Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

I’ve been putting off watching this oddity for a long time because I didn’t feel that a comedy would play to the strengths of either director John Huston or star Humphrey Bogart, especially a comedy which has the reputation of being self-indulgent.  Co-writers Huston and Truman Capote apparently intended it as a spoof of ‘The Maltese Falcon’.  Since it doesn't obviously take aim at film noir tropes, t he only connection I could see to the earlier Huston film is the presence of Bogart and of Peter Lorre, and that the character played here by Robert Morley bears some resemblance to that played by Sydney Greenstreet. OK, let’s try to summarise the plot, such as it is. Morley is in charge of a disparate gang of misfits who have developed a scheme to make a fortune from mining uranium in Africa, and Bogart is helping them to acquire the land they need on the cheap. Whilst waiting in an Italian port for a ship to take them to the dark continent they get to know Mr and Mrs Chelm, a ...