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Beat the Devil (1954)

By on April 27, 2016
Beat the Devil (1954) 

 Run Time: 89 min. | b/w
Director: John Huston
Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lorre
 Genres: Action | Adventure | Comedy
Storyline:
Director John Huston’s satiric thriller was so off-beat that it didn’t die at the box office—it never even breathed. But it’s a funny movie that spoofs the thriller genre in tricky, interesting ways, and Jones, Lorre, and Morley are quite hilarious. However, Bogie doesn’t seem to get the joke. A cult classic.
Did you know:
1) This was the fifth and last movie that Humphrey Bogart would make with Peter Lorre. The other four were, The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), All Through the Night(1941), and Passage to Marseille (1944).
2) The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film’s copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
3) John Huston suggested to Humphrey Bogart, that Lauren Bacall might play his wife. “I read your insidious and immoral proposals to my wife,” Bogie wrote to Huston in mock anger. “I have instructed Miss Bacall to disregard your blandishments…” Anyway, she was busy shooting How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).
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