Beat the Devil

It is a known fact that John Huston had no shame in making an entire film just so he could take a whiskey and cigar vacation with Humphrey Bogart.  In the rich tradition of “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and “The African Queen” comes “Beat the Devil.” Huston; having…

theriverjordan

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you glad tidings. The Captain is sober and the SS Myanga will sail at midnight.”  Beat the devil based on John Helvick’s novel and a screenplay by the legendary Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, In Cold Blood) This film is so funny and…

Dale Ranger

It's fitting that the screenplay for Beat the Devil was in a constant state of creation, being written and adjusted each night after filming, because the same is true of the identities in the film. There is not a single character whose identity is consistent, nor is there…

sakana1

When Robert Morley inhaled the sea air and exclaimed - “every breath is a guinea in the bank of health!” - I just knew Truman Capote must’ve written a line with such flourish.

Will Steele

Famously written on the fly after production had already begun, Beat the Devil is a unique result of studio filmmaking—unique because, unlike other transparent b-roll, it's actually quite fun. At times the plot feels like a story being told by someone out on a bender,…

ScreeningNotes

Truly feels like a film being put together before our very eyes, even 60+ years after it was actually (somehow) made. It really makes you value the time most of the personnel involved, from Huston and Bogart on down to the rest of the cast and crew, spent in the studio…

Joe

It might be an undisciplined shambles, but I thought it was an absolute hoot. The cast is great as a deliberately motley bunch, and I don't agree that Bogart is phoning it in; he comes across to me as delightfully laidback. Read some of the tales about its production,…

covkate

Two couples of scoundrels try to make some fortune in a land of Africa, this will unleash a series of offbeat and sometimes fun moments. If you've seen every memorable film noir there is and/or "Africa Queen," you know that Bogart was really good on playing the smartass,…

Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine

“Like in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Humphrey Bogart is a globe-trotting fortune hunter out to plunder the developing world like a Conrad antihero who grew up playing stickball—here, he and dreamy-divine wife Gina Lollobrigida are en route to a shady uranium fortune…

Amy Hensarling