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Movies like Beat the Devil

Key Features:
Con artists, Black comedy, Parody, Exotic location, Cynicism, Greed, Deception, Moral ambiguity, Ensemble cast, Cult classic
Tone:
humorous, satirical, witty
Target Audience:
Fans of classic cinema, Viewers who enjoy satirical comedies, Those interested in cult films, Film buffs
Emotional Arc:
Intrigue → Confusion

Beat the Devil

1953-11-24
Beat the Devil Poster - Find Similar Movies

A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine.

Genres
Adventure, Comedy
Cast
Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Edward Underdown, Ivor Barnard, Marco Tulli, Bernard Lee, Mario Perrone
Crew
Truman Capote, John Huston, John Huston
Rating
6.1(158 votes)
Beat the DevilBeat the Devil
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A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot

Expert conman Joe Thanks teams up with half-breed Bill and naive Lucy to steal $300,000 from the Indian-hating Major Cabot. Their elaborate plan is full of disguises, double-crosses, and chases, but Joe always seems to know what he's doing.



The Comedy of Terrors

An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced to pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people, which brings absurd results.



Midnight Run
7.2

A bounty hunter pursues a former Mafia accountant who is also being chased by a rival bounty hunter, the F.B.I., and his old mob boss after jumping bail.



Support Your Local Gunfighter

A con artist arrives in a mining town controlled by two competing companies. Both companies think he's a famous gunfighter and try to hire him to drive the other out of town.



The Impostors
5.9

Wrongly accused of physically abusing a fellow actor, starving thespians Arthur and Maurice find themselves pursued by the law aboard a cruise ship.



Gambit
Gambit(2012)
5.49

An art curator decides to seek revenge on his abusive boss by conning him into buying a fake Monet, but his plan requires the help of an eccentric and unpredictable Texas rodeo queen.



Murder by Death
7.2

Lionel Twain invites the world's five greatest detectives to a 'dinner and murder'. Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false identities and more plot turns and twists than are decently allowed.



Plump Fiction
3.74

Four stories intersect in this violent film parody. Exterminators dress as hit men and try to protect the wife of their boss, Montello. Meanwhile, the strippers at Montello's strip club, dressed as nuns, attempt to rob him. Tag-team wrestlers steal Montello's briefcase, thinking its contents are valuable. Finally, Bumpkin, running to deliver a script, loses a lot of the pages.



The Fortune
5.365

A couple of bumbling 1920s hustlers attempt to obtain the fortune of an heiress. Nothing will stop them, not even murder.



The Hustle
6.189

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."



Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

To save his career, an ad man wants a sex symbol to endorse a lipstick but in exchange, she wants him to pretend to be her lover.



Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop it.



Creature from the Haunted Sea

A crook decides to bump off members of his inept crew and blame their deaths on a legendary sea creature. What he doesn't know is that the creature is real.



Criminal
Criminal(2004)
6.2

Needing a new partner capable of intricate cons, Richard Gaddis, recruits Rodrigo, a crook with a perfect poker face. The two plan a big-time scam: selling a fake Silver Certificate to currency collector William Hannigan. Rodrigo distrusts his new associate, but needs money to help out his ill father. The situation becomes more complicated when Rodrigo falls for Gaddis' sister, Valerie, drawing another player into the game.



Beat the Devil
6.977

The Driver drag-races the Devil, in order to earn James Brown his soul.



Shooting Fish
6.3

Two con artists hire an unwitting medical-school student as a secretary for their latest scam.



The Sting
The Sting(1973)
8

A novice con man teams up with an acknowledged master to avenge the murder of a mutual friend by pulling off the ultimate big con and swindling a fortune from a big-time mobster.



The Swindle
6.5

Betty and Victor are a pair of scam artists. One day Betty brings in Maurice, a treasurer of a multinational company. Maurice is due to transfer 5 millions francs out of Switzerland, and Betty is convinced he plans to steal that money.



Choke
Choke(2008)
6.1

A sex-addicted con-man pays for his mother's hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who rescue him from choking to death.



The Wrecking Crew
5.7

When Count Contini attempts to destroy the world's economy by masterminding the theft of $1 billion in U.S. gold, ICE chief MacDonald summons secret agent Matt Helm to stop him.



