the outdoor table, starting off in the background as if an extra, until it becomes apparent he is worth taking note of. Huston's technique is about elaborate arrangement to keep all characters involved and performances intact without the distractions of film form.

And here there are many characters and performances worth looking at. As befitting for the tone, this is a real outing for oddball supporting players. Peter Lorre is at his very best, all shiftiness and lethargic mannerisms, while Robert Morley gleefully portrays his blustering and conspicuous opposite, and Ivor Barnard hams up his caricature of the puffed-up ex-army fascist. It appears these three fine character actors have been told to simply let go and play their familiar types to the hilt. By contrast, lesser-known Italian Marco Tulli gives a far more restrained performance, but he is in a way the funniest. There's a great moment somewhere in there while the other three are bickering and he is just sat in the middle of the shot, quietly blinking away like some daft meerkat. Even the tiniest roles are filled – often impeccably – by comedy players, many of whom are not well-known in English-language cinema. There's also a great turn by Jennifer Jones, at her most comical and almost unrecognisable as an eccentric Englishwoman, showing superb comic timing as she casually beats her husband at chess. With so much scene-stealing going on, it's possible to forget this is ostensibly a Humphrey Bogart movie.

But while Beat the Devil is full of quirky characters and has numerous funny little moments, it doesn't have much point beside that. The humour is never exactly hilarious because the whole thing really doesn't seem conceived as a comedy. There's not enough of the interaction between crazy characters and sane world which drives wild comedy (such as the Marx Brothers), because in Beat the Devil virtually everyone and everything is crazy. Meanwhile the only completely straight characters (Bogart and Lollobrigida) are simply dull marginalised figures who exist separately from the comedy yet don't have the strength to perk up their end of the movie. Overall it is just a chaotic mess that happens to be worth a chuckle here and there.

Humphrey Bogart heads a superior cast in this tale of a gang of swindlers who seek to covertly purchase African lands rich in uranium--but this is not the tough film noir you might expect: the script by director John Huston and Truman Capote upends the tale to create one of the most wry and wicked comedies going, and a remarkably fine cast follows suit with a host of eccentric performances.

Although Bogart does not look his best (this film was made toward the end of his life), he offers an understated yet very witty performance as Billy Dannreuther, the man the crooks hire to make the land purchase. His leading ladies, bombshell Gina Lollobrigida and an unexpectedly blonde Jennifer Jones, are equally effective in the roles of Bogart's cheerfully pragmatic wife and the pathological liar with whom Bogart becomes romantically entangled. But the big news in this film is the supporting cast. Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Ivor Barnard, and Marco Tulli give drop-dead-funny performances as the largely incompetent foursome behind the landsnatch scheme; Edward Underdown (as Jones' long suffering husband) is simply the most completely ludicrous Brit to hit the screen since 1930s screwball comedy; and all the cameo players nail their roles to perfection.

It would be unforgivable to give away too much of the story, but suffice to say that one wrong turn leads to another. The film never overplays its hand, maintaining a low key tone that sets off the wickedly funny script to delightful effect. Some viewers may not get the joke--much of BEAT THE DEVIL requires the ability to appreciate covert humor--but those who do will find the movie bears repeat viewing. Recommended.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This is, in many ways, a very strange movie. It features a great cast, headed by Humphrey Bogart and including such figures as Peter Lorre and Gina Lollobrigida among others and directed by the great John Huston. So, right off the top, it has a lot going for it, and, in fairness, for the most part the acting was decent enough, especially from Bogart. Having said that, the story itself was quite lacking in anything meaningful. Bogart plays Billy Dannreuther, some type of shady character (although his background was never really explained) who teams up with a gang of international criminals in a scheme that had something to do with uranium mining and/or coffee plantations in Africa (although I was never really clear on the details of the scheme, either.) The team (or the "committee" as they were sometimes referred to) meet up with a somewhat mysterious British couple - the Chelms - and everything becomes quite confusing, both for the characters in the movie and the viewer watching the movie.

