Beat The Devil Details

This sophisticated international romp (co-scripted by Truman Capote and John Huston) must have been more fun to make than to watch. Nevertheless, the splendid cast ensures that the jokes play and the romance works. The spoof on Huston's masterpieces The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is there for those who recognise it, tipped off by the casting of Peter Lorre as well as Humphrey Bogart working again here with Huston. Particularly good are a blonde, pert Jennifer Jones as the wife of oh-so-English Edward Underdown, she a pathological liar, he an “is-he-or-isn't-he” member of the peerage, and goonish gangsters Robert Morley and Ivor Barnard. Not terribly well appreciated in its day, this quirky one-off has achieved something of a cult status, and is well worth catching up with. Trivia buffs may like to note that the uncredited production runner on this film was a young Stephen Sondheim.

Good fun was obviously had by the cast, but audiences were mostly baffled by the in-jokes, the extra-strange characters, and the lack of attention to pace, suspense and plot development.