Le Guignolo
6.08

After the failure of his recent criminal exploits, international con artist Alexandre Dupré sets off for Venice to try to dupe some Japanese business men into buying a fake copy of a stolen Caneletto. On the aeroplane, a stranger asks him to look after his briefcase until after they have landed. Alexandre agrees, but the stranger is shot dead soon after and Alexandre himself becomes the target of enemy agents who are keen to recover the briefcase...



King's Ransom
4.821

Hoping to foil his own gold-digging wife's plan, a loathsome businessman arranges his own kidnapping, only to realize that there are plenty of other people interested in his wealth as well.



Pink Cadillac
5.5

A bounty hunter helps out the wife of a bail-jumper after her child is kidnapped by neo-Nazi types.



The Con Artists
7.024

Belle Duke, in order to get revenge on her former lover Philip Bang, organize his jail break. But instead of Philip is the Italian Felice Brianza, AKAS Felix, to escape. Now Felix is obliged to help Philip to escape. He will succeeded and from that moment on the two will join to defraud Belle. The swindle plot become more complicate when Felix falls in love for Philip's daughter.



The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz

A bizarre black comedy about a man whose overwhelming ambition in life is to be a renowned serial killer of women, and will stop at nothing to achieve it - but not everything goes according to plan...



The Sucker
7.4

In this Franco-Italian gangster parody, a shopkeeper on his way to an Italian holiday suffers a crash that totals his car. The culprit can only compensate his ruined trip by driving an American friend's car from Naples to Bordeaux, but as it happens to be filled with such contraband as stolen money, jewelry and drugs, the involuntary and unwitting companions in crime soon attract all but recreational attention from the "milieu".



A Fish Called Wanda

While a diamond advocate attempts to steal a collection of diamonds, troubles arise when he realises he’s not the only one after the collection.



Love and Larceny
7.206

Gerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a rich cloth-merchant.



Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Con artist Lawrence Jamieson is a longtime resident of a luxurious coastal resort, where he enjoys the lavish fruits of his deceptions -- that is, until a competitor, Freddy Benson, shows up. When the new guy's lowbrow tactics impinge on his own sophisticated work and believing him to be the infamous conman 'The Jackal', Lawrence resolves to get rid of him. Confident of his own duplicitous talents, he challenges Freddy to a winner-takes-all competition: whoever swindles their latest mark, American heiress Janet Colgate, out of $50,000 first can stay, while the other must leave town.



She-Devil
She-Devil(1989)
6

A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.



State and Main
6.3

A movie crew invades a small town whose residents are all too ready to give up their values for showbiz glitz.



The Comeback Trail
5.9

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.



The Big Bounce
4.9

A small-time con artist and a Hawaiian real estate developer's mischievous, enterprising mistress team up for a potential $200,000 score.



Focus
Focus(2015)
6.9

Nicky, an accomplished con artist, gets romantically involved with his disciple Jess but later ends their relationship. Years later, she returns as a femme fatale to spoil his plans.



Small Time Crooks
6.4

A loser of a crook and his wife strike it rich when a botched bank job's cover business becomes a spectacular success.



Play Dirty
6.1

During World War II in North Africa, a group of British commandos disguised as Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital Nazi oil depot.



Shade
Shade(2003)
6.2

Tiffany, Charlie and Vernon are con artists looking to up the ante from their typical scams. They figure a good way of doing this is taking down Dean "The Dean" Stevens, a well-known cardsharp, in a rigged game. However, they first need enough money to enter a game with Stevens, so they decide to strike a deal with fellow crook Larry Jennings to scam a local gangster -- which turns out to be a bad idea.



Mystery Men
5.8

When Champion City's hero Captain Amazing is kidnapped by the recently paroled supervillain Casanova Frankenstein, a trio of average, everyday superheroes -- Mr. Furious, the Shoveler and the Blue Raja -- assemble a new super team to save him.



Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.



Confidence
6.3

What Jake Vig doesn't know just might get him killed. A sharp and polished grifter, Jake has just swindled thousands of dollars from the unsuspecting Lionel Dolby with the help of his crew. It becomes clear that Lionel wasn't just any mark, he was an accountant for eccentric crime boss Winston King. Jake and his crew will have to stay one step ahead of both the criminals and the cops to finally settle their debt.



The Con Is On
3.9

In an effort to avoid paying off a massive gambling debt to a notorious mobster in England, a couple flees to Los Angeles and hatch a jewel theft plot.



