Beat the Devil

source: Beat the Devil

Old movies with grand stars are somehow immune from modern complaints, even when they are pretty bad. "Beat the Devil" has Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lolobrigida, Robert Morley (!!!) was directed by John Huston, and was written by Truman Capote--- For goodness' sake, this is a billing made in movie heaven! Alas, the movie is kind of lame. But who could come right out and say so? One really WANTS to love it, and revel in its window onto the long-departed glory days of Hollywood. But I am afraid that this particular window only opens up onto a stairwell, or some other equally uninteresting feature. The fact that the film itself and the DVD transfer is dim and blurry doesn't help much. Does the DVD look so bad because that's the best print extant? Or does it look so bad because the "serious" movie experts judged that the movie wasn't worth the price of restoration? Or does it look so bad because it really DOES look that bad? I.e., it also looked that bad in 1953 when it was first made? Dunno.... There are many other great movies available on DVD from the bygone days. The issue of this totally unremarkable relic from the past does film rescue and restoration, and subsequent amateur film-library-building, a disservice! I wish there was a way to punish modern shlock-meisters for this type of transgression (e.g., see the absolutely DREADFUL DVD issues of such masterpieces as Fritz Lange's "Metropolis," which besides looking horrible are nonetheless labeled as "Fully restored!" or "Digitally remastered!"--- all bulls..t, of course. It puts amateur collectors like myself completely off what could otherwise be an exciting enterprise.). And a way to reward those who put in the time and effort to do it right (Too many to cover the field adequately here, of course, but check out "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane," "Arsenic and Old Lace," and "The Big Sleep" for examples of top-notch brilliance in movie re-mastering and restoration. Those DVD releases will take your breath away!).

This is, in many ways, a very strange movie. It features a great cast, headed by Humphrey Bogart and including such figures as Peter Lorre and Gina Lollobrigida among others and directed by the great John Huston. So, right off the top, it has a lot going for it, and, in fairness, for the most part the acting was decent enough, especially from Bogart. Having said that, the story itself was quite lacking in anything meaningful. Bogart plays Billy Dannreuther, some type of shady character (although his background was never really explained) who teams up with a gang of international criminals in a scheme that had something to do with uranium mining and/or coffee plantations in Africa (although I was never really clear on the details of the scheme, either.) The team (or the "committee" as they were sometimes referred to) meet up with a somewhat mysterious British couple - the Chelms - and everything becomes quite confusing, both for the characters in the movie and the viewer watching the movie. I was rather unimpressed with the female leads in the movie (Lollobrigida as Mrs. Dannreuther and Jennifer Jones as Mrs. Chelm.) Each seemed to fall for each other's husbands far too quickly and easily. There was some attempt at humour throughout. Some was effective, some not. The drunk ship's captain line was funny the first time; after that it became tiresome. The attempt at humour at the close of the movie was mildly amusing in an ironic sort of way. Nothing here really overwhelmed me. On the strength of Bogart's performance and the high powered cast, I'd give it a 4/10. In all honesty Bogie's wartime movies were far better from what I've seen.

This is just amazing. ...in the sense that it's an exact facsimile of any number of overscripted Orson Welles travesties. You'll swear to God that this is the Welles disaster he never got to make. It's caught up in surface dynamism, just like a Welles movie. It's shrill, and filled with histrionic outbursts. It's narratively belabored and desperate. It has no overall shape. Any overriding point or message is sacrificed to loud fleeting, momentary stimulation. Also, it features quite a few scenes where you can barely restrain yourself from shouting "S.T.*.U!" at the screen. In addition... it portrays an international batch of quasi-criminal jackasses that provides a crowd of showy bit parts. It takes place in some region that causes cultural friction. And there's a marching band that will not stop playing the movies theme. They could not have made a more Orson Wellesey movie if they were viewing Lady from Shanghai, Mr Arkadin, A Touch of Evil and The Trial, ('47, '55, '58 & '63) as they pieced this together in the editing room. If you like this mannerist, cacophonous pile of clutter, you are going to love all of those Welles titles.

I read somewhere that this movie has obtained "cult status" among some viewers. If this is true, I certainly can't understand why. To me, this appears to be a rather awkward and poor Bogart film that was written only minutes before it was filmed. The main problem is the characters just don't seem very developed--again, it's like they had the actors and crew but really hadn't prepared the story. All the actors did a sub-par job, though at least there was the lovely Gina Lollibrigida to look at during the lulls. Jennifer Jones' character was especially confusing and her talents were unfortunately wasted here.

