Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)
Bogie
is one of the icons of classic cinema, his image and appeal has endured
in the same way as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. He sums up a whole
decade of movie-making : the Forties and the genre of film noir with
his laconic heroes. Bogart wasn't a star for a very long time, it was
only in the last decade and a half of his life that he got to show his
range as an actor but he was a very consistent performer and starred in
at least five great films : The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca
(1943), The Big Sleep (1946), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
and The African Queen (1951).
In his early film roles Bogart was typed as a bland juvenile as he had been on stage. It wasn't until he played Duke Mantee in the stage and film versions of The Petrified Forest that he emerged as a personality in his own right. Warner Brothers had wanted Edward G. Robinson to play Mantee but Leslie Howard the star of the play said he wouldn't do the film unless Bogart was cast. His snarling performance was a hit but it meant a new typecasting dilemma for Bogie, he became the most junior member of Warners' rogues gallery which included Cagney, Raft and Robinson. In the next few years Bogart played a series of gangsters with few redeeming qualities who were usually killed by one of the bigger stars. He was finished off by Robinson in Bullets or Ballots (1936) and by Cagney in both Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and The Roaring Twenties (1939) (a great final confrontation by the two stars).
In Raoul Walsh's High Sierra (1941) Roy Earle was a Bogart gangster was a heart. It was the key film in Bogart's career because one of the writers was John Huston who was secretly delighted when Bogie replaced George Raft in Huston's first directorial effort The Maltese Falcon (1941). Bogart's Sam Spade established his persona as a suave anti-hero private eye who is on the side of the angels. Casablanca (1943) masterly reinforced that new image and proved Bogart had sex appeal.
In To Have and Have Not (1944) Bogart was paired with sultry young Lauren Bacall by director Howard Hawks. Their chemistry lit up the screen and the director and stars were reunited for The Big Sleep (1946). In real life Bogart and Bacall were married, a union which was a great success resulting in two children : Steve named after Bogart's character in To Have and Have Not (1944) and Leslie named after Howard who had given the actor his first big break.
In John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Bogart played against type as Dodds, a man slowly going mad over his greed for gold. This was followed by one last classic for the Bogie and Huston team at Warners : Key Largo (1948) in which Bogart finally got the chance to turn the tables on Robinson and gun Eddie's Johnny Rocco down in the final reel.
In the Fifties Bogart like many stars became a free agent. One of his more interesting films of this period was Nicholas Ray's In A Lonely Place (1951) but it was for his performance as Charlie Allnut in the enchanting The African Queen (1951) that he won the Best Actor Oscar. None of his later films were quite as good as this but he delivered another fine performance in The Caine Mutiny (1954) as the mentally unstable Captain Queeg.
Bogart's iconic status means he's probably more famous now than when he was alive, he is one of the first names people think about it when they consider classic Hollywood. He was a fine actor and was lucky enough to make a few really great films, he wasn't obvious leading man material but like Cagney he had incredible star quality which drew you to him whenever he was onscreen.
In his early film roles Bogart was typed as a bland juvenile as he had been on stage. It wasn't until he played Duke Mantee in the stage and film versions of The Petrified Forest that he emerged as a personality in his own right. Warner Brothers had wanted Edward G. Robinson to play Mantee but Leslie Howard the star of the play said he wouldn't do the film unless Bogart was cast. His snarling performance was a hit but it meant a new typecasting dilemma for Bogie, he became the most junior member of Warners' rogues gallery which included Cagney, Raft and Robinson. In the next few years Bogart played a series of gangsters with few redeeming qualities who were usually killed by one of the bigger stars. He was finished off by Robinson in Bullets or Ballots (1936) and by Cagney in both Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and The Roaring Twenties (1939) (a great final confrontation by the two stars).
In Raoul Walsh's High Sierra (1941) Roy Earle was a Bogart gangster was a heart. It was the key film in Bogart's career because one of the writers was John Huston who was secretly delighted when Bogie replaced George Raft in Huston's first directorial effort The Maltese Falcon (1941). Bogart's Sam Spade established his persona as a suave anti-hero private eye who is on the side of the angels. Casablanca (1943) masterly reinforced that new image and proved Bogart had sex appeal.
In To Have and Have Not (1944) Bogart was paired with sultry young Lauren Bacall by director Howard Hawks. Their chemistry lit up the screen and the director and stars were reunited for The Big Sleep (1946). In real life Bogart and Bacall were married, a union which was a great success resulting in two children : Steve named after Bogart's character in To Have and Have Not (1944) and Leslie named after Howard who had given the actor his first big break.
In John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Bogart played against type as Dodds, a man slowly going mad over his greed for gold. This was followed by one last classic for the Bogie and Huston team at Warners : Key Largo (1948) in which Bogart finally got the chance to turn the tables on Robinson and gun Eddie's Johnny Rocco down in the final reel.
In the Fifties Bogart like many stars became a free agent. One of his more interesting films of this period was Nicholas Ray's In A Lonely Place (1951) but it was for his performance as Charlie Allnut in the enchanting The African Queen (1951) that he won the Best Actor Oscar. None of his later films were quite as good as this but he delivered another fine performance in The Caine Mutiny (1954) as the mentally unstable Captain Queeg.
Bogart's iconic status means he's probably more famous now than when he was alive, he is one of the first names people think about it when they consider classic Hollywood. He was a fine actor and was lucky enough to make a few really great films, he wasn't obvious leading man material but like Cagney he had incredible star quality which drew you to him whenever he was onscreen.
Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
Humphrey Bogart image from Crazy4Cinema