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Beat the Devil
Sign in to save1953 film by John Huston
Film · TMDB
6.2A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine.
Cast
- Humphrey Bogart as Billy Dannreuther
- Jennifer Jones as Gwendolen Chelm
- Gina Lollobrigida as Maria Dannreuther
- Robert Morley as Peterson
- Peter Lorre as Julius O'Hara
- Edward Underdown as Harry Chelm
Themes
- beach
- husband wife relationship
- italy
- narration
- lie
- dark comedy
- satire
- liar
- thief
- film noir
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Ratings
IMDb
6.4/10
10,677 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
68%
- Year
- 1953
- Runtime
- 89 min
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Comedy
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- 1 win
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- John Huston
- Screenplay by
- John Huston, Truman Capote
- Based on
- Beat the Devil , by James Helvick
- Produced by
- John Huston
- Starring
- Humphrey Bogart , Jennifer Jones , Gina Lollobrigida , Robert Morley , Peter Lorre , Edward Underdown
- Cinematography
- Oswald Morris
- Edited by
- Ralph Kemplen
- Music by
- Franco Mannino
- Production companies
- Romulus Films , Santana Pictures Corporation
- Distributed by
- British Lion Films , (United Kingdom), United Artists , (United States)
- Release dates
- November 24, 1953 ( 1953-11-24 ) (London) March 12, 1954 ( 1954-03-12 ) (New York City)
- Running time
- 94 minutes
- Countries
- United States Great Britain Italy
- Language
- English
- Box office
- £115,926 (UK) , $1.1 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 89
- FilmAffinity ID
- 526504
- Image
- Beat the Devil (film) Bogart & Jones.png
Show 4 more facts
- publication date
- 1953-01-01
- title
- Beat the Devil
- Commons category
- Beat the Devil (film)
- review score
- 68%
Sources (8)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Article
Beat the Devil is a 1953 adventure comedy film directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones and Gina Lollobrigida in her American debut. Huston and Truman Capote wrote the screenplay, loosely based upon the 1951 novel of the same name by British journalist Claud Cockburn writing under the pseudonym James Helvick. Huston intended the film as a sort of loose parody of his 1941 film The Maltese Falcon, which also starred Bogart. 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 group of swindlers and their associates who try to claim land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port to travel aboard a tramp steamer to Mombasa.