The Great Spook Spoof- Humphry Bogart’s Beat The Devil   

DVD Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Beat the Devil, starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollabrigida, Robert Morley, directed by John Huston, screenplay by Truman Capote, MGM, 1954

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to get the best of one Humphrey Bogart, to bamboozle him into taking the fall for some foolish caper that you have designed with him in mind. Yes, you have better not have messed with Bogie who as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest took what he wanted, when he wanted it and expected and gave no quarter. Or better when as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon he got wise in a hurry to a femme fatale who wanted him to take the fall, take the fall no questions asked, maybe smiling on the way to the big house if she had her way when she got caught that stuff of dreams fever. Or how about when as Rick of Rick’s American Café in Casablanca he was ready to take on the whole World War II-armed German army to save a liberation fighter as a favor to a lost love. Ditto, except Vichy-supporters that time, taking on that is, for some wayward frill who took at hard slap and didn’t flinch as Captain Morgan in To Have Or Have Not. And perhaps when an old man’s fate is on the line, the fate of a man with lusty daughters, and he has to take down one mobster Eddie Mars to set things right as Philip Marlowe in the film adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. So you get the idea that Bogie was no chump, not going to be a fall guy as rags to riches and back again Billie to “the gang that could not shoot straight” in the film under review, John Huston’s Beat The Devil. Not take the fall, ironic spook spoof of 1940s spy movies or not.       

Here is why. Billie just then in dire need of cash has gravitated toward four grifters (led by Robert Morley) who are on to a big deal uranium claim in Africa in the post-World War II period when uranium and cornering the market in that precious commodity used in making nuclear bombs could make a man (or men) rich. But you have to have connections, grease some hands, and a plan to keep things cool. Well apparently the grifters had the connections but they were a little light on a plan especially when the tub of a boat that they all were supposed to take to Africa was held up in an Italian port. And it only goes downhill from there as they make every mistake in the book, especially thinking that the independent Billie was going to take the fall for their mistakes, was built for such madness. Along the way Billie grabs onto a silly British married woman ex-pat who for “kicks” has a little fling (played by Jennifer Jones, decidedly not British). Leaving her equally silly (seemingly) husband, for leverage, leaving his wife Maria (played by Gina Lollabrigita) to her own devises with him.

But once the ship gets back on track (and the ne’er-do-well captain gets off his bender) there are many pitfalls as all parties maneuver against each other. Billie proved too quick for the “gang of four” and since they had done some nefarious deeds along the way to getting the inside dope on the uranium claim they were summarily and unceremoniously taken into custody by Scotland Yard. Billie although not a fall guy however did not outwit that silly husband who got to Africa and beat all the others to the claim. All Billie did was laugh the most maniacal laugh Bogie had made since he play in Treasure of the Sierra Madre when he found out and probably just went on to the next best thing. Yeah, don’t mess with Bogie.