Don't Make a Scene: Beat the Devil

The Story: The thing about any conspiracy is that all the parts have to work in order for it to be pulled off. The problem is--it rarely does. Oh, conspiracies work in thrillers of the "paranoid" variety, but most of the time in real life, the "conspiracies" don't work—because of that added element of "not knowing what you don't know." The "Mission: Impossible" TV series got that right—all that careful planning can be undone when your safe-cracker gets his hand busted in an unexpected closing door, or (in Dial M for Murder) the husband hasn't planned for his murderer to put back the entry-key, or (The League of Gentlemen) nobody thought about kids collecting license plate numbers.

Yet, we think everything in a conspiracy will work because the MOVIES tell us so. Every time the hero borrows a guard's uniform to remain undetected, it fits. Nobody sweats from nervousness. That intricate gear you brought, it'll always work...first time, every time, and no tinkering will be involved.

John Huston knew that movies weren't like life. That's why in his movies, those big quests end with everybody losing everything—and they laugh about it. Beat the Devil started out as a "Maltese Falcon"-type story (where Bogart and Huston began their successful collaboration)—at least that's what the original novel felt like—when Huston suggested to Bogart that he buy the rights and they'd make it together. But, Huston's scriptwriters at the time, Peter Viertel (who wrote the Huston roman a clef, "White Hunter Black Heart,") and Anthony Veiller produced a script that he found uninspiring.

At the suggestion of star Jennifer Jones' husband, the producer David O. Selznick, Huston—at the last minute—hired the young Truman Capote to re-write the script while the filming was taking place and Capote would stay up nights writing, re-writing and amending a mere couple days before that particular scene was filmed. As a result, there is a bit of a "chaos factor" to Beat the Devil, a satire of the sort of thriller Huston had, by now, grown tired of. Cynical and world-weary, the movie has that cynical laugh Huston usually reserves for the end of his movies and keeps it running throughout. 

After all, in a world where everybody is looking out after themselves, how can any conspiracy be maintained.

The Set-Up: Billy Dannreuther (Humphrey Bogart) has been going through a period of adjustment down-sizing. Once a wealthy owner of a villa, he is now reduced to working with a business partner, Peterson (Robert Morley), who, with three other "colleagues" are engaged in trying to purchase land in East Africa, rich in uranium. This would be an easier partnership if anybody trusted anybody else. After a seemingly unending series of complications, the group is stuck in an African coastal town when they've abandoned their passage by lifeboat. The local official, Ahmed (Manuel Serrano), suspects they might be revolutionaries given their unlikely means of arrival, and the group's squabbling have not reassured him. Dannreuther has managed a distraction so that he might be alone with Ahmed to get down to some real negotiating. 

Action.

AHMED: Tell me more about Rita Hayworth. You really know her very well? 

BILLY DANNREUTHER: Do I know Rita? Do I know her. I'll give you a letter of introduction. 

DANNREUTHER: She'll fall an immediate victim to your charms. 

AHMED: You really think so? 

DANNREUTHER: Oh, most certainly. A man like you: suave, intelligent, darkly handsome. You have everything, Ahmed, except money. 

DANNREUTHER: And if you listen to me, a boat...  

DANNREUTHER: ...will be placed at our disposal. A very slow boat. So that fat gut's check will have plenty of time to clear. 

AHMED: And you will trust me for your share? 

DANNREUTHER: Does one man of the world ask another to trust his own brother? 

DANNREUTHER: Oh, no, Ahmed. You'll give me a check for half. 

AHMED: Your demands are very great under the circumstances. 

DANNREUTHER: Well, why shouldn't they be?  

DANNREUTHER: Fat gut's my best friend. I will not betray him cheaply. 

AHMED: You are certain that you are the friend of the peerless Rita? 

DANNREUTHER: Come, come, Ahmed, 

DANNREUTHER:  ...mind back to business. 

AHMED: Very well. Fifty-fifty. 

DANNREUTHER: Oh, uh, by the way... 

DANNREUTHER: ...fat gut's nature isn't noble like ours. He might try to bargain. 

AHMED: I do not bargain with a puffball like that. It's beneath my dignity. 

DANNREUTHER: It'll be dawn soon. The correct hour...  

DANNREUTHER: ...for a firing squad. 

AHMED: But if we have him shot, what about the money? 

DANNREUTHER: Well, I was just thinking...  

DANNREUTHER: ...that if he heard a volley at the psychological moment, he might not be so inclined to haggle. 

AHMED: I believe you must have Arab blood. Westerners are not usually so subtle.

Beat the Devil

Words by Truman Capote, John Huston, Peter Viertel and Anthony Veiller

Pictures by Oswald Morris and John Huston

Beat the Devil is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Twilight Time and other sources (and as it's in the public domain), you can also find it for free on the Internet...like here.