While you're all celebrating the J-man's birthday, I'll observe another holiday. Jesus Christ and Humphrey Bogart share a day of birth. There is some debate over Jay's birthday but I'm pretty sure the city of New York provided Humphrey with proof of birth for December 25, 1899. Every year I honor a mere movie star while 31.6% of the world's population remembers their savior. You guys win. I'm dying alone on this hill.
I take a week or two off around the holidays. During that lazy post-holiday stretch I watch a few of my favorite Bogart films. I own nine on DVD. I also stream some of the lesser-known titles and let me tell ya, Bogart made some great mid-century movies most people have never heard of. Even his second-string films are solid if you're into the Golden Age of Hollywood as I am.
Of course, I am grotesquely biased.
Everyone knows his greatest films and roles. Casablanca is considered by many as the greatest film of all time. Shockingly, I am no longer among them. For me, Casa is not even the best Bogart film.
I am partial to The Maltese Falcon. First of all, I adore the jovial and scheming Sidney Greenstreet. He's great in Casa but in Falcon, he's a scene-stealer. Who doesn't love Peter Lorre? He's so sniveling, cowardly, bug-eyed, and sleazy. He's fantastic! The plot, the Falcon backstory, all of it is perfect in my opinion.
Here's my problem.
I could watch The Treasure Of The Siera Madre this week and declare it the greatest Bogart film. I vacillate like this in film and music. I favor some bands for periods and then they fade as other artists move up in my ever-changing personal zeitgeist.
My sons cracked me up one holiday when everyone was home when I stated, "I have at least three Bogart films in my top ten favorite movies of all time."
One son looked at the other, "How many is it now?" He turned to me. "Dad, you have like twenty-seven films in your top ten."
I was busted. It was Bogie Week. I got carried away. It's true. I have too many films moving in and out of my top ten of all time at all times. I'm here today, 12~24~24, on the eve of his 125th birthday, to express my appreciation for Humphrey Bogart. I hope this blabbering might persuade some of you to watch at least one Bogart film this week between Bogie Day 12~25 and New Year's Day.
In The Treasure of The Siera Madre, Walter Huston, father of the director John Huston and grandfather of Angelica... won the Academy Award for a performance that steals the entire film. Bogie plays the bad guy and you loathe Hobbs so much but that's okay. Bogart grew up in Hollywood playing the tough guy. He knows the role.
In 1942, Casablanca was his first lead romantic role. It changed his life not just his career. My favorite scene in Casa is kind of a cliche pick. When the French at Rick's Cafe Americain begin singing La Marseilles to drown out the Germans singing and the whole bar joins in... pissing off the Nazis. I get goosebumps every time.
Of course, I stole American Cafe for my Postcards series. I assume readers made that connection.
My first Bogie film was Petrified Forest (1936) where he plays gangster-on-the-run Duke Mantee. Leslie Howard and Betty Davis were the stars. Bogart was not a huge star at the time. The entire film takes place in a roadside gas station-diner-inn during the Dust Bowl. I was a kid, maybe twelve, watching it with my Dad and I loved it.
My Dad and I did not have some special Bogart connection. He's just the guy who was watching old movies and we only had one TV when I was a kid. We watched what Dad watched. He turned me on to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and started my Spaghetti Western journey. We watched all the 007 films together, the old Westerns and all the classic WW2 films. You guys know the films I'm thinking of. I don't need to list them.
I kind of took off with Bogart on my own. Back in the seventies, you got Casablanca and Falcon on TV all the time. African Queen and The Caine Mutiny are probably the next two most prominent. I knew them all well. Then I saw The Big Sleep in high school and Bacall changed everything.
My first viewing of To Have And Have Not had me naming that as Bogart's best. I think I was about eighteen and I had a hard-on for Lauren Bacall. Not the gravelly-voiced old lady actress I knew who smoked cigarettes for decades, the other Bacall.
