Beat the Devil (film)
| Beat the Devil | |
|---|---|
1953 film poster
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| Directed by | John Huston |
| Produced by | John Huston |
| Screenplay by | John Huston Truman Capote |
| Based on |
Beat the Devil 1951 novel by Claud Cockburn (as James Helvick) |
| Starring |
Humphrey Bogart Jennifer Jones Gina Lollobrigida |
| Music by | Franco Mannino |
| Cinematography | Oswald Morris |
| Edited by | Ralph Kemplen |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
British Lion Films (UK) United Artists (US) |
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Release date
|
24 November 1953 (US) |
|
Running time
|
89 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | £115,926 (UK) |
Beat the Devil is a 1953 Hollywood production filmed on location in Italy with an international cast. The film was directed by John Huston, and starred Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones and Gina Lollobrigida, and featured Robert Morley, Peter Lorre and Bernard Lee. Huston and Truman Capote wrote the screenplay, loosely based upon a novel of the same name by British journalist Claud Cockburn, writing under the pseudonym James Helvick. Huston made the film as a parody of a genre of film. Although often described as a parody of The Maltese Falcon, which Huston directed and in which Bogart and Lorre appeared, this is not the case. Capote said "John [Huston] and I decided to kid the story, to treat it as a parody. Instead of another Maltese Falcon, we turned it into a ... [spoof] on this type of film."
The script, written on a day-to-day basis as the film was shot, concerns the adventures of a motley crew of swindlers and ne'er-do-wells trying to claim land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port to travel aboard a tramp steamer en route to Mombasa.
Billy Dannreuther (Humphrey Bogart) is a formerly-wealthy American who has fallen on hard times. He is reluctantly working with four crooks: Peterson (Robert Morley), ex-Nazi Julius O'Hara (Peter Lorre), Major Jack Ross (Ivor Barnard) and Ravello (Marco Tulli), who are trying to acquire uranium-rich land in British East Africa. Billy suspects that Major Ross murdered a British Colonial officer, who threatened to expose their plan. While waiting in Italy for passage to Africa, Billy and his wife Maria (Gina Lollobrigida) meet a British couple: Harry (Edward Underdown) and Gwendolen Chelm (Jennifer Jones), who plan to travel on the same ship. Harry is a very proper and traditional Englishman, while Gwendolen is flighty and fanciful and a compulsive liar. Billy and Gwendolen have an affair, while Maria flirts with Harry. Peterson becomes suspicious that the Chelms may be attempting to acquire the uranium themselves. His suspicions are unfounded, but they seem to him to be confirmed by Gwendolen, who lies about her husband and exaggerates his importance.
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Wikipedia