Beat the Devil (1953)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

James Helvick (novel)
Truman Capote (writer) ...

Release Date:

17 December 1953 (Italy)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Adventure at its boldest! Bogart at his best!

Plot:

On their way to Africa are a group of rogues who hope to get rich there, and a seemingly innocent British couple. They meet and things happen...

Plot Keywords:

Scheme | Public Domain | Car In Water | Lifeboat | Nonlinear Timeline

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Tesoro dell'Africa, Il (Italy)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK | USA | Italy

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Spain:T | Switzerland:14 | UK:U | West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Rizzoli-Haggiag

Trivia:

William Styron's second novel, "Set This House on Fire", describes a film crew on location--obviously based on director John Huston and gang during the shooting of this film. The town in the novel is Ravello on Italy's Amalfi Drive, where most of the film was shot.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When we see the newspaper article about Vanmeer's murder, early in the film, only the first paragraph belongs to the story; what we can see of the second and third paragraphs is about a need for new school buildings.

Quotes:

Purser: Do you know that your associates are all in hoosegow? Oh, not that I'm a bit surprised. I put them down as thoroughly bad characters, right off the bat. But then there are so many bad characters nowadays. Take mine, for instance.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Biography: Jennifer Jones: Portrait of a Lady" (2001)

Brilliant Dry Humor

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.