Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Pluskylang Great Film overall

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

LeonLouisRicci Abysmal and Abstract, Off Center and Eccentric. in Other Words an Intellectual Hubris that Assumes Everyone will be in on the Joke. Most were Not and Even Those that were or at Least Pretended to be had to Take a Deep Breath and Say that They Liked it with a Curious Gurgle as if the Accolades got Stuck in the Throat.Because, Truth be Told, it is One of Those Train-Wrecks of a Film that is Jaw Droppingly Bad that the Brain Cannot Process how So Many Talented People Could be Involved in such a Mess. They must have All been Drunk, the Mind Says in Disbelief, and the Mind is Probably Right.The Movie Looks Awful, and that is Not a Comment on the Horrendous Public Domain Prints that are in the Bargain Bins, it is a Comment on the Film and how Awful it Looks. It is an Ugly Movie, Full of Ugly Actors, or in Humphrey Bogart's Case, Just Sickly. Every Male Character is Repulsive and Even More so when Placed Alongside Gina Lola Bregeda and Jennifer Jones. Both are Married too and Cheating on Their Respective Repulsive Husbands. This is a Joke Right? Ha Ha! Not Funny.There are a Few Funny Lines Sprinkled Through this Turgid Satire but Not Enough to Make it Much More than Anything of a Curiosity to Watch All of these Folks Go Through the Motions of the Movies Pretentiousness. To Illustrate just How Unfunny it is, Notice how Many Times the Ship's Captain Screams and Screams in Italian No Less. Loud and Louder Until the Ears Give Up and Any Attempt at Farce is Buried Under Decibels of Noise.Everyone is Thickly Accented and Much of the Time Hard to Understand, Not the Best Thing is a Wordy, "Witty", Film. Jennifer Jones Steals the Movie but that Wasn't Hard, Everyone Else just Falls Flat and Fails to Make Much of an Impression. The Movie Seems Like it was Made by Intelligent Drunks on a Bender for Intelligent Drunks on a Bender. That's a Pretty Small Audience, like that of a Cult Movie.

SimonJack Only Sydney Greenstreet is missing from the cast of "Beat the Devil," an entertaining comedy-adventure-mystery. But, Robert Morley fills his place very well. So, the cast is there, the plot and script are there, and one fine movie is the result. This film has a little bit of many things – intrigue, adventure, action, murder. And lots of other things – mayhem, romance, and comedy. Humphrey Bogart is Billy Dannreuther, a man who once had money and an estate in Southern France, but who now must deal with some shady characters for his future income. Morley plays Peterson, who heads a shady foursome that is out to swindle some wealthy mineral deposits out from under the nose of the government in Africa. The others of his quartet are Peter Lorre as Julius O'Hara, Marco Tulli as Ravello and Ivor Barnard as Maj. Jack Ross. Ross is their "hit man."Gina Lollobrigida plays Billy's wife, Maria. Saro Urzi plays the captain of the SS Nyanga. And into this assortment of characters come an English couple, Harry and Gwendolen Chelm, who are going to South Africa to run a small coffee plantation. They are played by Edward Underdown and Jennifer Jones, respectively. Each of the women in this slightly sinister but mostly hilarious farce is openly attracted to the other's husband. Or so it would seem – so obvious to all. The story has some undertones of crime, but comedy and skulduggery rule the day. Distrust among crooks, unhappy marriages, fantasies of wealth and status, and just plain wild imaginations are the vehicles of the comedy in "Beat the Devil." Look for the humor in many places. For one, there's Peter Lorre's name. He's an Irishman by the name of Julius O'Hara. That's laughable enough, but then his own companion, Ravello, can't pronounce "O'Hara." The hit man, Jack Ross, is a pint-sized Nazi fascist. Everyone contributes to the humor in some way. Underdown is hilarious as the English snob, Chelm. Jones steals her scenes as Mrs. Chelm with her wild fantasies of her husband's past and her dream life. This is a sophisticated comedy that spoofs many conventions of the time. Even the mode of travel for this coterie of crazy characters is a sham – a broken-down cargo ship out of a southern French port. The movie is based on a book by British journalist and novelist Claud Cockburn. Truman Capote and John Huston wrote the screenplay. Huston also directed the film. The script for this film is quite crispy. Humorous subtleties are sprinkled throughout the story. Here is a sampling of funny lines and exchanges.Peterson sits down at a café table with Mrs. Chelm. Peterson says, "I find it rather hard to believe that a man of your husband's position would go to Africa just for the coffee planting." Mrs. Chelm: "You're rather quick aren't you? In point of fact, he isn't. In point of fact he has a very special reason." Peterson: "So I suspected." Mrs. Chelm: "It has to do with sin." Peterson: "Sin?" Mrs. Chelm: "Since the war, my husband has been almost exclusively concerned with spiritual values. He feels that if he can get away there – in the heart of Africa, he will come face to face with essentials. He wants to work out the problem of sin." The expression on Peterson's face is hilarious. "Sin!?" he repeats, as though he hadn't heard her further remarks. Mrs. Chelm: "Why yes, of course. Isn't that what we're all most concerned with – sin?"Billy: "My conduct? Who do they think I am – their hired hand?" Maria: "But you are, Billy. You are." Billy: "How kind of you to remind me. How good. How true. How kind."Peterson: "Or perhaps you have even other reasons?" Billy: "Such as?" Peterson: "That's for you to know and for us to find out."The major: "Mussolini, Hitler, and now Peterson." O'Hara: "A great man. A great loss." Ravello: "I'm going upstairs and read my Bible."Mrs. Chelm: "I was in love with him." Chelm: "What did you say?" Mrs. Chelm: "I was in love with him." Chelm: "Really darling, have you no control over your romantic fantasies? Mrs. Chelm: "Please go away." Chelm: "He's dead, and I'm married to a fool like you. I'll just take these (aspirin) to Maria."Ship's steward in the hotel: "Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the glad tidings. The captain is sober and the SS Myanga will sail at midnight."The shady foursome walks out onto the ship's deck at sea, and Mrs. Chelm is at a distance on the bow of the ship doing stretching exercises. Peterson calls out to her, "Good morning, Mrs. Chelm." He lowers his voice and mumbles to his comrades, "Let's hope she breaks her neck."

