Friday at 8pm BEAT THE DEVIL (1953) An action/adventure starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones and Gina Lollobrigida. A group of rogues and a seemingly innocent British couple are their way to Africa in the hopes of getting rich.
Humphrey Bogart stars as Billy Dannreuther, frontman for a group of sinister "businessmen" stranded in an Italian port town, scheming for a way to take ownership of uranium-rich, government-owned land in Africa. Into this nest of vipers falls a naive British couple, Mr. and Mrs. Chelm (Edward Underdown and Jennifer Jones). As the lonely Mrs. Chelm flirts with Mr. Dannreuther, she weaves an outrageous tapestry of lies about her husband's financial and political interests, not realizing the ocean of deceit into which she is submerging them. Dannreuther's wife (Gina Lollobrigida), meanwhile, begins a flirtation of her own with Mr. Chelm, so that every allegiance is tested, every loyalty questioned in this romantic and criminal merry-go-round.
TRIVIA:
- Humphrey Bogart was involved in a serious automobile accident during production of this film, which knocked out several of his teeth and hindered his ability to speak. John Huston reportedly hired a young British actor noted for his mimicry skills to rerecord some of Bogart's spoken lines during post-production looping. Although it is undetectable when viewing the film today, it is Peter Sellers who provides Bogart's voice during some of the scenes in this movie. However this cannot be confirmed.
- 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 (1942), and Passage to Marseille (1944).
- Stephen Sondheim got his start in films working as a clapper boy on this film.
