I had not seen this 1953 John Huston directed, Humphrey Bogart starring film, though I did know of it, until now. Like many of Huston’s movies of the late ‘40’s into the ‘50’s, Beat the Devil was shot “on location” in Italy, with some work in Pinewood Studios in the U.K. This film boasts quite a cast too- Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre. Looking at the theatrical poster you can tell that the promotions people didn’t know how to publicize this movie. It’s actually a comedy, though a fairly unconventional one for 1953, but the poster shows Bogart punching someone and our two leading ladies in bodice bursting poses. Very “sex and violence”, which it’s really not.
In the film Humphry Bogart plays Billy Dannreuther, one member of a group of men (Robert Morley, Marco Tulli, Ivor Barnard, and Peter Lorre) who are in Italy waiting for the boat that will take them to Africa, where they plan to buy uranium rich land for pennies, to be repaired. While there, Billy and his wife Maria (Lollobrigida), meet an English couple (Jennifer Jones, Edward Underdown), who are also traveling to Africa on the same boat. During the course of their time together many lies and tall tails are spoken as truth to each other, until no one knows for sure what is true and what is not. After some misadventures the groups learn that they are actually after the same thing once they reach their destination, but who, if anyone, will get what they want.?
My wife watched Beat the Devil with me. I found myself laughing at the very clever dialogue (the script was written by John Huston and Truman Capote) and delighted when the story took me places that I had no idea it would. She thought it was too long. The version I watched ran 90 minutes! I don’t think she was paying attention. It is a “talkie” movie, but if you’re listening it really pays off. Nearly everyone in the cast get at least one line of terrific dialogue, but it’s Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, and Jennifer Jones who made me smile the most. Though Robert Morley could make nearly any line sound clever and funny. To tell the truth, when I started the film I thought it would be a fairly typical Huston/Bogart action/drama, ala Key Largo or The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but I slowly began to realize that it was really a comedy. There are a few moments of tension and danger, but this movie is actually spoofing those movies I just named. There isn’t really a good guy or bad guy. They are all pretty immoral people, but most of them are also quite charming and fun to watch. I know this film is now just over 70 years old but I don’t want to spoil it for you. As I remarked earlier it takes you places you aren’t expecting, at least I didn’t see these twists coming, and the final moment of the movie seems kind of anti-climatic but works perfectly at the same time. I really enjoyed myself watching it.
Again, Huston shot Beat the Devil, mostly, on location in Italy, with an Italian crew, Italian extras, and cast members like Lollobrigida and Marco Tulli. Humphrey Bogart said that it was not one of his favorite films. There was a lot of trouble communicating with the Italian crew and extras at times, and he was involved in a nasty car accident during filming which knocked out several of his teeth. The story goes that filming went on but it was very difficult to understand Bogart due to his “injuries” and some of his dialogue had to be dubbed in post production by a young up and coming English actor/mimic named Peter Sellers. Bogart did enjoy his time with Gina Lollobrigida, saying she was “The most woman I've seen for a long time. Makes Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple.” Writer Truman Capote was on set much of the time working on the script only a few days ahead of the shooting schedule. It’s hard for me to imagine a more mismatched pair than the tall, bombastic, booming voiced John Huston and the diminutive, soft spoken, lisping Truman Capote. How would that work? There is a story from production that may help explain. Humphrey Bogart, at some point, challenged Capote to an arm wrestling match, which Capote won. There was a rematch, also won by Capote, and another that went the same way. It’s said that by that point it had turned into a full body wrestling match, where the younger Capote also came out as the victor of. Bogart was in his fifties while Capote was in his late twenties, which I’m sure had a lot to do with it. Seeing something like, I’m sure, would have delighted John Huston who loved to see his pal Bogart publicly embarrassed and the lack of fear in the scrappy Capote. When the film was released it was not a big success. Even with it’s star power. I believe it was because audiences expected an action filled romantic adventure and they got a, mainly, cerebral comedy, a parody of what they expected. I guess that’s why I found myself really enjoying it as it played out. It wasn’t what I expected, which brought a broad smile to my face. This was another reason Humphrey Bogart didn’t like this movie. It was his production company, Santana Pictures, that bankrolled it and he lost a lot of money.
At some point over the years the copyright on Beat the Devil was not renewed so it fell into public domain. Which means there are many versions of it available out there and their quality varies wildly. I read that the film was originally released in a 1.81 aspect ratio, but what I watched, streamed on Amazon Prime, was 1.37. It’s not a huge difference and didn’t really effect my enjoyment of it, but it would be nice to see it as intended. I have not yet found a home video release that claims to be in 1.81, but it could exist. I will say, be careful, there is a terribly colorized version out there that should be avoided at all cost. The film was shot in black & white and should be seen that way.
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