Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Aryana Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

DKosty123 There are times when you look at a movie and you have to say "the devil made them do it." This is one of those cases, as a little known novel- Beat The Devil by James Helvick adapted by a writer Claud Cockburn whose writing is best known as the source of Cabaret, then adapted by Truman Capote and John Huston plus a couple of other writers, and you wind up with something oddly eccentric. Then you give the film a very low budget and film it all in Europe with several fairly well known actors and expect the cast to carry the film. It almost works though I am not sure if the cast or the writers got over paid for this one.The British part of the humor stands out, the tuna can not be put any further into a cheek than it is here. Oddities scream out in galore. Gina Lollobrigida is Bogart's wife, who oddly is not cast as an Italian though she seems very much to be one. Jennifer Jones is married to Edward Underdown who is sickly all the time while she is lying about him being an English Noble type. Both women seem to stray to each others husbands, though neither woman seems into either of their men, except using them for money and status.Bogart is doing business with a group of con men headed by Robert Morley and Peter Lorre, and yet he is performing a con job on them, and balancing the two eccentric ladies in his life. There is a rich texture to the cast, script, and story yet the film is done on the cheap. Look for Bernard Lee, M in the classic Bond films, as Insp. Jack Clayton, trying to make nonsense of this whole thing.The film sort of starts near the end, then goes back to the beginning and sort of fills in the strange world with a lot of the smoke and mirrors. That is what this film is, subtle humor with A List Talent performing on a shoe string budget with famous writing adopting a little known novel into a odder film. It kind of reminds me of Fairly Odd Parents being done live without actual parents while the kids are using crayons to color in a slang dictionary without a printed book to base the meanings on.

Michael O'Keefe The fabled John Huston directs this Truman Capote screenplay. Billy Dannreuther(Humphrey) is part of a group of international crooks--Peterson(Robert Morely, Julius O'Hara(Peter Lorre) and Ravello(Marco Tulli) that are stranded in Italy trying to catch a steamer to Africa. Billy's wife Maria(Gina Lollobrigida),starving for romance, is a bit uneasy when her husband meets Gwendolen Chelm(Jennifer Jones), the feminine half of a British couple waiting for the same steamer being repaired. Counting Mr.Chelm(Edward Underdown), there are now seven people ready to set sail to Africa, all conjuring a scheme to beat each other to lay claim on land that is rich in uranium.BEAT THE DEVIL didn't start out well with critics and viewers, but looking back some think this black comedy to be the epitome of a 1950's spy-spoof. For some strange reason, my favorite sequence is the evacuation of the sinking boat. Why didn't Miss Lollobrigida get more screen time? Bogart was effortless.Other players: Bernard Lee, Saro Urzi, Ivor Bernard and Mario Perrone.

Tweekums Billy Dannreuther is working for a group of crooks; they are planning to sail from Italy then head to British East Africa where they intend to acquire land which they believe contains uranium. Their boat is delayed and while they are stuck in Italy Billy becomes friendly with Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm who, with her husband, are also heading to Africa; apparently to grow coffee. Gwen is an unusual character; constantly making up stories to make life more interesting; at one point she suggests that Billy and his associates are doctors planning to carry out immoral experiments on the unsuspecting natives. More dangerously she tells Billy that her husband is intending to get involved in the uranium business; this comment is overheard by one of the gang and soon they see the Chelms as a threat to their scheme; a threat that might need to be dealt with. As well as the drama there is also romance as Billy and Gwen grow closer while simultaneously Billy's wife, Maria forms a relationship to Mr Chelms.If one watches this film hoping for a gritty film noir you will be sorely disappointed but if you are happy with something lighter you may really enjoy this. Having read other reviews I went in with fairly low expectations but found myself having a good time. There are plenty of laughs to be had; many but not all provided by Gwen's stories/theories. The cast do a fairly solid job; Humphrey Bogart is a good lead even if this is nowhere near his best film and Jennifer Jones is a lot of fun as Gwen. The supporting cast, which includes Peter Lorre, Robert Morley and Gina Lollobrigida are entertaining and amusing too. The characters are nicely varied; the bumptious gang leader, the man who thinks the world is a worse place because Hitler and Mussolini are no more and the drunken sea captain to mention just three. Overall I'd say that while the film is a bit messy it is a lot of fun with far more laughs than I'd expected.

jarrodmcdonald-1 This is cinematic hamburger set forth as steak. With its pedigree, this film should be much more substantial than it actually is. A flop in its day, the piece has found mouth-watering flavor among modern critics. But save for a few inspired moments, it doesn't seem like it's all the way done. The most interesting part is when Robert Morley and Humphrey Bogart watch their car plunge into the ocean, which may be a rather apt metaphor for the film plummeting at the box office. Next, the near murder of Jennifer Jones' husband on the ship makes no sense. But the film does pick up speed when they all land on shore and are facing a firing squad, but even that leads to a dull payoff, simply by allowing Morley's character to write a check and thus they are free? Why doesn't Morley offer a check in the beginning? Probably some scenes have been edited out where Bogart's character runs off. All too sudden, he is chummy with the government official. And the ending of the film, where we learn Jones' husband has made it to the plantation seems as if screenwriter Truman Capote and director John Huston have run out of inspiration or money to continue and finish it. I guess there could be a sequel, but what would be the point? Check please...