Beat the Devil is a 1953 adventure comedy film directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, and Gina Lollobrigida, in her American debut, and featuring Robert Morley, Peter Lorre and Bernard Lee. Huston and Truman Capote wrote the screenplay, loosely based upon the 1951 novel of the same name by British journalist Claud Cockburn writing under the pseudonym James Helvick. Huston made the film as a sort of loose parody of the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon, which Huston directed and in which Bogart and Lorre appeared. Capote said, “John [Huston] and I decided to kid the story, to treat it as a parody. Instead of another Maltese Falcon, we turned it into a… [spoof] on this type of film.” On their way to Africa are a group of rogues who hope to get rich there, and a seemingly innocent British couple. They meet and things happen…