The Hudsucker Proxy
7.066

A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam.



The Big Bus
5.245

A nuclear-powered bus is making its maiden non-stop trip from New York to Denver. The journey is plagued by disasters due to the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the oil lobby. Will the down-on-his-luck driver, with a reputation for eating his passengers, be able to complete the journey?



Ruthless People
6.6

Sam Stone hates his wife Barbara so much that he wants her dead. He's ecstatic when she's taken by a duo of kidnappers who want $500,000 ransom in exchange for her life. Fully intending to ignore every one of the kidnappers' demands in the hopes that they do him a favor and murder her for him, the two confused kidnappers have to figure out how they're going get their money, and what they're going to do with the overbearing Barbara.



Tropic Thunder
6.7

A group of self-absorbed actors set out to make the most expensive war film ever. After ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad guys.



Hail, Caesar!
5.9

When a Hollywood star mysteriously disappears in the middle of filming, the studio sends their fixer to get him back.



Torpedo: U-235
6.4

World War II: Resistance fighters accept a suicide mission to deliver a stolen Nazi submarine carrying atomic uranium. Hunted by Hitler’s army, the crew must outwit the German Navy to bring the cargo safely to America.



The Swindle
7.306

Aging small-time conman Augusto works with two younger men: Roberto, who desires to become the Italian Johnny Ray, and Carlo, nicknamed Picasso. Through a series of mishaps and personal entanglements, things go badly for Augusto.



Free Money
5.375

A deranged prison warden with a nasty habit of killing escapees forces the boyfriends of his teenage twin daughters into a shotgun wedding, after they claim to be pregnant. All hope seems lost, until the husbands hatch a madcap plan to rob a money train to freedom.



Just Believe
6.1

The owner of a dilapidated B&B has an idea: in order to dodge bankruptcy, he has to turn his business into a place of worship—a tax-free activity, where he'll host pilgrims in exchange for a generous donation. He joins forces with an unscrupulous accountant and a failed novelist to come up with his new religion.



Maverick
Maverick(1994)
6.9

Bret Maverick is a gambler who would rather con someone than fight them, and needs an additional $3k in order to enter a winner-takes-all poker game beginning in a few days. He joins forces with a woman with a marvelous Southern accent, and the two try and enter the game.



InAPPropriate Comedy

A no-nonsense cop has a flair for fashion and a celebrity takes revenge on the paparazzi in a collection of comedic sketches.



The Golden Calf
8

A crook named Ostap Bender, who survived a murder attempt by Kisa Vorobyaninov in "12 Chairs," now schemes to extort 1 million from an underground millionaire.



Playing God
6.038

A brother and sister con-artist duo find themselves scamming a grieving billionaire by convincing him they can introduce him to God, face-to-face.



They Call Me Trinity

The simple story has the pair coming to the rescue of peace-loving Mormons when land-hungry Major Harriman sends his bullies to harass them into giving up their fertile valley. Trinity and Bambino manage to save the Mormons and send the bad guys packing with slapstick humor instead of excessive violence, saving the day.



Johnny Dangerously
6.277

An honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.



Cecil B. Demented
6.36

A young lunatic director and his devoted cult of cinema terrorists kidnap a Hollywood movie goddess and force her to star in their radical underground movie.



Fletch
Fletch(1985)
6.7

When investigative reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher goes undercover to write a piece on the drug trade at a local beach, he's approached by wealthy businessman Alan Stanwyk, who offers him $50,000 to murder him. With sarcastic wit and a knack for disguises, Fletch sets out to uncover Stanwyk's story.



Hurlyburly
5.476

A group of actors and their casting agents try to find a direction in their lives whilst coming to terms with their personal problems and relationship conflicts.



The Ladykillers
6.1

An eccentric, if not charming Southern professor and his crew pose as a band in order to rob a casino, all under the nose of his unsuspecting landlord – a sharp old woman.



Hollywood or Bust
6.1

The last movie with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin together, is a satire of the life in Hollywood. Steve Wiley is a deceiver who cheats Malcolm Smith when he wins a car, claiming that he won it too. Trying to steal the car, Steve tells Malcolm that he lives in Hollywood, next to Anita Ekberg's. When Malcom hears that, they both set out for Hollywood and the adventure begins...



