A classic


This movie is brilliant! It gets better for me each time I see it and Jennifer Jones (who I'm not a fan of generally) is just fantastic. Bogie, Robert Morley etc are as brilliant as ever. I'm really surprised there are no threads on here for this film. It's a genuine classic.

"You're a virgin who can't drive"

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I just watched it this weekend. It was totally not what I expected and I loved it. It was wacky, but in different way than just silly. I loved the general (or whatever) that was in love with Rita Hayworth. That really cracked me up. And Jennifer Jones as the irrepressible liar was great. Quite a nice little film.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The dialogue was clever! The characters constantly surprised me with the unexpected things they said. The scene with Bogart, Edward Underdown, and Ivor Barnard in the bar was quite funny. The cinematography was outstanding. Highly recommended movie !

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[deleted]


Well let's say a minor classic . There are some great lines and the characters are hilarious but the narrative is a mess. It almost looks like an Italian neo-realist movie which makes sense in that it was shot in Europe.Still the portrait of an inept gang of crooks was not usually presented in caper movies of the time and for that it deserves a lot of credit. Robert Morely and Peter Lorre are especially excellent as is Jennifer Jones although extremely annoying, a good little film and worth seeing as it's probably Bogart's last good film and a small gem for John Huston.

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"There are some great lines and the characters are hilarious but the narrative is a mess"

I've read that Huston and Truman Capote actually made this movie up as they went along - wrote it on a day to day basis. So...I could see how the narrative could suffer for that. Haven't seen it in years, but it's one my (flawed) favorites.

Apparently, Bogart never liked the film, having lost a good bit of the money he invested to make it...

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"Made this movie up as they went along".....That's pretty much called....Ummmm....What is it again?....Oh, yea..."Writing"! :)

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The writing of a movie script is usually done before the movie goes into production. Unless some part of the story is under wraps, as when the publicity department teases the public with the promise of a trick ending, the actors have read through the whole thing and know where their characters are headed. In contrast, Beat the Devil is said to have been made up by Huston and Capote as they went along with the shooting of scenes.

I imagine you understood all that but were having a bad day. Anyway, it's an interesting tangent to go off on, so I'll mention two other famous examples of movies that people made up as they went along.

During the shooting of Casablanca (1942), the actors and even the director were often in the dark about the next day's scenes because the writers (the Epstein twins) were working under pressure of time, getting out just the necessary pages of script to keep the cameras rolling. This posed a problem for Ingrid Bergman, because she didn't know which of two good men she was supposed to love more strongly.

The case of Arise, My Love (1940) is not so extreme, but in a way it's a more impressive example of improvisation. Here, the script was continually updated until the start of shooting because the producer wanted to include the latest developments in the war that had just broken out. As a result, we get a major scene devoted to the sinking of the Athenia, which occurred less than a year before filming began, and a mention of the armistice between France and Germany that had been signed within the month. The effect is breathtaking even now, if you're aware of the timing: a Hollywood movie full of World War II, released in 1940.

There must be other cases as well.

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so minor it's not. ;-)

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There are some great lines and the characters are hilarious but the narrative is a mess. It almost looks like an Italian neo-realist movie which makes sense in that it was shot in Europe.


Agreed. I think this movie is better in its parts than as a whole. Individual portions are good (thought not all) but it's disjointed and sloppy overall. Not really a classic in my opinion, despite its qualities.

However, I strongly disagree with your closing line that this is

a good little film and worth seeing as it's probably Bogart's last good film and a small gem for John Huston.


Bogart's last good film? Beat the Devil was made in 1953. In 1954 alone, Bogart made The Caine Mutiny, The Barefoot Contessa and Sabrina, followed by The Desperate Hours in 1955 and The Harder They Fall in 1956, along with two other, somewhat lesser films, We're No Angels and The Left Hand of God (both 1955). The first five at least are all considered classics and generally better films than Beat the Devil. In any case this certainly wasn't Bogie's "last good film".

Whether this is a small gem for Huston I'll leave for others to debate. I'm not so sure. But definitely a film people should see, whether you consider it a classic or not.

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Some say Bogart's post-African Queen era was not very good but I have to disagree. Maybe not his best but still good in spite of ill health that would set in. He was just as busy in the 1950s as in the previous decade with two films in 1953, three in 1954 and another three in 1955 and his swan song in 1956 with the Harder They Fall, plus one TV appearance in 1955 reprising his role in a televised version of The Petrified Forest. He certainly didn't need the money by then so it's obvious he liked his work.

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Italian? Neorealist? What are you talking about?

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I don't know if La Lollo would be pleased or infuriated to have been mistaken for Rita Hayworth--(and her friend was only a major).

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Actually, I think that the commenter was referring to the fact that the Arab fellow who interrogated the group after the ship sank was infatuated with Rita Hayworth and believed that Humphrey Bogart's character could facilitate a meeting with her.

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Ah, yes, the peerless Rita!

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I agree, it's a wonderfull movie! I've just saw the movie at my place on a large screen using a beamer, great movie!

Michiel Nieuwenhuijse
Amsterdam / The Netherlands

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I love this movie. It's a real gem. So funny!!!

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The low rating of this movie and its apparent commercial failure confirm my theory that the mass market is made up of morons.

The movie included some of the best actors, director and writer in Hollywood and I think we're just lucky they can make movies the way they want once in a while.

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I agree


I Worship The Goddess Amber Tamblyn


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My mother introduced me to this film when I was very young - around the time good (old) movies were still being shown on TV (usually very late at night) with few ad interruptions - young and unsophisticated as I was, I remembered it for years, assuming anybody would appreciate the clever (if bizarre) dialogue, the faces of Robert Morley, the aging Bogart, and the international cast of rogues. I lured my best friend, a movie nut, into watching the film the next time it appeared on TV (this time, in New York.) He hated it so, he couldn't stop telling me. For years, I couldn't watch it, myself. Now, tonight (September 27, 2008) on public TV - no interruptions at all - and after a repeat of "Casablanca," it's like an orgy of the mind and senses.

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I'm one of those so called cult followers of this movie. If I want to see Bogart or go back to 1953, then this often is the ticket. The only part that gets obnoxious is the constant yelling of the ship's drunken captain. Lordy, talk about paranoia! But like some of the others who posted, the dialogue is quite catchy & I often find myself reciting some of the lines & humming the music playing when they take the trip in the car that later goes over the cliff.

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I would say that this is an important movie for Humphrey Bogart fans. I've never seen him in anything eccentric and experimental like this before.

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