Cast:
Humphrey Bogart (Billy Dannreuther), Jennifer Jones (Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm), Gina Lollobrigida (Maria Dannreuther), Robert Morley (Peterson), Peter Lorre (Julius O'Hara), Edward Underdown (Harry Chelm), Ivor Barnard (Major Jack Ross), Marco Tulli (Ravello), Bernard Lee (Inspector Jack Clayton), Mario Perrone (Purser on SS Nyanga), Giulio Donnini (Administrator), and Saro Urzì (Captain of SS Nyanga) Directed by John Huston (#081 - The Maltese Falcon (1941), #094 - The Misfits, #224 - Casino Royale (1967), #419 - Key Largo, and #1379 - The African Queen)
Review:
This is quite an interesting film to stick out in the careers of the people who made it, since it was the sixth and last collaboration between famed director John Huston and star Humphrey Bogart. It seems to have come full circle, since they first worked together with The Maltese Falcon (1941), and it has been argued that this film serves as a spoof of the earlier film - in fact, it has even been thought of by cult audiences as a campy favorite and cult classic. The fact that the film exists in the public domain and was not an immediate success probably aids in that argument. The film was an adaptation of the novel of the same name that was written by Claud Cockburn (using the pseudonym James Helvick, owing to his Communist ties). The author was quite interested in Huston directing a movie off his book, with him reportedly reciting portions of Cockburn's novel to Bogart over the phone, which helped convince him to help fund the film through his production company Santana Productions, while Romulus Films (who had worked with Huston before with The African Queen). Cockburn (whose works were once described as preoccupied with portraying the paradox of good intentions by his son, who grew up to be a journalist in his own right that named his column after the film) started work with Huston on the screenplay, although he was not credited for this (much to some irritation). According to his son, the film needed a change for its ending during the last days of filming, and Truman Capote (famed novelist and short story writer) happened to be visiting the set while in Italy (the author was in Ireland), which led to him being drafted to do work, although it is contended that the zippy dialogue is not so much Capote but Cockburn (Capote, for his part, described it as a spoof on the type of film like The Maltese Falcon); however, Huston in his autobiography stated that him and Capote (who by one report was suggested by David O. Selznick, an eager manager of his wife Jones) would write scenes just hours before they were to be shot. To add on to all the screenplay hubbub, Anthony Veiller and Peter Viertel had been hired to pen the initial script, but it was soon rejected.
So yes, there is quite a curiosity in the history before even watching the film, but it doesn't hide the relative enjoyment one gets from a pretty good effort in a sometimes-serious, sometimes-quirky effort from a spirited cast doing their best oddball adventure comedy, which works depending on one's patience for its trajectories. After all, Bogart called it a movie that only "phonies" like, and Jones called it a film made as a "three ring circus" by Huston that considered her character to have no reality of any kind. I think the phony line has some basis in reality when it comes to thinking about enjoying a film in irony, such as with The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and its supposed camp appeal, until one actually sits down and watches the film and realizes the trick (or finds enjoyment). Beat the Devil has its own trick: trying to play off adventure in a semi-serious manner that winks at you with the tenor of a old friend who has had a bit too much to enjoy in beverage but isn't being a complete cloying clod of clamminess. It might as well be the result of the version most people have seen, which was edited from its original preview version, which ran for 94 minutes (as opposed to the 90 in usual copies) - a 4K restoration that contains the original version was done five years ago, which contains no flashback structure and narration as seen here. The best parts of the film are here and there, in that the gulf between interest in the main trio of Bogart-Jones-Lollobrigida and the support of Morley-Lorre-Underdown-Barnard-Tulli is nearly dead even, to where one might desire the latter over the former. Bogart (who one might notice having a few less teeth here and there, as a result of a car accident) does fine here, befuddled at the game he has pulled himself into yet just as collected as one could expect from him without pretense. Jones may have been befuddled by her character, but at least she makes a spirited effort, which has some zippy charm placed within a serviceable chemistry with Bogart. Lollobrigida (who went from small roles in films in the late 1940s to exposure with an appearance in the Miss Italia pageant in 1950) gives off fiery & frosty spunk that pairs handily when placed next to Bogart or Underdown. Morley, no stranger to roles tinged with pompous attitude, proves quite amusing as the head crook, moseying on with push-and-go maneuvering in would-be crime blustering. Lorre (tinged with graying hair for once) go along just as interesting in offbeat charm, one that can muse about time being a crook just as well as trying to pull off a conniving scheme. Underdown plays stuffiness to a T, standing out in his own manner of off-kilter tone in a film that has quite a few nuts in the tree to begin with in its love...diamond-shaped romance. Barnard (in his last film role) and Tulli fill the ship of fools and scoundrels just fine, while Lee serves as the authority figure for the climax (after the sequence with soldiers on the beach of course). At any rate, there are some nice camera shots from Oswald Morris (one of his crew included Freddie Francis, who would become an acclaimed cinematographer and director in his own right) to go with scenery shot in Italy that makes for a weirdly intriguing ride and curiosity. It isn't the tightest-packed adventure, nor is it a broadly amusing film, this much is true. But if one looks at it closely, one will find a charming little movie that has a quiet place among the careers of Bogart and Huston as sly and slick entertainment, moving along on its own broad march of lyrics without issues such as conventions getting in the way, where it even laughs to close out its final revealing moment. Whether that will work all the way for you is up for decision, but a fair tide of cult following for this film in the six decades since release certainly helps the judgement. In other words, it will please those who seek curiosity with their adventures with chuckles.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
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