This Week on HCTV: John Huston’s 1953 Film “Beat The Devil. Screenplay by Truman Capote.
7:30 PM – Thursday Night Family Classic “Beat The Devil” (1953) With Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley and Peter Lorre. A quartet of international crooks – Peterson (Morley), O’Hara (Lorre), Ross and Ravello — is stranded in Italy while their steamer is being repaired. With them are the Dannreuthers (Bogart & Lollobrigida). The six are headed for Africa, presumably to sell vacuum cleaners but actually to buy land supposedly loaded with uranium. They are joined by others who apparently have similar designs.
Trivia bit borrowed from IMDB: 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 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.
Rebroadcast on Sunday Afternoon.