I was rather unimpressed with the female leads in the movie (Lollobrigida as Mrs. Dannreuther and Jennifer Jones as Mrs. Chelm.) Each seemed to fall for each other's husbands far too quickly and easily. There was some attempt at humour throughout. Some was effective, some not. The drunk ship's captain line was funny the first time; after that it became tiresome. The attempt at humour at the close of the movie was mildly amusing in an ironic sort of way. Nothing here really overwhelmed me. On the strength of Bogart's performance and the high powered cast, I'd give it a 4/10. In all honesty Bogie's wartime movies were far better from what I've seen.

Most of the reviews of 1953's "Beat the Devil" regard it as a Humphrey Bogart picture. Certainly his company produced it, but it is truly a John Huston film. Huston's legendary dry wit suffuses the whole enterprise from start to finish. Essentially, a comedy of errors, Huston's script, co-authored by Truman Capote, also serves up wry social commentary on a range of subjects from social position to the industrial world's exploitation of Africa, a place near and dear to Huston's heart. Jennifer Jones' prophecy that Africa will become an ugly place with "all those holes," has long since become a reality. A brilliant cast, with Bogie playing his typical world-weary existentialist, spiral avarice and misconception into hilarity; a comic exposition of the proverb, "What a tangled web we weave . . ." Often criticized for being unrealistic, Huston's and Capote's comic script has none-to-funny real parallels in the present day debacles of Enron and WorldCom. In "Beat the Devil," greed and deceit are brilliantly juxtaposed to reveal the ultimate folly of even the most devious criminal enterprise. This is a superior black comedy that plays even better today than it did 52 years ago.

The other comments from reviewers capture the plot. I won't add mine.

'Beat The Devil' has got to be the most edgy movie Bogart or Jones ever attempted. Jones performance is a revaluation in her range of talent. Actually, considering 'Portrait of Jenny', 'Love Letters', and 'Song Of Bernadette' a startling revelation. In 'Beat The Devil' she more than matches Morley and Lorre in comedic brilliance. Very few actors could play a saint and a complete ditz with precision and believability.

Bogart was no slouch in comedy e.g. 'All Through The Night' and 'We're No Angels' may have called this movie, 'A mess', but it is a fine mess and a tribute to Bogart's ability.

-30-

For such a talented group of people who participated in creating Beat the Devil you would think they could have come up with a much better product.

Truman Capote's script was witty and Humphrey Bogart did deadpan some of those lines effectively. But the production values were so shoddy I could hardly believe John Huston put his name to it. Mind you, his two previous films before this were The African Queen and Moulin Rouge and both of them had superb cinematography.

Maybe part of the reason that Beat the Devil has become a cult item is that it looks like something shot with a Kodak. A lot of the bad horror films that became cult items have the same look to it.

Bits of The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca get spoofed here, but not well. Robert Morley is somewhat amusing in his recreation of Sidney Greenstreet. Gina Lollabrigida is quite sexy, hefting those two weapons of mass destruction around.

Actually my favorites here are Jennifer Jones and Edward Underdown the pretentious English couple whose pretensions nearly do them all in. Still it's not enough.

In fact I'm amazed that David O. Selznick who was known for interfering in all of his wife films allowed her to even do this one. Didn't help her's or anyone else's career.

I'm sure the cast was grateful for a Mediterranean location and a tax write-off for Bogart's Santana productions. Bogart himself thought little of the film and who am I to argue with Bogey.

Rare essential cult comedy starring Humphrey Bogart as a smuggler working for a band of criminals who meet up with a pair of traveling newly-weds who are off to Africa in search of diamonds.

There are some plot twists, but the film takes its time a bit too much. A good film to watch just for appreciation, although not quite great. I'll tell you who is great, though: Peter Lorre re-united Bogart again 11 years after "Casablanca"!

4/5 stars.

