Beat the Devil

Rating:
Summary: The best DVD quality yet of this movie
Review: Thought I'd just let some of the fans of this movie know that there is an excellent (and inexpensive) DVD copy of this movie put out by a company called Front Row Entertainment Inc. Sure maybe it's not digitally restored and all that other stuff that some of the bigger studios have done with some movies, but I found this copy consistantly clear, with good sound and no jumps or scratches. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and highly recommend this copy. I have also tried other DVD titles from this distributer and was surprised at the excellent quality.....check them out...you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: It smokes, it drinks, it philisophizes...
Review: What happened in this film? I couldn't tell you. One of the major downfalls of this film was the lack of quality that was used to transfer this film to DVD. I felt at times that I was watching a very old VHS version of this film. There is even a moment where you get squiggle lines at the top of the screen as if you are watching this film on a rackety VHS player. The fade in's and fade out's were horribly miscalculated. I am always a believer that you should let your character finish his/her line or action before you go to a fade, that way you don't have audience members straining to hear or to catch a final glimpse of what is happening.

I am trying really hard to watch some of these older films. They are the backbone to modern cinema ... but can't they be any better. I am still waiting for me to discover that gem. I think that is my mission now. I want to see an older film that is virtually unheard of, but is movie making at its best.

So, what was wrong with Beat the Devil you may ask? The fades were one aspect I had trouble getting over. Another was what the director was trying to do with Bogart. Trying to enjoy the spoof that the director, John Houston, was planting in the film was hard. What Houston was trying to do was spoof all of Bogart's prior films. This movie was like all of Bogart's films meshed together so to speak. While you don't normally see this in many movies (the only one that comes to mind is True Lies with Arnie), in this film it was done so badly that the humor was lost to confusion. This was one of those films that you have to watch, and your initial reaction is going to be the true feeling that you have for this film. I thought about re-watching this film to see if it got any better for me, but as I thought about it, I had to pass.

My initial reaction was not good, and I had this feeling deep in me that it wasn't going to get much better with a second viewing. Maybe I was expecting better, I mean Truman Capote wrote the film ... that should mean something ... right?

Finally, and perhaps I just need to see more of them, but I have trouble watching a satire without any jokes. Growing up in the era of Mel Brooks, I wanted scenes and words that I would just fall over with laughter about. This film carried none of this. There was only one scene that made me smile a bit (and perhaps it was because my throat was dry), and that was when Bogart's buggy went down the cliff and into the ocean. The only reason for me laughing at that was because it reminded me of Hawaii and our trip up a huge mountain!! Blach! Watch out for this one ... it's a doozie!!

Grade: ** out of *****