BEAT THE DEVIL: John Huston and Truman Capote co-wrote the screenplay while working on location. A whimsical parody of The Maltese Falcon and other 1940's detective movies in which Bogart so often starred (and Huston directed).Tells of the exploits of a group of travelers on a steamboat who each hopes to carry off a huge swindle in the uranium fields of Northern Africa. While not a commercial success upon its release, the film has come to define the genre of spy movie spoofs.

MY FAVORITE BRUNETTE: Legendary funnyman Bob Hope plays a baby photographer who gets mixed up with gangsters in this bubbly slapstick comedy-drama. Ronnie Jackson (Hope) wants nothing more than to step into the gumshoes of office mate Sam McCloud (film noir veteran Alan Ladd), a private investigator who runs his own detective agency. Jackson gets his big break when a mysterious femme fatale (Dorothy Lamour) strolls into his office and, mistaking him for McCloud, asks for help with her uncle's kidnapping. Jackson plays along with the detective role but is soon in way over his head as he becomes embroiled in a dangerous (and comic!) mystery. This spoof of the hardboiled detective genre also features horror legends Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney as Hope's villainous foils.