• John Ulmer

Bogart's a shady tough guy who has cut a deal with Robert Morley's band of scoundrels (including the inimitable (but often imitated) Peter Lorre) to swindle some central African country out of a uranium deposit. Enter a supercilious ex-Royal Marine gentry-wannabe (Edward Underdown) and his compulsive liar wife (Jennifer Jones), who are heading to Africa on the same boat and you get this off-beat comedy directed by the great John Huston. A bit slow at times, "Beat the Devil" isn't exactly 'laff-a-minute', but the situations are amusing, the script witty in a dry way, and the delivery is excellent (especially Morley'). As a bonus, Bogart's wife is played by the gorgeous Gina Lollobrigida, eye-candy that shamelessly adds a half point to my rating. Good fun – worth watching.

I am a big Jennifer Jones (JJ) fan and have recently completed a video collection of all her 24 films including the two versions:"Wild Heart/Gone to Earth" (1950).I therefore have had an opportunity to compare her very divers performances in each role.Now I think Selznick did JJ a great injustice by not producing/casting his wife in more comedy/thrillers like "Beat the Devil".She obviously had a comic gift which comes over perfectly as the congenital, lying, obsessed Gwendolynne Chelm "...my Spanish nurse said...".Apart from Cluny Brown (1946),it is a pity she was not cast in more comedy/thrillers like this instead of the nervy characters she often portrayed, she would for sure have had more hits where age was not critical unlike in say "A Farewell To Arms" (1957) in which she was too old to play effectively the part of Catherine Blakeley, the English nurse.Playing her role in "Beat The Devil" in a blond wig, she positively shines and I could not take my eyes off her even when La Lollo appeared in the same scene!Humphrey Bogart looks physically sagged down with the cancer which was soon to claim him in 1957 but he has some great lines from the pen of Truman Capote/John Huston.The more you watch "Beat the Devil", the more comic it becomes.I must have watched it 10 times by now as there is always something I miss on the previous viewings.I especially liked the "interview" with the menacing Arab potentate, with all the castaways all held for questioning.Even here is a joke as he is obsessed with the American actress,Rita Hayworth and appears to have a pin-up of her on his wall! All the cast shine and parody the characters they represent.The snobby English gentleman Harry Chelm (played by (Edward Underdown) in reality a "bloody refugee from Earls Court".The sinister German Irishman! (Peter Lorre) who has obviously taken refuge in South America - the traditional bolt hole for escaping Nazis after the collapse of the Third Reich.Comic baddy boss (Robert Morley) gives us a tour de force as Peterson - watch his wobbly double chins as he is harshly questioned about his purpose and reason for visiting the particular African country.The drunk excitable Italian skipper of the doomed vessel and of course the voluptous Italian firecracker played by Gina Lollobrigida.The line she has to Edward Underdown (who has a chill on his liver "too tiresome") is: "I've brought you tea and crumpets", appealed immensely to my bawdy English sense of humour and I'm sure La Lollo did not realise the affect this line would have on an English audience as she was speaking her lines phonetically at the time!This is a glorious romp of a film.

Various crooks, smugglers, con men and adventurers are trying to go to Africa to buy a new valuable material called Uranium. Peterson (Robert Morley), Julius O'Hara (Peter Lorre), the Dannreuthers (Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida) and others are stuck in Italy as they wait for their ship to be repaired. Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm (Jennifer Jones) is fascinated with the group as she travels with her husband.

Truman Capote is injecting this with lots of snappy rapid-fire dialog. John Huston is trying to shoot the idyllic location with lots of camera work. However this movie just lack a cohesive drive. The characters are all eccentric. There is a rambling quality to this. The story of this ragtag group wasting time at this Mediterranean port isn't that compelling or exciting. The movie feels like on hold for far too long. It feels like a lot of A-list talents playing around without much of a goal.

If you're a classic film fan, you're going to come across this film sooner or later. And chances are, being a fan of how movies were made back in the day, you'll understand what these creative folks were going for.

