BEAT THE DEVIL: Blu-ray reissue (UA/British Lion, 1953) BFI 'region B' locked

It’s hard to believe John Huston directed Beat the Devil (1953) – a largely non-sensical, occasionally dull and somewhat lumbering ‘farce’ to co-star Huston’s ‘good luck’ charm, Humphrey Bogart, along with an impressive roster of top-billed talent, including Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Bernard Lee and Gina Lollobrigida. Then again, maybe not. Apart from being a genius, Huston was something of an eccentric. So, his thumbing his nose at the crime/drama he had helped to cement into place with The Maltese Falcon (1941) a decade earlier was perhaps Huston’s way of telling Hollywood in general, ‘Up yours!’ Huston was a maverick. He cared not for the ‘conventions’ of Tinsel Town. The production, however, was troubled, with Bogart losing several teeth during an auto accident mid-way through and having to take time off for dental surgery; also, to adjust to the new plate of falsies in his head. This left some of Bogie’s dialogue to be dubbed by Peter Lorre. I have read in various internet reviews of Beat the Devil that Lorre was not ‘well-known’ at the time and thus could fudge Bogie’s lines without detection. This is an absurd claim since Lorre, apart from being the alumni of 64 movies prior to this one, also had a very high-profile with audiences, not the least for his breakout performance as the child serial killer in ‘M’ (1931), or as the frequent appendage to Bogie’s spate of classic heroes over at Warner Bros., or even as the enduring title character in Fox’s Mr. Moto B-film franchise. I have never been able to detect which lines in the picture are spoken by Bogart and which were an afterthought, dubbed by Lorre. I have since lost the will to try.

A fair assessment of Beat the Devil - it has its moments, but also its major impediments, not the least the screenplay, initially cobbled together by Huston and Truman Capote, very loosely based on Brit-wit, Claud Cockburn’s 1951 novel (penned under the nom de plume, James Helvick). Huston and Capote’s vision for the picture changed daily (some would say, hourly), with Huston arriving on set each morning with fresh pages of new scenes and dialogue conceived the night before. At some point, I suspect Huston merely gave up on trying to make a great movie, became so embroiled in his rewrites that he merely hoped to make a ‘good one’, then, finally, resigned himself to the fact Beat the Devil would never materialize as a bona fide classic. Aside: good call – it’s not!  Capote has suggested Huston and he planned it as a deliberate parody of The Maltese Falcon. Perhaps. Perhaps not, as the thud Beat the Devil made at the box office was enough in the changing picture-making climate of the fifties to scare Capote and Huston straight. With the ever-rising high cost of doing business increasingly to translate into every movie having to be a solid hit for the studios...or else, coupled with the decline of movie culture in general, and profits in particular, sacrificed to TV, it was no longer fashionable or forgivable to have a flop - artistic or otherwise. Yesterday’s artistes could just as easily become tomorrow’s has-beens: the original cancel culture!

Beat the Devil loosely follows the exploits of one Billy Dannreuther (Bogart) a one-time millionaire ex-pate, since fallen on very hard times. Rather begrudgingly, Bill has taken up with four reprobates – Peterson (Robert Morley), Julius O'Hara (Peter Lorre), Major Jack Ross (Ivor Barnard) and Ravello (Marco Tulli) to acquire uranium-rich land in British East Africa. Suspecting Ross of the murder of a British Colonial officer who threatened to expose their plan, Billy and his wife, Maria (Gina Lolobrigida) are stranded in Italy, but meet up with husband and wife, British travelers, Harry (Edward Underdown) and Gwendolen Chelm (Jennifer Jones). Harry is the epitome of the stalwart Englishman. Gwen, alas, is a scattershot and obsessive romantic. It does not take long for Billy and Gwen to have their extramarital ‘hook up’, leaving Maria to flirt with Harry. Peterson mistakenly suspects the Chelms are also plotting to acquire the uranium. Alas, everything Gwen does seems to confirm these suspicions.  Billy and Peterson conspire to get out of Italy by plane.  Too bad, on route to the airport their car takes a tumble off a cliff as they are pushing it after a breakdown. Everyone assumes Billy and Peterson were killed in the wreck. Believing he has lost his partners, Ravello attempts to inveigle Harry in their scheme. But then, Billy and Peterson return to the hotel unharmed. A purser (Mario Perrone) announces his ship, the SS Nyanga, is at last ready to sail. Aware of their uranium scheme, Harry lets it be known he will expose Billy and his cohorts to the police. In retaliation, Peterson orders Ross to bump off Harry. Mercifully, Billy intercedes and the ship’s drunken captain (Saro Urzi), disbelieving everything, has Harry thrown into the brig.

