Beat the Devil
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gina Lollobrigida, Humphrey Bogart, Peter LorreBrand: Echo Bridge Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-01-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Beat the Devil
Movie Review: Echo Bridge version - GREAT BOGART FILM!
Summary: 5 Stars
John Huston and Truman Capote's "Beat the Devil" is simply my favorite Bogart film. Lucky for us it's also the cheapest at a little over a dollar plus shipping from third party Amazon sellers!
Bogart is at all times everything he does best: as world weary as Rick in "Casablanca", as good natured as he is in "To Have And Have Not" as much a wise-guy as he is in "The Maltese Falcon".
Peter Lorre could have stole the show if he'd had more lines, but his are certainly the funniest (funny like George Costanza funny, as in despicable but delightful). Robert Morley is equally as awful but fun as the bad guy's head honcho.
I've read that the film is a satire - it certainly doesn't come off that way. It is 'sui generis' and very clever and humorous.
It also has some aspects that are kind of eerie, in that the villains are all ex-nazis or nazi sympathisers in a lamented Allied "New World Order", making their way to discover a very modern way of obtaining fortune and less fame.
As Lorre's ex-nazi character, who takes a ribbing for his newly won Irish surname, states: "In Chile the name O'Hara is a tip-top name. Lots of Germans living in Chile have come to be named O'Hara...".
Bogart himself claimed "Only phonies like it" but I think he was taking it a bit too seriously. Fans of "Seinfeld' will 'get it' right away.
Critic Roger Ebert claims it was the first 'camp' movie, but camp is decribed as the utterly ridiculous portayed seriously and with complete sincerity. This film is the opposite: it contains a very serious plot portrayed ridiculously and humorously.
The film is endlessly quirky and humorous yet has a serious plot and if you love Bogart you will not regret spending four dollars shipped to see this, but the version you want is the Echo Bridge copy - good picture and sound and no annoying logos painting the screen.
In fact, if aesthetics mean anything to you, for the money you can afford to buy the Tgg Direct copy as well for the wonderful vintage lobby card art cover (might just do it myself, too) also for a few bucks!
Summary of Beat the Devil
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