June 7th: BEAT THE DEVIL (John Huston, 1953)
NOTE: This film will be projected in the high-definition Blu-ray format.
In a coastal Italian village, petty criminals hatch a plot to steal valuable land in Africa.
Screen legend Humphrey Bogart, fresh off his Oscar-winning role in The African Queen, still had his eyes on the continent with an interest in making a serious, anti-colonialism film, using the recent novel Beat The Devil as his source material. And he opted to reunite with that previous film's director, fellow icon John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Misfits).
The two assembled an impressive cast that included Jennifer Jones (Duel In The Sun), Italian star Gina Lollobrigida, veteran character actors Peter Lorre (Casablanca, M), Robert Morley (The African Queen), and Bernard Lee (the James Bond series). Filming was to take place in Italy between Naples and the Amalfi Coast in Salerno, with cinematographer Oswald Morris (fresh off Huston's Moulin Rouge) behind the camera.
Even though the production was on a tight schedule due to waiting for Huston to finish editing his last film, the director was unsatisfied with the screenplay adaptation, and was looking for a solution. He crossed paths with newly-famous writer Truman Capote during a stopover in Rome, and convinced him to join the team. Capote would write the script on-the-fly, not tasked with remaining faithful to the novel but having the benefit of knowing the actors playing the roles already. The entire cast (save Bogart) was unaware of this arrangement, only given their script pages on the day they were shot as part of a fake experiment by Huston.
The location shoot became legendary, with celebrity visits from Orson Welles and Ingrid Bergman, excessive drinking, high-stakes poker games with the cast and crew, and various health emergencies including Bogart losing his front teeth in a car accident (some of his lines rumored to be dubbed by a young Peter Sellers). While most of people involved were enjoying their European vacation, Bogart became increasingly annoyed that the film he was partially funding was turning into a tongue-in-cheek send-up instead of the harder political stance he originally intended.
Beat The Devil received mixed (and perplexed) reviews upon its release, and failed poorly at the box office. Bogart distanced himself from the film and called its admirers "phonies". In the intervening years it has become a cult classic, for its laid-back atmosphere and Capote's colorful dialogue, and is seen as one of the earliest examples of the camp comedic style.
Running time is approx. 90 minutes.
In a coastal Italian village, petty criminals hatch a plot to steal valuable land in Africa.
Screen legend Humphrey Bogart, fresh off his Oscar-winning role in The African Queen, still had his eyes on the continent with an interest in making a serious, anti-colonialism film, using the recent novel Beat The Devil as his source material. And he opted to reunite with that previous film's director, fellow icon John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Misfits).
The two assembled an impressive cast that included Jennifer Jones (Duel In The Sun), Italian star Gina Lollobrigida, veteran character actors Peter Lorre (Casablanca, M), Robert Morley (The African Queen), and Bernard Lee (the James Bond series). Filming was to take place in Italy between Naples and the Amalfi Coast in Salerno, with cinematographer Oswald Morris (fresh off Huston's Moulin Rouge) behind the camera.
Even though the production was on a tight schedule due to waiting for Huston to finish editing his last film, the director was unsatisfied with the screenplay adaptation, and was looking for a solution. He crossed paths with newly-famous writer Truman Capote during a stopover in Rome, and convinced him to join the team. Capote would write the script on-the-fly, not tasked with remaining faithful to the novel but having the benefit of knowing the actors playing the roles already. The entire cast (save Bogart) was unaware of this arrangement, only given their script pages on the day they were shot as part of a fake experiment by Huston.
The location shoot became legendary, with celebrity visits from Orson Welles and Ingrid Bergman, excessive drinking, high-stakes poker games with the cast and crew, and various health emergencies including Bogart losing his front teeth in a car accident (some of his lines rumored to be dubbed by a young Peter Sellers). While most of people involved were enjoying their European vacation, Bogart became increasingly annoyed that the film he was partially funding was turning into a tongue-in-cheek send-up instead of the harder political stance he originally intended.
Beat The Devil received mixed (and perplexed) reviews upon its release, and failed poorly at the box office. Bogart distanced himself from the film and called its admirers "phonies". In the intervening years it has become a cult classic, for its laid-back atmosphere and Capote's colorful dialogue, and is seen as one of the earliest examples of the camp comedic style.
Running time is approx. 90 minutes.
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