Romance and crime are alluring themes in this double feature. The late Walter Matthau directs and stars in GANGSTER STORY, a mob story with an emphasis on personal relations rather than gunplay. Matthau's girlfriend keeps the heat on to get him to leave the mob behind. John Huston and Truman Capote co-wrote BEAT THE DEVIL while working on location. This is a whimsical parody of THE MALTESE FALCON and other 1940's detective movies in which Bogart so often starred (and Huston directed). It describes the exploits of a group of travelers on a steamboat. 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.