A uranium treasure hunt in very clique-y company (Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley, Gina Lollobrigida, Jennifer Jones), this cult item is often pulled down from the shelves as an early example of conscious Camping (not to be confused with unconscious Camp), although another Bogart-Huston collaboration, The Maltese Falcon, a decade earlier, demonstrated an attitude toward masculine adventure stories which was no less prone to theatricality, exoticism, and mincing facetiousness. Oswald Morris's parched Neo-realist image throws a harsh light on the goings-on, however, and creates a sort of documentary detachment, so that you are better able to see the moviemakers laughing up their sleeves. Behind-the-scenes anecdotes abound about this production: e.g., writer Truman Capote bests Bogie in an Indian wrestling match, and the star has to keep his incapacitated hand out of the camera's sight ever after. The newest footnote: the name of the Bogart character, "Billy Dannreuther," pops in Alan Sharp's script of Night Moves, in Jennifer Warren's reminiscence about the first boy to touch her breast -- an insider's reference to a quintessential insider's movie. (1954) — Duncan Shepherd
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