Humphrey Bogart

TCM's star of the month for Dec 2009 is Humphrey Bogart, to celebrate what would have been his 110th birthday on 25 Dec, at least according to Warner Brothers.

Humphrey Bogart is chiefly known for his immortal portrayal of Rick Blaine in Casablanca, and for his powerful performances as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep that defined the hardboiled detective on screen. While these are three of Hollywood's great iconic performances, I've learned that he did far more.

He also started out far before his time. His first few years in Hollywood saw him miscast horribly by a studio that didn't understand what he could do. Eventually he became a gangster in The Petrified Forest and stayed one for some years, mostly supporting James Cagney and Edward G Robinson. His best gangster roles can be found in Dead End, Angels with Dirty Faces and The Roaring Twenties.

After becoming a true Hollywood star with The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, Bogart made four films with his wife Lauren Bacall. All are memorable, especially The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not and Key Largo, the latter of which also reunited him with Robinson.

Bogart admirably chose to play the bad guy on occasion, something that few Hollywood stars would have done at the time. He was memorable as a killer in Conflict and The Two Mrs Carrolls, and especially as a greedy gold prospector in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

He was even successful in comedy in Sabrina and opposite Bette Davis in a number of early chick flicks leading up to Dark Victory. He was less believable as a cowboy in The Oklahoma Kid, which saw Cagney out of place too. Miscasting wasn't reserved exclusively for his earliest roles. It's hard to believe after Dead End that people couldn't see where his talents lay, but somehow he was cast in a bizarre role in The Return of Doctor X, as a Mexican bandit in Virginia City, and, of all things, the lead in the hillbilly wrestling musical comedy known as Swing Your Lady. These ones just have to be seen to be believed.

Here are links to what's already here at Apocalypse Later, with some older reviews from my far less substantial 2006 blog at Hal and Dee at the Movies and links to the IMDb pages for each film. Ratings are for films watched since 2004.

Rating System
1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic

Reviews at Apocalypse Later
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Up the River	1930	5	5	John Ford	IMDB
Love Affair	1932	4	4	Thornton Freeland	IMDB
Big City Blues	1932	4	4	Mervyn LeRoy	IMDB
Two Against the World	1936	5	5	William C McGann	IMDB
China Clipper	1936	4	4	Ray Enright	IMDB
Isle of Fury	1936	3	4	Frank McDonald	IMDB
Black Legion	1936	4	4	Archie Mayo	IMDB
The Great O'Malley	1937	4	4	William Dieterle	IMDB
Swing Your Lady	1938	4	5	Ray Enright	IMDB
Crime School	1938	5	4	Lewis Seiler	IMDB
You Can't Get Away with Murder	1939	4	4	Lewis Seiler	IMDB
The Return of Doctor X	1939	3	3	Vincent Sherman	IMDB
The Maltese Falcon	1941	7	7	John Huston	IMDB
The Big Shot	1942	5	6	Lewis Seiler	IMDB
Casablanca	1942	7	7	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
The Big Sleep	1946	7	7	Howard Hawks	IMDB
Dead Reckoning	1947	6	6	John Cromwell	IMDB
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	1948	7	7	John Huston	IMDB
Tokyo Joe	1949	4	4	Stuart Heisler	IMDB
In a Lonely Place	1950	7	7	Nicholas Ray	IMDB
Sirocco	1951	4	4	Curtis Bernhardt	IMDB
The African Queen	1951	7	7	John Huston	IMDB
Battle Circus	1953	6	6	Richard Brooks	IMDB
The Desperate Hours	1955	6	6	William Wyler	IMDB
The Harder They Fall	1956	6	6	Mark Robson	IMDB

