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 |
1 comment:
"Conflict" (1945) is my all time favorite Humphrey Bogart movie it has an incredible re-watchability factor that all his other films no longer have any more, even "Casablanca".
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