Public Domain Movie Of The Week: Beat The Devil
Posted on September 29, 2008 by Furious
Filed Under Public Domain Movie of the Week |
So, this week’s movie is Beat the Devil. When you look at the credits, it might be hard to understand why it’s not more famous: directed by John Huston, written by Truman Capote, starring Humphrey Bogat, Jennifer Jones, Peter Lorre, Gina Lollobrigida, and Robert Morley. Huston and Bogart have teamed up for some of the greatest movies ever, like The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The African Queen.
Then what happened with Beat the Devil? Well, it was poorly received by audiences and critics. It’s primarily a film noir parody and didn’t really fit nicely in any of the regular genres at the time. That and even some of the people involved didn’t like it, particularly Bogart who claimed, “Only phonies like it.” It has, however endured and become somewhat of a cult classic. A phony through and through, I thought it was hilarious.
You can download a higher resolution version at the Internet Archive.
Tags: audience, classic, cult classic, film noir, john huston, parody
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