Who directed the 1953 British film, Beat the Devil?

Beat the Devil is a 1953 British film directed by John Huston, who was also a scenarist and actor. Eventually, he wrote screenplays for at least 37 classic feature films that he directed. His fascinating life ran from August 5, 1906 until August 28, 1987. He lived for 81 years and died in Middletown, Rhode Island.

With the movie, Beat the Devil, the leading roles were played by Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones and Gina Lollobrigida. In featuring roles, actors include Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, and Bernard Lee.

In Beat the Devil, Huston and Truman Capote wrote the screenplay, loosely based upon a novel of the same name by British journalist Claud Cockburn, writing under the pseudonym James Helvick. Houston made the film as a parody film. Although often described as a parody of The Maltese Falcon, which Huston directed and in which Bogart and Lorre appeared, this is not the case. 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."

The actual script was written as the film was shot. Regarding the plot, it is about the adventures of a motley crew of swindlers and ne'er-do-wells trying to claim land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port to travel aboard a tramp steamer en route to Mombasa.