268. Beat The Devil (1953)

Directed By John Huston

Synopsis

There's something about getting some uranium enriched land in Africa, a motley crew consisting of Bogart and four peculiar criminals are trying to get that land. While waiting for the boat to Africa in Italy they meet the Chelms, a British couple who aren't what they appear to be. Finally they get on the boat, everything goes wrong, Mr. Chelm jumps overboard, the ship is apparently sinking all the rest of the group get on a lifeboat and arrive in Arabic North Africa, instead of Central Africa where they want to go. Chelms on the other hand washed up in Central Africa. The Scotland Yard is on the trail due to a murder of a Colonial Officer by one of Bogart's "friends". They get caught after getting back to Italy where they had started.... it is actually even more complicated than this but I am not being paid to write.

Review

What a strange film. If you remember I didn't really like Maltese Falcon, and I didn't like it because this is what it should have been like! Huston completely spoofs this genre of quest films in one of the first camp films of all time.

The whole film is gloriously nonsensical, it is extremely well written and you can see the hand of Truman Capote all over it, he was writing the film as the filming went along, very loosely basing it on some novel. So it ends up being really funny and incredibly surreal.

What is weird about the film is the way in which it doesn't really belong anywhere, it is not a drama, or a comedy, or an adventure film it is everything and nothing. It's simply great!

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The script, which was written on a day-to-day basis as the film was being shot, concerns the adventures of a motley crew of swindlers and ne'er-do-wells trying to lay claim to land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port of travel aboard an ill-fated tramp steamer en route to Mombasa. The all-star cast includes Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley (playing the role that Sydney Greenstreet would have played had he still been acting), Peter Lorre and Bernard Lee (who was to gain widespread recognition with his appearances as "M" in the James Bond movies).

This Huston opus does not easily fit into the standard set of film categories; it has variously been classified as a "thriller," a "comedy," a "drama," a "crime" and a "romance" movie. It is above all else a parody of the Film Noir style that Huston himself had pioneered and as such has developed cult status in the ensuing years.

The film is Public Domain, here's part one, look the others up on Youtube: