Rent Beat the Devil (1953)
3.2 of 5 from 100 ratings
1h 29min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- As one of a disparate group of fortune-seekers bound for Africa, hard-up Billy Dannreuther (Humphrey Bogart) faces the swindling machinations of his fellow travellers as they await passage from a picturesque port on Italy's Amalfi coast. But with scheming aplenty, will this motley crew miss the boat completely?
- Actors:
- Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Edward Underdown, Ivor Barnard, Marco Tulli, Bernard Lee, Mario Perrone, Giulio Donnini, Saro Urzì, Juan de Landa, Aldo Silvani, Dave Crowley, Julie Gibson, Alex Pochet, Mimmo Poli, Peter Sellers, Manuel Serrano
- Directors:
- John Huston
- Producers:
- John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Angelo Rizzoli, John Woolf
- Writers:
- Claud Cockburn, Truman Capote, John Huston
- Studio:
- GMVS Entertainment
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Cinema Paradiso's 2024 Centenary Club: Part 3, Getting to Know..., Instant Expert's Guide to John Huston, Introducing a British Film Family, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 16/03/2020
- Run Time:
- 94 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Audio commentary featuring film historians Lem Dobbs, Julie Kirgo, and Nick Redman (2018)
- Audio commentary featuring DoP Oswald Morris, script supervisor Angela Allen and director's assistant Jeanie Sims (2007)
- Alexander Cockburn Beat the Devil (2012, 23 mins): the writer talks about his father, Claud Cockburn, from whose novel (under the pseudonym James Helvick) the film is adapted
- By the Fireside (1945, 2 mins): an advertisement for Maypole Tea emphasising the quintessential Englishness of the afternoon tea ritual
- Atomic Achievement (1956, 20 mins): a public information film celebrating the advances of nuclear power in the UK
- Stills allery
More like Beat the Devil
Found in these customers lists
Reviews (2) of Beat the Devil
"MALTESE FALCON" PARODY - Beat the Devil review by Frank Talker™
Subtle spoof of adventure thrillers that - on the surface at least - appears very much an example of the movie genre being spoofed.
Once you realise, however, that the movie has no real hero nor heroine, you can sit back and enjoy the first-rate actors pretending to be characters whom are pretending to be otherwise than they are. (This makes it also something of a satire on the Hollywood film-production system and its combative egos, sexual perversion & illegal-drug abuse.)
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Comedy Caper. - Beat the Devil review by Steve
Frivolous comedy-adventure which seems to imagine that Humphrey Bogart joined the gang from The Maltese Falcon and spent the last dozen years on the road working elaborate scams. Robert Morley plays the fat man and we even get Peter Lorre, now also carrying a few kilos. Obviously they all operate under new names...
Brigid O'Shaughnessy must still be inside! Or dead. Now the lies are provided by a blonde Jennifer Jones as a ditzy kook. Bogart is married to Gina Lollobrigida and the glamour is more exposed than in the early days of film noir. It's a very bright, sunny film, mostly set in a touristic Italy, which maybe would have suited Technicolor.
There are no ominous shadows; this is film blanc. And it's just great fun. Everyone is trying to get to Africa to claim uranium rights... John Huston co-writes (with Truman Capote) and directs the Anglo-Italian production supported by an amazing British crew and a wonderful cast playing a gallery of untrustworthy crooks.
The screwball comedy fizzes for an hour though goes a little flat once they leave the picturesque Amalfi Coast. It's an engaging escapade with a dry, English sense of humour. It's utterly inconsequential and the conspiracy feels like it was made up on the set. It's minor Huston but actually triggers a new genre, the comedy caper.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.