Beat the Devil (1953) on Netflix
Approved19531h 35mActionAdventureComedy
Billy Dannreuther works with four crooks stranded in an Italian port, bound for uranium-rich land in Africa. The Chelms, headed for a coffee plantation in Kenya, wait alongside them.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.4/1011,574 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes68%
Trailer
Plot summary
Billy Dannreuther, an American who once had money, is working with four crooks: Peterson, Julius O'Hara, Major Jack Ross and Ravello. They mean to claim land in British East Africa that is reported to hold uranium. While their steamer is being repaired in a small Italian port, Billy and his wife Maria meet Harry and Gwendolen Chelm, a British couple bound for Kenya, where Harry has taken a job managing a coffee plantation. Harry carries himself as a proper Englishman; Gwendolen is flighty and lies compulsively. Peterson starts to wonder whether the Chelms are after the same land, and Gwendolen's stories about her husband's importance feed that doubt. Billy and Gwendolen begin an affair, and Maria turns her attention to Harry.
Cast
- Mario Perroneas Purser on SS Nyanga
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Beat the Devil (1953)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Humphrey Bogart lost several of his teeth in a car accident while filming Beat the Devil, and Peter Sellers, then unknown internationally but skilled at imitating voices, was hired to dub lines while Bogart adjusted to the loss and could not speak clearly.
- After previews, four minutes were cut from Beat the Devil and it was reedited with a voiceover narration by Humphrey Bogart and a flashback structure.
- Len Deighton credited Beat the Devil and its "terror and belly laughs" as the inspiration for his novel The IPCRESS File.
