As this film, inspired by H.G. Wells, opens, I was pretty impressed with its premonition about a major war that crosses the globe. When said war lasts 30 years, wipes out most of the human race, and leads civilization into a cliched futuristic utopia...it got a little corny. I was impressed by the effects this movie pulled off back in 1936, but the acting is hammy and the message is a bit ridiculous, especially when the filmmakers were about 100 years off on their prediction of a flight to the moon. "Progress!!! Why Always PROGRESS!!! Can't the human race just relax??" See what I mean??
Nothing really happens in this movie, but with Bogart's charisma and the ridiculous quartet of Robert Morely, Peter Lorre, Ivor Bernard, and Marco Tulli...BEAT THE DEVIL is a lot of fun. I think they were all trying to figure out how to stake claim to an African Uranium deposit while stranded in Italy, but the movie is about how clueless brilliant people can be, how anxious being stranded can make people, and how interchangable love and marriage can be. No grand scheme lke other Bogart movies; just simple, enjoyable, light-heartedness.
Oh my God!!! It's CORTISONE!!! This is one of those medical paranoia movies where a timid family man takes Cortisone for a life-threatening disease, only to turn psychotic. I guess this is because the drug was discovered only a few years before th film, because today, people inject Cortisone pretty readily to help sore knees. The whole movie reminded me of the Simpsons episode where Bart takes Focusyn, and goes a bit bonkers, but wants to protect his regiment. It is a bit silly, but I can't say that I wasn't entertained. Oh...and is that Walter Matthau??
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These are Kevin's viewings out of the above Steven Jay Schneider tome Archives
May 2012
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