I understand that "Beat the Devil" has a following so I hate to say it's dull and pointless but that's how it struck me. I watched the whole thing about ten years ago and wound up merely puzzled by its positive reputation. I just watched the first half again, though, and my original opinion didn't change. It certainly OUGHT to be a success, given the good people in front of the camera and behind it -- Bogie, Lorre, Huston, Peter Viertel, Truman Capote. But all they seem to have come up with is a few memorable lines. Lorre has this ten second disquisition on time. "What is time? The Italians squander it. The French horde it. To the Americans it's money," and so forth. But, Santa Maria, to sit through a whole movie looking for an occasional ten-second smile? The photography and sound are lousy. Bogart looks pinched and puffy. Gina Lollobrigida is easy to look at. She has the clean and perfect features of a department store mannequin. The rest of the cast is competent, with Jennifer Jones looking surprisingly exotic and sexy. The grainy and furry images on the DVD don't even hint at the magnificence of the Amalfi Drive. But what's the point? A handful of greedy uranium-seekers are trying to catch a ship from Italy to Africa and they get mixed up with a wearisome proper British couple. The ship doesn't make it. It calls either for a stronger story to support the odd witticisms, or enough witticisms to make a strong story unnecessary, and it has neither. If you watch it, good luck. I hope you're not as disappointed as I was.

Watching a very ill-looking Humphrey Bogart made this movie too uncomfortable for me to enjoy. He looked terrible and his voice didn't sound the same, either. In other words, he looked like a man dying and knowing he did die within a couple of years after making this film, made it tough to watch. That, and accents by Robert Morley and Gina Lollobridida that were difficult for me to discern, made the film simply unappealing. Morely did his stuffy Englishman role well; Lollabrigida just had to be herself and let us guys ogle her while Peter Lorre played his normal mousy, nervous guy. The film also had the usually-likable Jennifer Jones. For such a great cast and two famous writers (Truman Capote and John Huston), maybe I expected a lot more, but who could blame me? This film just did not live up to my expectations and seeing Bogie in that condition was a real downer. It's hard to find this movie with a decent transfer, thus poor-quality visuals make it even easier to think less of the movie. I know that isn't fair, but it's a fact of life. Maybe a better print would make me look at this in a better light, pun intended.

I had long read about this final John Huston/Humphrey Bogart collaboration being described as a comic mess that would eventually have a cult following as I found out when I checked out Cult Movies 2 from a library years ago. With a script by Huston and Truman Capote, a cast that included Gina Lollobrigida, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, and as a Scottland Yard officer, Bernard Lee years before he was cast as M in the James Bond series, I expected at least some witty lines and some amusing sequences. There were some of the former, my favorite being Lorre's about his character's last name: "There's plenty of Germans from Brazil with the name O'Hara." But many sequences fall flat and as the movie goes on, I found most of it boring. I fell asleep during the first hour when I tried watching it last night so I watched the whole thing a few hours ago and even when alert the whole thing makes no sense. So unless you're a completist of Huston or Bogart, I can't recommend this movie. You're better off watching their superior previous work.

I watched Beat the Devil last night from a DVD I purchased recently, and frankly I wasn't impressed. The reason I bought it I suppose was the cast list ... an excellent roll up it is too. But really I did not enjoy the film ... it just didn't seem to get up off the ground at all. Before I knew it, there was what I imagined to be a climax towards the end, then it finished. (Maybe I should watch it a few more times?) The stars put together for the film seemed to play out their Hollywood stereotypical roles well ... Peter Lorre as the nervous little "illegal alien" type, Robert Morley as the pompous Englishman, etc. I really don't see how Bogart could have been a "sex symbol" in this one? Gina was just gorgeous as always. I did enjoy the humour of the film though. It was subtle but it was there. Some quite funny moments. The DVD I have is of a very poor quality. The picture is very scratchy and the sound is bad. (Gina was extremely difficult to understand in some parts.)

"Beat The Devil" is one of Bogart's more unusual films. Scripted by none other than Truman Capote and John Huston, it is a very entertaining, offbeat noir satire (quite a description). Upon first viewing a lot of the humor may get lost, but view it a second time, and you can not help but laugh out loud at many of the jokes. The cast is absolutely top notch. Bogart is perfect as Billy Dannreuther, a man who has a friend that will line him and his associates up with some land in Africa that is rich with uranium. It's always nice to see Bogie prove that he had a great sense of humor, and didn't mind poking fun at himself. Jennifer Jones, who, for some reason, always reminded me of Vivien Leigh (in "Streetcar")in this picture is terrific as Mrs. Chelm. But it is Robert Morley who steals the picture for me. Sometimes menacing, sometimes charming, he is a delight to watch. Huston and Capote have done a great job of blending the different genres without letting them get all caught up in each other. I do wish that the final scene was written a little better, but the movie is still a lot of fun. Caution - because the film was allowed to enter the public domain, there are a lot of really lousy prints out on the market, even on DVD. If you want this film for your own collection, do yourself a favor and spend a couple of extra dollars and buy a good print. 7 out of 10