The ship's engines fail, forcing all passengers into lifeboats. Billy finds Harry has escaped the brig and has jumped ship to swim ashore. Meanwhile, the passengers land on an African beach, only to be promptly arrested by Arab soldiers and interrogated by Ahmed (Manuel Serrano), who suspect them of either being spies or revolutionaries. In a feeble escape attempt, Billy creates a diversion, is recaptured, but later befriends Ahmed by regaling him with intimate stories about Rita Hayworth, whom he claims to know. Persuading Ahmed to send everyone back to Italy by boat, the reception at port is as frosty when Scotland Yard detective, Insp. Jack Clayton (Bernard Lee) announces he is investigating the murder of the Colonial officer. Peterson attempts to schmooze Clayton, but is exposed in his crimes by Gwen who also reveals how Peterson tried to kill Harry. Clayton arrests Peterson, O'Hara, Ross, and Ravello. Gwen receives a telegram from East Africa, alerting her to Harry, who has acquired the uranium-rich land Peterson was after. Now, wealthy Harry announces he is willing to forgive his wife her indiscretions with Billy, inviting her to rejoin him in Africa. Amused, Billy declares, “This is the end…the end!”

Beat the Devil is a doozy of a plot. But Huston seems to lose interest in almost every aspect of the picture, leaving Bogart and the rest of his stars to fend for themselves. Despite its forward-moving trajectory, the plot frequently seems to stagnate on a whim or a whimper of dialogue that goes nowhere or sounds much too scripted to be taken at face value as needful exposition. The picture’s propellant is therefore its star power. Bogie is endlessly watchable, even in tripe such as this, and his Billy is an amusing character study, more so of an actor resigned to the fact he doesn’t know what the hell to play, and therefore, is merely being himself – which is quite enough to make us invest in his alter ego. The same cannot be said for Jennifer Jones. I would argue, Jones was never entirely a good actress. When she had a mentor to mold her performance, as in director, Henry King, the results could be startlingly good, as in 1943’s The Song of Bernadette for which Jones won the Best Actress Oscar. Alas, by 1953, Jones was taking her marching orders from second husband/producer, David O. Selznick, who – arguably, blinded by love – never quite saw the truest potential in his wife to be a ‘great’ start. Jones stumbles her way through the part of Gwendolen Chelm, in the crummy sort of disheveled way a penitent drunk eventually finds his mouth with both hands clasped around a glass of warm beer. The rest of the cast come and go from this tall tale, never to make much of a splash, with Morley’s bumbler the most insidious and annoying of the lot. Huston’s original intent, to make a half-serious thriller gives way to a severe and chronic bout of lethargy almost from the outset. In the end, Beat the Devil remains an unevenly paced, weirdly uninvolving, but otherwise, lethally silly excursion that does not represent the best efforts of any of the major talents attached to its production.

BFI have reissued Beat the Devil on Blu-ray in a ‘region B’ locked effort that sports a 1080p transfer, virtually identical to the one Sony loaned third-party distributor, Twilight Time in 2016. So, if you are buying this disc for an image upgrade – save your money. That said, the Sony effort from 2016 is a pretty snazzy affair, preserving Oswald Morris’ sublime B&W cinematography. The Italian vistas sparkle with detail, and tonality is excellent throughout. Grain has been properly preserved and presented herein. The image is also free of age-related artifacts. The DTS 2.0 audio is excellent as well. Comparing the TT with the BFI, I detected no discernable differences, although the BFI has a much higher bit rate than its predecessor. So, perhaps this has marginally advanced the overall clarity and refinement of the image. But again, you really will not notice it in motion. The BFI preserves the original audio commentary from Lem Dobbs, Julie Kirgo and the late, Nick Redman. This was a pretty tiresome track, with everyone as relaxed as the characters on the screen. Also ported over from the TT disc – 22-mins. with Alexander Cockburn discussing the movie. BFI adds their own separate commentary, featuring Oswald Morris, continuity girl, Angela Allen, and Huston's personal assistant, Jeanie Sims – wow! Three people who were actually there and can reflect on the movie we are watching. It’s still an imperfect track, with Morris appearing to read from cue cards. BFI also gives us Atomic Achievement - a public service film about uranium, made in 1956, and, By the Fireside - a short 1945 advert. BFI rounds out the goodies with a fairly comprehensive stills gallery and a fully illustrated booklet with new essays and artwork (limited to the first run of discs).  Bottom line: Beat the Devil will never be a great film. I would argue, it’s not even a good one. Bogie, Huston and company have done far better work elsewhere. Still, this one has a cult following. So, if you want the most comprehensive Blu-ray release, and have a region free player, you’ll want to snatch up this disc. Otherwise, hang onto your TT disc, or just pass – and be glad that you did.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

1

VIDEO/AUDIO

5

EXTRAS

TT – 2.5

BFI - 4