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John Huston’s Beat the Devil (1953) is an awkward film delegated a cinematic classic primarily for that very awkwardness It is an arrow-straight, deadpan spoof of the noir genre and Huston’s own earlier works, presented in such a manner that renders it mildly funny and causally ineffective, brutally honest to its tone. It is a one-of-a-kind picture which John Huston loved and star/producer Humphrey Bogart hated, and which no-one involved really knew what kind of film they were making. The result was a box office failure that instantly became a cult favorite, now often cited as the first “camp movie” Hollywood produced. The Crimson calls it “a general satire on Hollywood’s preoccupation with undercover men.”

The fact Beat the Devil is satirical comedy is easily missed by some modern viewers. All evidence points to audiences of 1953 finding equal uncertainty in its style. Upon its release, The New York Times called it “a pointedly roguish and conversational spoof, generally missing the book’s bite, bounce and decidedly snug construction. Allowing for some genuine, brazenly funny bits, the format seems as brazenly piece-meal.” Considering its financier and star didn’t want the picture to see the light of day, it’s no surprise it comes with mixed reception. But Beat the Devil is a film that knows it has little going on and isn’t intent on hitting us over the head with its humor the way modern comedies usually do. Beat the Devil was subtle even for 1953, making it an interesting study 60 years later.

Roger Ebert may have described it most effectively, saying, “the plot is an afterthought. This is a movie about eccentric behavior.” He refers to the fact that while some semblance of a story is happening in the background of the film, nobody really cares. Too much time is spent watching the oddball mannerisms of the characters. It is on his Great Movies list for reasons that vastly differ from why many other films exist on the list. It isn’t trying to be anything particular, which ends up being exactly how and why it succeeds.

Beat the Devil’s humor is subtle and always verbal, coming through in lines like “Fat Gut’s my best friend, and I will not betray him cheaply,” and the exchange between Gwendolyn (Jennifer Jones) and Harry Chelm (Edward Underdown) where she warns a group of men are desperate characters to be wary of, because “not one of them looked at my legs!”

Beat the Devil is the type of spoof humor that only modern viewers relatively familiar with the gangster-driven noir it sends up will fully appreciate. It is intelligent and completely unrestrained in its delivery to the point where it is either loved or hated by its viewers. Such is the nature of a campy cult film, and Beat the Devil’s colloquial classification as the first entry in that category is well-deserved on that evidence.