Old Reviews at Hal and Dee at the Movies
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Bullets or Ballots	1936	6	6	William Keighley	IMDB
Marked Woman	1937	6		Lloyd Bacon	IMDB
San Quentin	1937	6	6	Lloyd Bacon	IMDB
Kid Galahad	1937	5	5	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
Racket Busters	1938	4	4	Lloyd Bacon	IMDB
Invisible Stripes	1939	5	5	Lloyd Bacon	IMDB
Virginia City	1940	4		Michael Curtiz	IMDB
It All Came True	1940	6	6	Lewis Seiler	IMDB
High Sierra	1941	5		Raoul Walsh	IMDB
They Drive By Night	1940	6	6	Raoul Walsh	IMDB
The Wagons Roll at Night	1941	3		Ray Enright	IMDB
All Through the Night	1942	7	7	Vincent Sherman	IMDB
Across the Pacific	1942	5	5	John Huston	IMDB
Action in the North Atlantic	1943	5	7	Lloyd Bacon	IMDB
Sahara	1943	7	7	Zoltan Korda	IMDB
Passage to Marseille	1944	5	6	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
Knock on Any Door	1949	5	6	Nicholas Ray	IMDB
Chain Lightning	1950	4	4	Stuart Heisler	IMDB
The Caine Mutiny	1954	7	7	Edward Dmytryk	IMDB

Rated Not Reviewed
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Three on a Match	1932	5	6	Mervyn LeRoy	IMDB
The Petrified Forest	1936	5		Archie Mayo	IMDB
Dead End	1937	7	6	William Wyler	IMDB
Men are Such Fools	1938	4	4	Busby Berkeley	IMDB
The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse	1938	7	7	Anatole Litvak	IMDB
Angels with Dirty Faces	1938	7	7	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
King of the Underworld	1939	5		Lewis Seiler	IMDB
The Oklahoma Kid	1939	5	5	Lloyd Bacon	IMDB
Dark Victory	1939	6	6	Edmund Goulding	IMDB
The Roaring Twenties	1939	7	6	Raoul Walsh	IMDB
Brother Orchid	1940	6	6	Lloyd Bacon	IMDB
To Have and Have Not	1944	7	7	Howard Hawks	IMDB
Conflict	1945	7	7	Curtis Bernhardt	IMDB
The Two Mrs Carrolls	1947	6	6	Peter Godfrey	IMDB
Key Largo	1948	7	7	John Huston	IMDB
Beat the Devil	1953	6	6	John Huston	IMDB
Sabrina	1954	5	5	Billy Wilder	IMDB
The Barefoot Contessa	1954	6		Joseph L Mankiewicz	IMDB

Boris Karloff

In honour of the Boris Karloff blogathon which will celebrate across the blogosphere what would have been Karloff the Uncanny's 122nd birthday.

Details of the project can be found at Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog, run out of Quebec by Pierre Fournier.

Boris Karloff was the most versatile of the great stars of classic horror, always working and never disappointing even when the films he appeared in sometimes did. Fournier's project to recognise his life and work with a loud and widely heard voice is a fascinating one and as I have a stack of Karloff as yet unwatched I'll chime in with a few new Karloff reviews during the 23rd to 29th November period.

To whet your appetite here are links to what's already here at Apocalypse Later marked with a big ? for Uncanny, with some older reviews from my far less substantial blog at Hal and Dee at the Movies and links to the IMDb pages for each film.

Rating System
1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic

Reviews at Apocalypse Later
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Criminal Code	1931	5	6	Howard Hawks	IMDB
Dirigible	1931	6	6	Frank Capra	IMDB
Cracked Nuts	1931	3		Edward Cline	IMDB
The Guilty Generation	1931	6		Rowland V Lee	IMDB
Frankenstein	1931	7	7	James Whale	IMDB
Behind the Mask	1932	3	3	John Francis Dillon	IMDB
The Old Dark House	1932	5	5	James Whale	IMDB
Bride of Frankenstein	1935	7	7	James Whale	IMDB
The Black Room	1935	5	5	R William Neill	IMDB
Charlie Chan at the Opera	1936	5	5	H Bruce Humberstone	IMDB
The Man They Could Not Hang	1939	5	5	Nick Grinde	IMDB
The Man with Nine Lives	1940	6	6	Nick Grinde	IMDB
The Ape	1940	4	4	Wiliam Nigh	IMDB
The Devil Commands	1941	4	4	Edward Dmytryk	IMDB
The Boogie Man Will Get You	1942	5	6	Lew Landers	IMDB
Voodoo Island	1957	2	2	Reginald Le Borg	IMDB
Bikini Beach	1964	3		William Asher	IMDB
Die, Monster, Die!	1965	4	4	Daniel Haller	IMDB
Targets	1968	5	5	Peter Bogdanovich	IMDB

