The Mediterranean coast. Billy reluctantly works with scoundrel Peterson and his three henchmen who all want to take a ship to British East Africa to get land rich with uranium, which they later want to smuggle and become rich. While waiting for their ship, Billy meets British couple Gwendolen and Harry and becomes their friend. As she falls in love with him, Gwendolen brags that Harry bought uranium-rich land, which attracts the attention of Peterson and his gang. On a ship, they try to kill Harry, but Billy saves him. The ship sinks and the passengers land in Africa, where they are arrested. Gwendolen tells the police about the uranium ploy, and thus Peterson is arrested. Harry sends a letter saying he bought the uranium-rich land.
A peculiar film exercise for director John Huston, which Roger Ebert even included in his Great Movies list, “Beat the Devil” is a fun, albeit uneven achievement since Huston has no sense for comedy, playing out almost as if a man educated in classic Waltz all of a sudden decided to dance hip-hop. It is almost Huston’s own “The Big Lebowski” by the sheer amount of deliberate narrative mess found in it. The meandering story is just an excuse for these characters to interact, never establishing a clear structure or dedication to some messages about colonial exploitation of Africa, and thus its episodes and the ending feel arbitrary, not as harmonious as some of Humphrey Bogart’s best films, yet it is overall a satisfying last cooperation of his with Huston and Peter Lorre. Some of the snappy dialogues are of sizzling quality, since they were augmented by writer Truman Capote, and thus the viewers should hear them. One of them is O’Hara’s philosophical monologue: “What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it’s money. Hindus say it does not exist. I say time is a crook!” In another one, Billy is direct when confronting Peterson about the latter’s shady business: “You don’t care what my opinion is, as long as I don’t do anything about it!” The subplots come and go, and it is almost as if every of the three locations (the Italian port; the ship on the sea; Africa) turns into a different film of its own, but that may also be a part of the reason of its charm. “Beat the Devil” is an almost ‘hippie’ type of comical movie where the authors wanted to just let go and do whatever pops into their head.
Grade:++
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