Having much of the same talent as 1951's masterpiece "The African Queen", this film comes off as a total contradiction in its entirety, giving a dark view of humanity at its most amoral and laughing at it at the same time. A group of strangers are crowded together on a steamer and something shady is afoot. At first, you really can't figure out what's going on, because every time that the writers drop an important plot point, a distraction occurs which moves it into a different direction. The film is alternately wise and confusing, one moment with leading man Humphrey Bogart standing out with me where he is informed that Hitler and Mussolini like leaders will soon destroy the world. Bogart simply states that he would like another year or two to continue to be miserable. That statement applies to how many people seem to feel today, a cynical society in an ever increasing dangerous world where unhappiness seems to be a better option than total oblivion.

Replacing Sydney Greenstreet as the villainous fat man, Robert Morley is a total contrast to his fearful missionary in "The African Queen". He's so instantly smarmy, you're surprised anybody even wants to be around him. Add in Peter Lorre (sadly a very undefined character) and two leading ladies (Jennifer Jones, highly resembling Vivien Leigh in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and the luscious Gina Lollobrigida, obviously somebody's "kept woman" here),and you have a dream cast. The remainder of the cast are cynical men who seem intent on creating more unhappiness, and while there are some surprising plot twists and sudden turns (people are believed to be dead, incorrectly it turns out) and everybody is in danger at all times. A ship's steward politely tells Bogart that the ship is sinking as if announcing dinner. It is obvious that John Huston had his tongue so far into his cheek he could taste last week's dinner, yet the inside joke wasn't let out on an unsuspecting public who, according to reviews, just didn't get it. I did, but it may not have been the filmmaker's ideas that I got, just my own visions of what the film said, at least to me.

Along with another independently made Bogart film ("The Barefoot Contessa"),this is a film that doesn't necessarily work but with its star performances and a few dropped intelligent witticisms, can inspire some great thought. Otherwise, however, it is a pretentious bore.

Various crooks, smugglers, con men and adventurers are trying to go to Africa to buy a new valuable material called Uranium. Peterson (Robert Morley),Julius O'Hara (Peter Lorre),the Dannreuthers (Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida) and others are stuck in Italy as they wait for their ship to be repaired. Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm (Jennifer Jones) is fascinated with the group as she travels with her husband.

Truman Capote is injecting this with lots of snappy rapid-fire dialog. John Huston is trying to shoot the idyllic location with lots of camera work. However this movie just lack a cohesive drive. The characters are all eccentric. There is a rambling quality to this. The story of this ragtag group wasting time at this Mediterranean port isn't that compelling or exciting. The movie feels like on hold for far too long. It feels like a lot of A-list talents playing around without much of a goal.

This film has become a favorite with cultists. It's a matter of tastes, for I have yet to really like it. But every now and then I do give BEAT THE DEVIL another chance to see if it is better or worse than I have believed. It always remains somewhere stuck at the point of neutrality that I began at.

For a film that starred Bogie, Lollabrigida, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre, and was directed by John Huston, and had a screenplay by Truman Capote based on a novel by James Helvick (Claude Cockburn),it should have been better than it was. But it is like the bits are better than the whole. Morley and his entourage walking around the deck of the freighter to Africa in the morning, soaking in the sea air, while he disses Mrs. Chelm (Jones) is very amusing - but it is less than one minute of the film. The reassuring First Officer saying not to worry to the passengers, than they hear an explosion, and he returns to inform them that the boat is sinking is amusing too. But the tempo of the amusing segments are split by long periods of characters running around doing rudimentary actions. Pauline Kael was right when she said that the odd thing about this film is that if you see it from the start to end, every one of the scenes look like they belong in the center of the film. Bogart's production company took the loss at the box office. He blamed Huston, and never worked with him again.

Bogart was wrong to say it was a "mess" that only phonies would claim to like. He had a contempt for certain types of intellectuals. But it was certainly in need of some pruning and strengthening in the script. Capote obviously enjoyed spoofing some of the situations. Witness the business of the limousine driver (after the accident) being denied a demand for compensation for the loss of the limousine, and making an impassioned speech sounding from a left wing play. But he probably was not quite ready to do a complete script. He might have made the transition scenes briefer than they became. What remains does hold your attention, but it does not make for a consistently satisfying movie experience.