Old Reviews at Hal and Dee at the Movies
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Two Arabian Nights	1927	7	7	Lewis Milestone	IMDB
The Unholy Night	1929	6	6	Lionel Barrymore	IMDB
The Public Defender	1931	5	5	J Walter Ruben	IMDB
Scarface: The Shame of a Nation	1932	6	5	Howard Hawks	IMDB
The Lost Patrol	1934	5	5	John Ford	IMDB
The Invisible Ray	1936	2	3	Lambert Hillyer	IMDB
Tower of London	1939	5	6	Rowland V Lee	IMDB
Doomed to Die	1940	5		William Nigh	IMDB
You'll Find Out	1940	4	5	David Butler	IMDB

Rated Not Reviewed
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Sea Bat	1930	3		Lionel Barrymore & Wesley Ruggles	IMDB
Smart Money	1931	6	6	Alfred E Green	IMDB
Five Star Final	1931	5	5	Mervyn LeRoy	IMDB
The Mask of Fu Manchu	1932	4	4	Charles Brabin	IMDB
The Mummy	1932	7	7	Karl Freund	IMDB
The Ghoul	1933	5		T Hayes Hunter	IMDB
The Black Cat	1934	5		Edgar G Ulmer	IMDB
The Walking Dead	1936	5	5	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
West of Shanghai	1937	5		John Farrow	IMDB
The Invisible Menace	1938	4	4	John Farrow	IMDB
Mr Wong, Detective	1938	6		William Nigh	IMDB
Devil's Island	1939	6	6	William Clemens	IMDB
Son of Frankenstein	1939	5	5	Rowland V Lee	IMDB
The Fatal Hour	1940	4		William Nigh	IMDB
British Intelligence	1940	6		Terry Morse	IMDB
The Body Snatcher	1945	6	6	Robert Wise	IMDB
Isle of the Dead	1945	6	6	Mark Robson	IMDB
Bedlam	1946	7	7	Mark Robson	IMDB
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome	1947	4		John Rawlins	IMDB
The Raven	1963	6	7	Roger Corman	IMDB
The Terror	1963	4		Roger Corman	IMDB
The Comedy of Terrors	1964	7	7	Jacques Tourneur	IMDB
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!	1966		7	Chuck Jones & Ben Washam	IMDB
The Venetian Affair	1967	4		Jerry Thorpe	IMDB
Snake People	1971	3		Juan Ibanez & Jack Hill	IMDB

Grace Kelly

TCM's Star of the Month program is usually a great opportunity to catch up with a substantial portion of someone's filmography and this one is even better than usual. Grace Kelly only made eleven films in her brief five year career so TCM showed every one of her films, plus a couple of TV plays that I sadly wasn't able to record. I was able to fill in every single gap and so Kelly has become the first filmography I've completed since Asta, the dog in the Thin Man movies.

Kelly had a remarkable career in film, even before retiring from the screen to become Princess Grace of Monaco. She landed a huge film on only her second time out, playing Will Kane's wife in High Noon, and she followed up with Mogambo, playing Mary Astor's role in this remake of Red Dust. Then in 1954 she became one of the most recognised faces in Hollywood. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Country Girl, playing believably beyond her age as the long suffering wife of an alcoholic Bing Crosby, in the same year that she epitomised the Hitchcock ideal as the elegant and beautiful young blonde in Dial M for Murder and Rear Window.

What's so outstanding about her filmography is that so many of these movies are commonly regarded as classics of American cinema, successful popular hits that were also critically acclaimed. They also span the genres, High Noon being one of the great westerns, Rear Window being one of the great thrillers and High Society apparently being one of the great musicals, though I was underwhelmed. There's adventure and war and drama in there too, all wrapped up within an eleven film career.

Two of these films, High Noon and Rear Window are IMDb Top 250 mainstays, so I'll post reviews to those in 2010 when I mount my run through the entire list at a five film a week pace. Here are reviews for the rest, along with ratings from my wife and I and links to each film's page at IMDb.

