There's a lot going on in Beat the Devil's plot. According to an article written by Rod Stoneman, the film's plot was loosely based on The Maltese Falcon and was meant to parody it by assembling a cast of comically immoral villains and heroes (Stoneman 37). However, Stoneman further explains that as the film was moving into the process of shooting scenes, the plot was still largely unfinished (37). Cowriters Huston and Capote finished the script and screenplay while the actors were shooting pieces of the film. This might explain why the film includes a wealth of dramatic plot points like adultery between each of the main couples, a perceived suicide when Billy's car accidentally goes off a cliff, and a shipwreck on the way to Africa that leaves the characters in the custody of soldiers that are all laughed off and treated without any weight. The adultery is never addressed as immoral and both couples happily end up just as they began, the percieved suicide is laughed off through various verbal quips, and the characters capture is solved through Billy telling an Arab leader he is friends with Film Noir superstar Rita Hayworth.