It's a satire/spoof! It's not a blatant attack on movies of similar genres (a la Naked Gun), but a subtle one because THEY PLAY IT STRAIGHT. And therein lies the genius of this film. It's a satire that's played straight. Even though the actors, bless their hearts, seem like they're sometimes about to bust a seam speaking the lines, they are intentionally trying to be serious. Every cast member, especially Edward Underdown and Robert Morley (as Chelm and Peterson), understood and delivered their lines to perfection. "The men of this world most in need of a beating up are all so incredibly large..." Or something like that. Hell, Bogart just sat back and let the humor flow all around him. And good old Jennifer Jones. The old Selznick factory product finally gives a performance that's not artificial. What's amazing is that renowned Italian actress Gina Lollobridgia took part in this production. My theory is, she didn't know what the hell was going on. They gave her the script, told her to play it seriously, and didn't clue her in on the joke. There had not been a film made like this before, and there hasn't been one made since.

Perhaps this film has served a lesson to studios over the years. Sometimes, I think some of todays satire/spoofs do venture close to Beat the Devil ground (Zoolander), but none of them ever reach it for fear of the audience not getting it, as I understand most of Beat the Devils audience of 1954 did not get it. Imagine Mike Myers playing Austin Powers straight, and not trying to be funny in all the situations he's in. To me, that would be immensely more funny.

This glorious spoof of the film noir genre of the 1940's, has direction by John Huston, an ever evolving script by Truman Capote and stars:Humphrey Bogart - HB (Billy Danreuther), Jennifer Jones - JJ (Gwendolynne Chelm), Gina Lollobrigida - GL (Maria), Edward Underdown - EU (Harry Chelm), Robert Morley - RM (Pierson), Peter Lorre - PL (O'Hara) and other notable character actors.

Basically a group of rogues are vieing with each other to be the first to obtain a rich uranium deposit somewhere in "British East Africa" but we are never told where precisely.It was filmed on location in Italy and features the only other comic role of JJ, (her first being "Cluny Brown (1946)) as a congenital liar, whose Spanish Nurse taught her all there is to know!.What a pity Selznick did not recognise the comic potential of his wife and instead of putting her in soulful dirges like "Indiscretion of an American Wife"(1952), he had developed her natural comic potential."Beat The Devil" did not perform at the box office in 1953/4 when released but is now, thankfully, being re-evaluated by discerning film connoiseurs, achieving almost a cult like status.

Being a strong amateur chess player, I particularly liked the scene outside the Italian cafe where JJ is "duffing up" EU again with an almost instant sight of the board, while chatting up HB.(Note to chess geeks - JJ plays much more weakly in "A Farewell to Arms (1957) vs Rock Hudson!!).Incidentally HB liked to play chess himself when off camera.

The plot twists & turns and being English with a bawdy sense of humour, I laughed when GL says to EU "I've brought you some tea & crumpet" while almost smothering EU in the eye with her... well you get the point! It is reported John Huston rather sadistically requested JJ to climb to the rocking crow's nest- a fearsome climb - to do her leg stretching exercises on the ship taking them to Africa.The gang, led by RM, hope she breaks a leg - & not in the theatrical sense!My favourite scene is in the office of the African potentate who is questioning the motley group of rogues.In reality all he wants to know is whether HB has met Rita Hayworth as he is a big fan!.If you look carefully you can see her pin-up on his office wall.The quivering of RM's various chins when he is threatened with torture, is a delight to behold.

The trick of Nazis having escaped to Latin America after WWII, is lampooned by PL who insists everyone calls him "O'Hara" (our little Irish leprecaun!).Everyone seems to be having a ball.Look out for Bernard Lee playing his usual police inspector role.This was long before he shot to fame as "M" in the Sean Connery, James Bond series from 1962 onwards.I've noticed in memorable films there is usually a catchy tune somewhere and here is no exception as played by an Italian brass band.I even find myself whistling the pianola music played on the ship while Ivor Barnard is away with his stabbing swagger stick ready to bump off EU.I voted 7/10 for this film

Beat the Devil (1953)

A riotous, imperfect, silly, brazen, forward thinking, throwaway, brilliant spoof.