Rating System
1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic

Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Fourteen Hours	1951	5	5	Henry Hathaway	IMDB
High Noon	1952	7	7	Fred Zinnemann	IMDB
Mogambo	1953	5	5	John Ford	IMDB
Dial M for Murder	1954	7	7	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDB
Rear Window	1954	7	7	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDB
The Country Girl	1954	7	7	George Seaton	IMDB
Green Fire	1954	4	4	Andrew Marton	IMDB
The Bridges at Toko-Ri	1954	6	6	Mark Robson	IMDB
To Catch a Thief	1955	5	5	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDB
The Swan	1956	5	5	Charles Vidor	IMDB
High Society	1956	4		Charles Walters	IMDB

Claude Rains

Claude Rains was the quintessential supporting actor, so much so that people often see him as the star of a film even when he was really there to support someone else. He was the favourite actor of no less a name than Bette Davis. He taught the art of acting to Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. He appeared in some of the best loved movies of all time and his face is instantly recognisable to most filmgoers. Yet he never won an Academy Award.

He made his mark on Hollywood from moment one, as the title character in the original Universal version of The Invisible Man. He appeared in a few more horror movies but he quickly diversified into all genres, his strong and versatile voice able to meet any requirements. His best known roles are probably as Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood, Capt Renault in Casablanca and the sinister Alexander Sebastian in Hitchcock's Notorious, but he was memorable in every film he made.

Here are links to reviews here at Apocalypse Later, with some older reviews from my far less substantial 2006 blog at Hal and Dee at the Movies and links to the IMDb pages for each film. Ratings are for films watched since 2004, reviews since 2006. H is me, D is my better half.

Rating System
1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic

Reviews at Apocalypse Later
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Hearts Divided	1936	3	3	Frank Borzage	IMDB
Stolen Holiday	1937	4	4	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
The Prince and the Pauper	1937	5	5	William Keighley	IMDB
They Won't Forget	1937	5	5	Mervyn LeRoy	IMDB
Gold is Where You Find It	1938	5	5	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
The Adventures of Robin Hood	1938	6	7	Michael Curtiz & William Keighley	IMDB
Daughters Courageous	1939	5	5	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
The Sea Hawk	1940	5	5	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
Lady with Red Hair	1940	4	4	Curtis Bernhardt	IMDB
Four Mothers	1941	5		William Keighley	IMDB
Casablanca	1942	7	7	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
Mr Skeffington	1944	6	6	Vincent Sherman	IMDB
Notorious	1946	7	6	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDB
Deception	1946	5	5	Irving Rapper	IMDB
The Unsuspected	1947	5	5	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
The Passionate Friends	1949	7	6	David Lean	IMDB
The White Tower	1950	5	5	Ted Tetzlaff	IMDB
Where Danger Lives	1950	5	4	John Farrow	IMDB
Sealed Cargo	1951	4	5	Alfred Werker	IMDB
Twilight of Honor	1963	5	5	Boris Sagal	IMDB

Old Reviews at Hal and Dee at the Movies
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Clairvoyant	1934	5	6	Maurice Elvey	IMDB
They Made Me a Criminal	1939	5	5	Busby Berkeley	IMDB
Juarez	1939	6		William Dieterle	IMDB
Passage to Marseille	1944	5	6	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
Angel on My Shoulder	1946	6	6	Archie Mayo	IMDB

Rated Not Reviewed
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Invisible Man	1933	7	7	James Whale	IMDB
Four Daughters	1938	7		Michael Curtiz	IMDB
Mr Smith Goes to Washington	1939	7	7	Frank Capra	IMDB
Four Wives	1939	6		Michael Curtiz	IMDB
Here Comes Mr Jordan	1941	7		Alexander Hall	IMDB
The Wolf Man	1941	6	7	George Waggner	IMDB
Now, Voyager	1942	7		Irving Rapper	IMDB

Warren William

Warren William is one of the most joyous discoveries any filmgoer is likely to have, because his moment to shine was in the precode era from 1929-1934 and everything that came after that crippled his talents no end. His name is hardly remembered today, except to those who have made that discovery and to them he's a bright star, unique in the history of film. Unfortunately an early death in 1948 at 53 left us with only 65 films to work through.

