Beat The Devil (1953)

An American (Humphrey Bogart) down on his luck has fallen in with a motley gang of swindlers headed by an Englishman (Robert Morley) who plan to acquire land in East Africa that is rich in uranium deposits. While they wait in an Italian port for their ship to leave, a pompous Brit (Edward Underdown) and his pathological liar of a wife (Jennifer Jones) enter the picture and put their plan at risk. Marginally based on the novel by James Helvick, apparently the film's script (credited to Truman Capote and director John Huston) was written as it was being filmed with the cast getting the pages daily. There are those who consider the film an unholy mess but there are others (like me) who consider it an understated droll and witty comedy. It's like the Crosby and Hope ROAD movies only at a slightly more sophisticated level. Bogart seems slightly exasperated and befuddled through out as if he wasn't quite sure where all this was heading but the rest of the cast seem to get the joke. Especially Jennifer Jones who walks off with the movie (based on this and CLUNY BROWN, she should have concentrated on comedies). With Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lorre, Bernard Lee, Manuel Serano and Ivor Barnard.