Beat the Devil
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
Music by	Franco Mannino
Release date(s)	March 12, 1954
Running time	100 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Beat the Devil is a 1953 film directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart. It was co-authored by Huston and Truman Capote, and loosely based upon a novel of the same name by British critic Claud Cockburn, writing under the pseudonym James Helvick. It was intended by Huston as a tongue-in-cheek spoof of his earlier masterpiece, The Maltese Falcon, and of films of its genre. Image File history File links Robert Morley and Humphrey Bogart in Beat the Devil (1953 movie) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director and actor. ... John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director and actor. ... Patrick Claud Cockburn (pronounced coburn) (1904-1981) was a renowned radical British journalist, who was controversial for his communist sympathies. ... John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director and actor. ... Truman Capote (pronounced ) (30 September 1924 – 25 August 1984) was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognized literary classics. ... Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an iconic American actor of legendary fame who retained his legacy after death. ... Jennie Jones (born March 2, 1919) is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning American actress. ... Gina Lollobrigida. ... Peter Lorre, 1946, by Yousuf Karsh Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born Ladislav (László) Löwenstein, was a stage and screen actor of Austrian descent especially known for playing roles with sinister overtones in Hollywood crime films and mysteries. ... Robert Morley (May 26, 1908 – June 3, 1992) was an Oscar-nominated British actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment. ... Edward Underdown (born 1908-died 1989) is a British actor. ... Bernard Lee as M in The Man with the Golden Gun Bernard Lee (January 10, 1908 – January 16, 1981) was a British actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven James Bond films. ... Franco Mannino (24 April 1924 - 1st February 2005) was an Italian film composer. ... March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (72nd in leap years). ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director and actor. ... Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an iconic American actor of legendary fame who retained his legacy after death. ... Truman Capote (pronounced ) (30 September 1924 – 25 August 1984) was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognized literary classics. ... Francis Claud Cockburn (pronounced ) (1904-1981) was a renowned radical British journalist, who was controversial for his communist and stalinist sympathies. ... Actors Bogart, Lorre, Astor and Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon (1941) The Maltese Falcon (1930) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett that has been adapted several times for the cinema. ...

Plot

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 or travel aboard an ill-fated tramp steamer en route to Mombasa. The all-star cast includes Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley (playing the role that Sydney Greenstreet would have played had he still been acting), Peter Lorre and Bernard Lee, (who was to gain widespread recognition with his appearances as "M" in the James Bond movies.) General Name, Symbol, Number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Atomic mass 238. ... bumbasa is the second largest city in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean. ... Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an iconic American actor of legendary fame who retained his legacy after death. ... Jennie Jones (born March 2, 1919) is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning American actress. ... Gina Lollobrigida. ... Robert Morley (May 26, 1908 – June 3, 1992) was an Oscar-nominated British actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment. ... Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon Sydney Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was an actor, originally from Sandwich, England. ... Peter Lorre, 1946, by Yousuf Karsh Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born Ladislav (László) Löwenstein, was a stage and screen actor of Austrian descent especially known for playing roles with sinister overtones in Hollywood crime films and mysteries. ... Bernard Lee as M in The Man with the Golden Gun Bernard Lee (January 10, 1908 – January 16, 1981) was a British actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven James Bond films. ... The James Bond 007 gun logo James Bond, codename 007 is a fictional British agent[1] created in 1952 by writer Ian Fleming, featured in several novels and short stories. ...

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 that Huston himself had pioneered and as such has developed cult status in the ensuing years. This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ...

Reception

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. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George McClennans revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. ...

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 drama Infamous (2006), Truman Capote (Toby Jones) reminisces about life during the filming of Beat the Devil. Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize winning American film critic. ... For the the baseball player Bert Campaneris, see Bert Campaneris Camp is an aesthetic in which something has appeal because of its bad taste or ironic value. ... Infamous (Previously: Have You Heard?; and Every Word Is True USA working title) is a forthcoming film from Warner Independent Pictures, due to be released in September 2006. ...

Beat the Devil is in the public domain and is hence freely available, as below. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Watch

• Beat the Devil (93 minutes)

External link

• Beat the Devil at the Internet Movie Database