He was unique in the precode era because you could never tell whether he was really the hero or the villain. In fact he was both, combining both halves of the coin neatly together in such a way as to strip bare the truth behind whatever issue was being addressed in these films. He could and would do the most bare faced things, utterly uncaring of the consequences for anyone else, and yet we can't help loving him for it. No other villain has been so heroic and no other hero has been so villainous as one played by Warren William during the precode era.

After enforcement of the code began he was relegated to detective series and roles that seriously restricted his range. Nonetheless he was still watchable, even though he was inherently a shadow of his former self. He was the first screen Perry Mason, playing the role four times; he was also Philo Vance twice and Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf, in no less than nine films. Yet he also played opposite May Robson in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day, Claudette Colbert in Imitation of Life and Cleopatra and Bette Davis in the second film version of The Maltese Falcon, Satan Met a Lady.

Here are links to reviews here at Apocalypse Later, with some older reviews from my far less substantial 2006 blog at Hal and Dee at the Movies and links to the IMDb pages for each film. Ratings are for films watched since 2004, reviews since 2006. H is me, D is my better half.

Rating System
1 - Abysmal | 2 - Bad | 3 - Poor | 4 - OK | 5 - Good | 6 - Excellent | 7 - Classic

Reviews at Apocalypse Later
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Match King	1932	6	6	Howard Bretherton & William Keighley	IMDB
Employees' Entrance	1933	6	6	Roy Del Ruth	IMDB
The Mind Reader	1933	5	5	Roy Del Ruth	IMDB
Gold Diggers of 1933	1933	6	6	Mervyn LeRoy	IMDB
Smarty	1934	4	4	Robert Florey	IMDB
Dr Monica	1934	4	4	William Keighley	IMDB
The Secret Bride	1934	4	4	William Dieterle	IMDB
Living on Velvet	1935	4	4	Frank Borzage	IMDB
The Firefly	1937	4	4	Robert Z Leonard	IMDB
Madame X	1937	6	6	Sam Wood	IMDB
Arsène Lupin Returns	1938	6	5	George Fitzmaurice	IMDB
The First Hundred Years	1938	3	3	Richard Thorpe	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt	1939	5	5	Peter Godfrey	IMDB
The Man in the Iron Mask	1939	5	5	James Whale	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Strikes	1940	4	5	Sidney Salkow	IMDB
Lillian Russell	1940	4	4	Irving Cummings	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady	1940	5	5	Sidney Salkow	IMDB
Arizona	1940	4	4	Wesley Ruggles	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date	1941	3	3	Sidney Salkow	IMDB
The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance	1941	5	5	Sidney Salkow	IMDB
Passport to Suez	1943	4	4	André De Toth	IMDB

Old Reviews at Hal and Dee at the Movies
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
Under Eighteen	1932	6	6	Archie Mayo	IMDB
Beauty and the Boss	1932	6		Roy Del Ruth	IMDB
The Dark Horse	1932	5		Alfred E Green	IMDB
Skyscraper Souls	1932	6	6	Edgar Selwyn	IMDB
Bedside	1934	5		Robert Florey	IMDB
Times Square Playboy	1936	4	4	William McGann	IMDB
Satan Met a Lady	1936	5	6	William Dieterle	IMDB

Rated Not Reviewed
Title	Year	H	D	Director(s)	IMDb
The Mouthpiece	1932	6		James Flood & Elliott Nugent	IMDB
Three on a Match	1932	5	6	Mervyn LeRoy	IMDB
Lady for a Day	1933	7		Frank Capra	IMDB
Upperworld	1934	5		Roy Del Ruth	IMDB
The Dragon Murder Case	1934	6	6	H Bruce Humberstone	IMDB
The Case of the Howling Dog	1934	6	6	Alan Crosland	IMDB
Cleopatra	1934	4		Cecil B De Mille	IMDB
Imitation of Life	1934	6		John M Stahl	IMDB
The Case of the Curious Bride	1935	6	6	Michael Curtiz	IMDB
The Case of the Lucky Legs	1935	6	6	Archie L Mayo	IMDB
The Case of the Velvet Claws	1936	5	5	William Clemens	IMDB
Day-Time Wife	1939	4	4	Gregory Ratoff	IMDB
The Wolf Man	1941	6	7	George Waggner	IMDB