Applause Meter This is the kind of film made by a film director of solid reputation like John Huston when they want to hang out with the rest of the guys in the Hollywood-hood and spend their off hours partying in exotic locations. Huston and Truman Capote ultimately tinkered with the screenplay together, a pair of self-indulgent jokesters, and however inspired, their efforts put together an offbeat little gem with a storyline that entertains at every complicated plot twist. It's a wacky story about a group of con artists each to a one demonstrating various levels of cunning and idiocy. Meeting up together in the scenic isolation of some southern Italian port town, they're all obsessed with getting to some unnamed country in British East Africa where they plan to grab for themselves a monopoly in uranium deposits. This crew consists of Billy Dannreuther and his wife Maria played by Humphrey Bogart and Gina Lollabrigida. Dannreuther is the seasoned soldier of fortune type, a wanderer of the world always looking for ways to make a million. Bogart, a consummate professional, would never put in a lazy performance but here he shows little enthusiasm and just looks weary and impatient. This, however, actually serves well for the character, Dannreuther being a man who's seen it all and takes nothing for granted. His Italian wife all bosoms, curves and pouty lips is an Anglophile obsessed with all things English from tea in the afternoon to a hunger for the rolling lawns of titled English estates. The couple are in uneasy league with a quartet of ne'er-do-wells, the key members being Peterson, played by Robert Morley, Ivor Barnard as Major Jack Ross, a loony homicidal fascist who believes Hitler and Mussolini had the right idea, and Peter Lorre as Julius O'Hara. O'Hara, so obviously a brand of O'Hara that Ireland never saw, pridefully expresses that O'Hara is a very respectable surname in Chile. He counteracts Dannreuther's frustration with the complications of their scheme by emphasizing what every con man needs to keep in the forefront: "To seem trustworthy is no more important than to be trustworthy." Time has not been kind to Peter Lorre who only age 49 in this movie looks significantly older since his appearance in Huston's 1941 "The Maltese Falcon" twelve years previous. We get a blonde Jennifer Jones of all things, apparently an effort to give her the vibes of the blonde noir babe practiced at duplicity. She's Gwendolen Chelm married to a stock-character British male, a member of the prissy, tight-laced breed, humorless and outwardly dull-witted. Chelm breaks into crisis mode when he finds he didn't pack his hot water bottle. The group of disreputables are waylaid on some North African shoreline after their African bound boat sinks, and taken in for interrogation and detention by horseback marauding Arabs and their leader. These turn out to be not a tribe of terrorists in the modern sense but terrifyingly stupid and intimidating. After Gwendolen rambles on in protest over their detainment, the chief of this band simply points out that "In my country a female may at least know her words are not heard." He may not care what a woman has to say but he certainly is interested in what they look like. It turns out he suffers from a swooning obsession with actress Rita Hayworth, his dream girl whom he'd like to add to is harem. Whichever one of this crew scores the riches at the end of the game doesn't really matter. It's a winner for the viewer.

Jackson Booth-Millard From writer Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Innocents) and director John Huston (The Asphalt Jungle, The African Queen, The Man Who Would Be King), this film featured in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, and that was good enough reason for me to watch it. Basically a group of international criminals: Peterson (Robert Morley), Julius O'Hara (Peter Lorre), Maj. Jack Ross (Ivor Barnard) and Ravello (Marco Tulli) have to wait for their steamer to be repaired, so are stranded in Italy. They are joined by the Dannreuthers, Billy (Humphrey Bogart) and Maria (Gina Lollobrigida), who are posing as vacuum cleaner salespeople, but they actually plan to buy some land in Africa supposedly loaded with valuable uranium. There are people with apparently similar ideas, so it is all a big scheme that will see the most clever and determined brains get what they want in the end. This is apparently a spoof of the Huston adventure movies The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Also starring Jennifer Jones as Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm, Edward Underdown as Harry Chelm, James Bond's Bernard Lee as Insp. Jack Clayton, Mario Perrone as Purser on SS Nyanga and Aldo Silvani as Charles - Restaurant Manager. Bogart does reasonably well as the head of the gang, Jones gets some good moments, and as the sly villain Morley has some amusing scenes with his posh English accent coming in handy, the other well known stars do fine too. I will admit that I did not understand the full story, and I didn't find myself laughing at much, but the adventure element is okay, and there are some relatively amusing moments, I'm not sure why it would be considered a must see film, but it is an alright comedy thriller. Worth watching!