Lauren Bacall was eighteen when she and Humphrey filmed together for the first time. They did not make eighteen-year-old women like that when I was that age. To Have And Have Not was filmed in 1944. She was damn hot for the forties.
"You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”
It's not like I knew all the films when I was a teen or a young adult. I collected them over the decades. By collect I mean checked Bogie's films off the list. I once happened across Action In The North Atlantic on TCM and I was delighted to see a new-to-me Bogart work. The battleships in the giant Hollywood bathtub battle scenes are so perfect I would never swap that out for CGI.
Streaming is when it got crazy. My biggest Bogie Week was thirteen films. I was a coach potato all week. I watched all of my DVDs and a handful of movies I'd never seen, like High Sierra. It's another pre-Casablanca bad-guy role that is underrated in the pantheon of Bogiedom.
Obviously, the Bogart films I own on hard DVD media must be my favorites, right? How could they not be? I think there are a few I do not own that could crack the top ten. I just stopped collecting DVDs.
Before I list my top Bogies I must point out something. When I express my adoration for a film I shower the supporting cast with love. I rave less about Humphrey Bogart's craft of acting. He's a fine actor but let's get real, he's no Daniel Day-Lewis.
Bogart was a great leading man in his era because but he didn't have to be the brightest star on the screen. He had so many perfect costars. He was okay with Bacall outshining him because, in the end, he got the girl and the last laugh. When I look at Bogie's filmography it is the supporting cast that sways my opinion.
The Maltese Falcon (1941) is my favorite except that Mary Astor is not my best female lead. She's not supposed to be liked, so there's that. Astor was great in the role...
Casablanca (1942) ... but she was no Igrid Bergman. The plot in Casa is top-notch. Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre appear in Casa too. Dooley Wilson is fantastic playing Sam. Claude Rains as Captain Louis Renault is the perfect conflicted bad guy you can't trust but kind of like.
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.”
”Your winnings, sir.”
”Oh, Thank you very much.”
Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948) is no place for women so you won't be hearing of any actress co-stars. Sierra Madre is all stinky, sweaty men with dreams of gold and riches.
I reference Bogart films many times in my fiction. Joe is a fan, as are the cranks at The Surfside. In the Veracruz chapter of Postcards, Joe lets Maria’s father, Lorenzo Cortez drive Ellie to Tampico, the city where Hobbs and Curtain meet and become prospecting partners.
To Have And Have Not (1944) is the best of the Bogie-Bacalls. For sentimental reasons, it is hard for me to keep this film out of my top three but it's simply not a better film overall than the big three. The Vichy cops on Martinique are fantastic, and Hogie Carmichael. This is Becall's debut. C'mon!
Key Largo (1948) Gangster Edward G. Robinson makes this the second-best Bogie-Bacall collaboration. Dan Seymour plays the bartender-gangster in Largo. He's the same actor as the Vichy cop Renaud on Martinique and he’s a fez-wearing character in Casa. There’s a lot of talent crossover in Bogie films.
The Big Sleep (1946) is a great story and there are a few hot babes, not just Bacall. I like the scene with frail old General Sternwood in his greenhouse enjoying another man drinking because he cannot.
Dark Passage (1947) is another Bogie-Bacall and it has the best female antagonist. Anges Moorehead of Bewitched plays a nasty, vile woman and you want to see her get what's coming to her.
African Queen (1951) might be Bogart's best performance and Katherine Hepburn is simply fabulous in every measure, as a woman and an artist.
The Caine Mutiny (1954) is probably my least fav of the DVDs I have because I loathe Captain Queeg, Bogart's most annoying character, but it has a solid cast and a very good script. Bogart did a great job playing an incompetent, delusional asshole.
Honorable mention goes to Dead Reckoning (1946), Petrified Forrest (1936), High Sierra (1940), Action In The North Atlantic (1943), and Sahara (1943). Humphrey Bogart was very busy in the forties making WW2 films as the war was happening.
I could go on forever but this is already too long. Congratulations and my condolences if you made it this far. Now go watch a Bogie film.