Beat The Devil (1953) – A naive English married couple find themselves sharing a boat to Africa with a mysterious group of “businessmen”. When the wife’s active imagination comes into contact with the men’s natural suspicion things get complicated quickly.
Directed by John Huston Starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Peter Lorre,
Robert Morley, Gina Lollobrigida
Why I Liked It: A great cast has fun with adventure movies and you get to go along for the ride.
Every once in awhile I come across a movie and think “How did I miss this one?” Other than a few of his early films before he was a star, I thought I knew all of Bogart’s movies. So when this one popped up among my selections, I was a) puzzled and b) delighted! When I looked closer I saw more reasons to be both.
John Huston directed and co-wrote the script with Truman Capote. That starts us off with two big plusses for the movie. Huston and Bogart are a great team, and Capote brings a sly sophistication to the script.
Then you add in the cast.
Jennifer Jones may not mean anything to most younger movie fans. That’s a shame. She won an Oscar for “Song of Bernadette” in 1943 was the first of four consecutive nominations (1943-46). That’s an elite club. Only four other actors have pulled the four-peat (Thelma Ritter, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and Al Pacino) and only two (Bette Davis and Greer Garson) have ever made five in a row. She is wonderful here as the intelligent but flighty wife of a dull husband. She is the perfect counterbalance to Gina Lollobrigida. Blond to dark hair, flighty to firmly grounded. Lollobrigida brings a smoldering sexiness in comparison to Jones’ bright (if brittle) sunniness. The two women work beautifully against one another in pursuit of Bogart’s character. The action of the movie spins around this triangular center. Jennifer Jones comes close to pushing Bogart to the side. He is
wonderful, but Jones plays the character so that you’re never quite sure
she’s a con woman or just unbalanced. Or both.
The male supporting cast is just as much fun. Robert Morley plays his usual bluff, blowhard. Meanwhile, Lorre doesn’t have many lines, but his hangdog presence is perfect. If I have a disappointment with the movie, it’s this: Morley and his band of villains never develop much menace. Even in the
slightly comic story here, a bit more edge would have been appreciated.
It’s all done with a subtle wink. Only three characters seem to have a firm grip on reality, Bogart’s, Lollobrigida and Mario Perrone as the ship’s never named purser. There’s madness all around the purser and he is intent on enjoying every minute of it.
My bet is you will too. Not a great movie, but better than you might expect.
Rating – *** Worth A Look
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