Up!
Up!(1976)
5.6

Adolf Hitler is hiding out in California under the identity of Adolf Schwartz; however, he is soon murdered by a mysterious assailant. This coincides with the arrival of a mysterious woman in a nearby town. Whatever the case might be, nobody seems interested in investigating the crime, but there are many who are interested in her.



The Band of Honest Men

Italy, mid '60s. Three guys from a poor neighbourhood try to get rich by printing fake money using the fact that one of them works as a typographer. The story unravels around their embarrassed efforts to spend the money, their little family issues and ends with a surprise.



Moon Over Parador
5.827

Little known actor, Jack Noah, is working on location in the dictatorship of Parador at the time the dictator dies. The dictator's right hand man, Roberto, makes Jack an offer he cannot refuse.. to play the dictator. Jack's acting skills fool the masses but not close friends and employees of the dictator.



Intolerable Cruelty
5.947

A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce.



The Grifters
6.5

A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.



Faccio un salto all'Avana

Fedele and Vittorio are two brothers who married the daughters of a rich entrepreneur, Siniscalco. But while Fedele is an irreproachable husband, Vittorio cheats on his wife and accumulates gambling debts, until one day his car is found at the bottom of a lake and he is left for dead. Six years later, however, the extraordinary news arrives: Vittorio is alive and is in Cuba, where he lives by scamming tourists. Fedele then leaves with the intention of bringing him back to his family.



Mortdecai
Mortdecai(2015)
5.515

An art dealer, Charles Mortdecai, searches for a stolen painting rumored to contain a secret code that gains access to hidden Nazi gold.



Weekend at Bernie's

Two young insurance corporation employees try to pretend that their murdered employer is alive by puppeteering his dead body, leading a hitman to attempt to track him down to finish him off.



The Big Hit
5.9

Affable hit man Melvin Smiley is constantly being scammed by his cutthroat colleagues in the life-ending business. So, when he and his fellow assassins kidnap the daughter of an electronics mogul, it's naturally Melvin who takes the fall when their prime score turns sour. That's because the girl is the goddaughter of the gang's ruthless crime boss. But, even while dodging bullets, Melvin has to keep his real job secret from his unsuspecting fiancée, Pam.



Once Upon a Crime
5.699

On their way to Monte Carlo, Monaco, Marilyn and her husband, Neil, meet several other married couples, including Julian and Phoebe, who are traveling with a lost dog they plan to return to its wealthy owner for a large reward. But, when the dog's mistress is murdered, the travelers become the prime suspects, and Inspector Bonnard is determined to track them all down.



Go for It
Go for It(1983)
7

After Doug picks up hitchhiking Rosco with his truck, they are mistaken for two bank robbers by the traffic police. They manage to escape only to be confused for two secret agents while trying to take a flight at the airport.



Ripley Under Ground
5.533

After his friend, a hot young artist, is killed, a resourceful American man living in London covers up the crime and tries to keep the friend's name alive in order to exploit his legacy and reap millions in the process.



After the Fox
6

A criminal mastermind sets up a phony film production as part of a plan to smuggle stolen gold.



Head Above Water

Judge George brings his young wife, Nathalie, to a remote island for a vacation. But while George accompanies their only neighbor -- Nathalie's childhood friend Lance -- on a fishing trip, Nathalie spends time with her ex, Kent. When Kent ends up dead the next morning, Nathalie tries to hide the evidence before her husband gets home. After the body is found, the events of the previous night unravel, with unexpected revelations.



Moonwalkers
6.132

What if Apollo 11 never actually made it? What if, in reality, Stanley Kubrick secretly shot the famous images of the moon landing in a studio, working for the US administration? This is the premise of a totally plausible conspiracy theory that takes us to swinging sixties London, where a stubborn CIA agent will never find Kubrick but is forced to team up with a lousy manager of a seedy rock band to develop the biggest con of all time.



Buddy Buddy
6.155

During a high profile Mafia testimony case, a contract killer checks-in a hotel room near the courthouse while his next door depressed neighbor wants to commit suicide due to marital problems.



Skiptrace
Skiptrace(2016)
5.717

A detective from Hong Kong teams up with an American gambler to battle against a notorious Chinese criminal.