For starters, you know something will happen with Huston directing Bogart. And throw in an aging bulging Peter Lorre as a German named O'Hara. O'Hara comes into a room and says to Bogart, playing a disaffected American, "Why do you always make jokes about my name, huh? In Chile the name of O'Hara is, is a tip top name. Many Germans in Chile have become to be called O'Hara."

And so there is a dig at a lot of stereotypes, most of them with shades of truth. The style of the film is not film noir, as many people say, but more just an intrigue or war time spy film. The most direct connection seems to be Huston's own Maltese Falcon, but even this is based on Bogart and Lorre appearing in both films (as well as a fun appearance in Beat the Devil by Robert Morely doing a kind of less pleasant Sidney Greenstreet).

I sensed a lot of direct influence from Lady from Shanghai, an overlooked and frankly brilliant and daring Orson Welles film from a few years earlier. Check out the slightly surreal plot, the strange sequences of locations (land, boat, land, with an exotic overture in the middle), and the characters themselves, including Jennifer Jones as a kind of decorative female not unlike Rita Hayworth in Shanghai. There is even a man-to-man discussion of Heyworth in Beat the Devil between Bogart and a unlikely Muslim captor in a generally hilarious scene.

The film is flawed by its own excesses at times, and by a kind of frivolousness that Welles, for one, avoided by making his film's excesses more formal and less literary. Huston, like Bogart, was literate by nature, as a lot of heavy drinking men were in those days, and the dialog, as brilliant as it is (and shepherded along by Huston and Truman Capote in tandem), isn't always in synch with the acting, and with the flow of events. So if we don't really expect anything from the plot, per se, knowing it's all just in fun, we come to expect more from the series of remarks, the twists of fate, and the yawning expectations of an audience used to very high quality writing and acting by 1953.

I know some people who just can't finish watching this because it strikes them as phony and childish. Bogart might agree--he lost money on the production. But there are some great moments, and an ongoing repartee that works well, or works superbly, at different moments. I'd cash out a couple of actors for others more idiosyncratic, I think. But no one asked me, I know. Watch it for what it is. And check out Lady from Shanghai and see if you see what I mean.

"Beat the Devil" has a number of memorable characters. The best performances come from Jennifer Jones, excellent as the bright-eyed and eccentric Mrs. Chelm, Humphrey Bogart as the practical Billy Dannreuther and Robert Morley in an unscrupulous Sydney Greenstreet type role. My favorite among these was Jennifer Jones' energetic and amusing portrayal of Mrs. Chelm.

The movie has a number of funny scenes and brilliant lines. However, the overall storyline was only average could have been stronger to bring out more humor. Humphrey Bogart said this film could only be enjoyed by "phonies". I wouldn't go that far, but this is certainly not Bogart's best film.

I watched Beat the Devil last night from a DVD I purchased recently, and frankly I wasn't impressed.

The reason I bought it I suppose was the cast list ... an excellent roll up it is too. But really I did not enjoy the film ... it just didn't seem to get up off the ground at all. Before I knew it, there was what I imagined to be a climax towards the end, then it finished. (Maybe I should watch it a few more times?)

The stars put together for the film seemed to play out their Hollywood stereotypical roles well ... Peter Lorre as the nervous little "illegal alien" type, Robert Morley as the pompous Englishman, etc. I really don't see how Bogart could have been a "sex symbol" in this one? Gina was just gorgeous as always.

I did enjoy the humour of the film though. It was subtle but it was there. Some quite funny moments.

The DVD I have is of a very poor quality. The picture is very scratchy and the sound is bad. (Gina was extremely difficult to understand in some parts.)