The defence The Adrenaline Seeker
“It owes the canon nothing.”
The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.
Back to trending 
Beat the Devil
Adventure · Comedy · Crime · 1953
A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine.
Movie details
Beat the Devil
“They’re Out To Beat the Devil At His Own Game!”
1953 Adventure · Comedy · Crime 1h 35m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.1 / 10
Community rating
A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Beat the Devil?
For the defence
The Adrenaline Seeker
“If it slows down, you check your phone.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Auteur Devotee
“You watch the director, not the movie.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
The Phoenician Scheme
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Stark Raving Mad
Comedy · 2002
A crook quietly plots his revenge against the boss who murdered his brother while working for him.
Lift
Action · 2024
An international heist crew, led by Cyrus Whitaker, race to lift $500 million in gold from a passenger plane at 40,000 feet.
Swashbuckler
Adventure · 1976
A pirate and a hot-tempered noblewoman join forces to protect Jamaica from a tyrant.
Throw Momma from the Train
Comedy · 1987
Larry Donner, an author with a cruel ex-wife, teaches a writing workshop in which one of his students, Owen, is fed up with his domineering mother. When Owen watches a Hitchcock classic that seems to mirror his own life, he decides to put the movie's plot into action and offers to kill Larry's ex-wife, if Larry promises to murder his mom. Before Larry gets a chance to react to the plan, it seems that Owen has already set things in motion.
The Comeback Trail
Comedy · 2020
Two movie producers who owe money to the mob set up their aging movie star for an insurance scam to try and save themselves. But they wind up getting more than they ever imagined.
After the Fox
Crime · 1966
A criminal mastermind sets up a phony film production as part of a plan to smuggle stolen gold.
The Hustle
Comedy · 2019
Two female scam artists, one low rent and the other high class, compete to swindle a naïve tech prodigy out of his fortune. A remake of the 1988 comedy "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."
Bandits
Comedy · 2001
After escaping from prison, Joe and Terry go on a crime spree, robbing banks through Oregon and California in order to finance their scheme for a new life south of the border. Unfortunately, things get more complicated when they meet Kate, who runs into them with her car. She joins the bandits on their cross-country spree, and eventually she steals something, too: their hearts.
Johnny Dangerously
Comedy · 1984
An honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
John Huston
Written by
Truman Capote · John Huston
Humphrey Bogart
Billy Dannreuther
Jennifer Jones
Gwendolen Chelm
Gina Lollobrigida
Maria Dannreuther
Robert Morley
Peterson
Peter Lorre
Julius O'Hara
Edward Underdown
Harry Chelm
Ivor Barnard
Maj. Jack Ross
Court is in session
Put Beat the Devil on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Auteur Devotee
“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”
It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.