Curse of the Pink Panther

Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second best detective to look for him. However, Clouseau's enemy, Dreyfus, rigs the Surete's computer to select, instead, the world's WORST detective, NYPD Sgt. Clifton Sleigh. Sleigh obtusely bungles his way past assassins and corrupt officials as though he were Clouseau's American cousin.



The Naked Gun
6.521

Only one man has the particular set of skills... to lead Police Squad and save the world: Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. Following in his father's footsteps, he must solve a murder case to prevent Police Squad from closure.



Divorce Italian Style

Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin, Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.



Odds and Evens
6.9

A bumbling government agent recruits a trucker whose gambling knowledge can help crack an illegal Florida operation.



Closer to the Moon
6.596

A Romanian police officer teams up with a small crew of bank robbers to pull off a heist by convincing everyone at the scene of the crime that they are only filming a movie.



Nightmare Alley
7

An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.



Poison
Poison(1951)
7.2

Paul Braconnier and his wife Blandine only have one thing in mind: to find a way to kill each other without risk. After listening to a radio show, Paul decides to go to Paris to meet a famous lawyer in the acquittal of the murderers. He tells the lawyer that he killed his wife. The lawyer asks Paul to reconstruct the circumstances of the drama. Without knowing it, he explains, in spite of himself, the way for Paul to murder his wife by putting the odds on his side to avoid death penalty or even be released...



Crimewave
Crimewave(1985)
5.5

Fed up of his business partner, Ernest Trend hires the services of two exterminators. When things go drastically wrong and they murder the wrong man, the race is on to frame an innocent video surveillance man.



An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn

Filmmaker Alan Smithee finds himself the unwilling puppet of a potentially bad big budget action film, for which he proceeds to steal the reels, and leaves the cast and crew in a frenzy.



47 Talking Corpses
7.1

Greedy Baron Antonio Peletti refuses to give to his town the heredity left by his father, a box full of precious jewels, which he keeps for himself. The major and the rest of the townspeople therefore organize a trick at his expense: they'll make him believe he is dead, and, in a fake "afterlife", they'll try to convince him to finally show them where the money is hidden to save his soul.



Batman
Batman(1966)
6.406

The Dynamic Duo faces four super-villains who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.



The Cheap Detective
6.293

A spoof of the entire 1940s detective genre. San Francisco private detective, Lou Pekinpaugh is accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress—his partner's wife.



Heartbreakers
6.1

Max and Page are a brilliant mother/daughter con team who have their grift down to a fine science. Max targets wealthy, willing men and marries them. Page then seduces them, and Max catches her husband in the act. Then it's off to palimony city and the next easy mark.



Race with the Devil

Two couples vacationing together in an R.V. from Texas to Colorado are terrorized after they witness a murder during a Satanic ritual.



Bowfinger
Bowfinger(1999)
6.171

On the verge of bankruptcy and desperate for his big break, aspiring filmmaker Bobby Bowfinger concocts a crazy plan to make his ultimate dream movie. Rallying a ragtag team that includes a starry-eyed ingenue, a has-been diva and a film studio gofer, he sets out to shoot a blockbuster featuring the biggest star in Hollywood, Kit Ramsey -- only without letting Ramsey know he's in the picture.



Amazon Women on the Moon

Centered around a television station which features a 1950s-style sci-fi movie interspersed with a series of wild commercials, wacky shorts and weird specials, this lampoon of contemporary life and pop culture skewers some of the silliest spectacles ever created in the name of entertainment.



The Villain
5.712

Handsome Stranger has agreed to escort Charming Jones to collect her inheritance from her father. But Avery Simpson wants the money and hires notorious outlaw Cactus Jack to ambush Charming. However, Cactus Jack is not very good at robbing people.



Duplex
Duplex(2003)
6.1

When a young couple buys their dream home, they have no idea what the sweet little old lady upstairs is going to put them through!



Super Fuzz
6.5

While delivering a parking ticket to a small village in the Florida everglades, Officer Dave Speed finds himself in the middle of a radiation experiment conducted by the American government and NASA, where a detonated nuclear missile gives him a multitude of superpowers.



Colour Me Kubrick
5.7

The true story of a man who posed as director Stanley Kubrick during the production of Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut, despite knowing very little about his work and looking nothing like him.



Be Cool
Be Cool(2005)
5.458

Disenchanted with the movie industry, Chili Palmer tries the music industry, meeting and romancing a widow of a music executive along the way.

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