Day 16: "Beat the Devil"

Director: John Huston 1953
Great cast: Bogart, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley, Jennifer Jones and Gina Lollobrigida, all seeming to have a good time in a movie written by Huston and Truman Capote. A disaster criticially and at the box office when first releasesed, "Beat the Devil" has since acquired a cult status. It's up to personal taste to decide if that status is justified. I enjoyed it (making me a phony in Bogart's eyes since he said "Only phonies like it."). It's a charming film, admitedly talky in places, but entertaining. The wayward plot isn't worth going into. I'm guessing that a lot of serious drinking got done during filming. Based on the novel by James Helvick, a nom de plume for journalist Claud Cockburn (father of Alexander, whose column in The Nation is called "Beat the Devil").