The man was always good, even in all his pre High Sierra pictures. He is great and on a legendary scale with performances such as Duke Mante in Petrified Forest and Baby Face Martin in Dead End. Most of you know how I feel about the man. He is one of the most interesting actors of the twentieth century. Actually any century. He is an American icon; a wonderful thing that America has given to the world, like the polio vaccine. His work is timeless. Almost 50 years since he passed away and he still makes lists of top films and film stars.

Is there a bad Bogart picture? Yes but it is not his fault. It is Mr. Bogart’s tough life in the circus picture The Wagons Roll At Night. It was forced upon him like an unfair sentence from a drunk judge. He is good in the picture but Jack and Harry Warner should be dug up and slapped for ever allowing such a picture as Wagons Roll at Night to be made at their studio. I can forgive alot with these two guys but not this waste of film. So for get about it and move on.

1) Beat The Devil. A quartet of international crooks — Peterson, O’Hara (lots of fine Germans are named O’Hara) , Ross and Ravello — is stranded in Italy while their steamer is being repaired. With them is Billy Dannreuther(Bogart) and his wife Maria (Gina Lollobrigida). The six are headed for Africa, presumably to sell vacuum cleaners but actually to buy land supposedly loaded with uranium. They are joined by Harry and Gwendolen Chelm (Jennifer Jones) who may or may not have similar designs. Directed by John Huston with a script by Truman Capote this is a picture I could watch over and over. One of the main attributes of this picture is the way it was shot, it almost looks like a documentary. There is nothing glossy or “studio looking” about it. And it is very funny.

2)In A Lonely Place A screenwriter with a hair trigger temper and a very suggestive name Mr. Bogart plays Dixon Steele, a man with many demons and a beautiful neighbor. The beautiful neighbor (the beautiful Gloria Graham) is also Dix’s alibi when he becomes the number one suspect in a violent murder case. See the post.

3) Caine Mutiny Mr. Bogart plays the quintessential Navy Captain who is losing his marbles. In one of the most tragic and sympathetic performances of a man breaking down sanity-wise on a witness stand, Mr. Bogart moved the studio crew to a thunderous round of applause when the scene was finished. The film took a year to complete which was unheard of at the time. Producer Stanley Kramer had to tip toe around the Department of Defense as they were very upset with the subject matter - a mutiny aboard a United States Naval vessel. The D.O. D. would have pulled any assistance away from the production had not two things happened. The first was that producer Kramer placed a comment in the opening credits stating that there had never been a mutiny on a United States Naval vessel and that the Herman Wouk novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

The rest of the cast is terrific.Van Johnson is the leader of the mutiny when it becomes evident that Captain Queeg is making all the wrong decisions during a typhoon. Fred MacMurray is the sleazy Lt. Tom Keefer who deserves that drink thrown in his face by Jose Ferrer .

This picture was a spectacular return for director Edward Dmytrck who as one of the original Hollywood ten.

4) African Queen He won an Oscar, of course it should be on his “Top Ten List”.

5) Casablanca It is the most famous movie ever made by a human being. It was also his first Oscar nomination. Enough said.

6) Enforcer (1951) Mr. Bogart in another tough as nails role. This time he is District Attorney Martin Ferguson and he is hell bent of prosecuting a viscious killer named Mendoza. Mendoza is in a cell in the basement being guarded by several police men and upstairs is the nervous wreck star witness against him. Something happens, and I won’t say what, that ruins the possible testimony from the star witness. As there is a real possibility that Mendoza will walk out free, Martin must back track to find one item over looked that will lead to Mendoza’s conviction and the gas chamber at San Quintin. This is a picture that has flash backs within flashbacks. All in all it is an exciting picture and Mr. Bogart does relentless like nobody (he is even mean to kid in his quest for the truth). Great supporting cast including Ted DeCorsia, King Donovan, the about to be blacklisted Zero Mostel and Everett Sloane as Mendoza. That’s right, little Everett Sloane and he is darn good.
After several days of shooting, director Bretaigne Windust fell seriously ill. Mr. Bogart asked his old friend, director Raoul Walsh, to come in and shoot the picture until Windust recovered. Unfortunately, Windust did not recover quickly and was out of commission for several months, during which Mr. Walsh finished the picture. However, Walsh refused to take screen credit for it, saying that the picture was Windust’s big break and he wasn’t going to take it away from him.

7) Dead End (1937) Yet another picture turned down by George Raft. Mr. Bogart is “baby Face” Hugh Martin. He is on the run and comes back to hide out his old neighborhood, the rough and tough slums of the upper east side (New York was different back then). The picture, based on the play of the same name, is set over one and a half days. Almost all the interaction takes place where the street dead ends at the east river.
The story of one day in a slum area of New York. In their first movie appearance, The Dead End Kids are introduced in their intricate East Side slum, overlooked by the apartments of the rich. Their antics, some funny, some vicious, alternate with subplots: unemployed architect Dave (Joel McCrea) is torn between Drina (Sylvia Sydney), sweet but equally poor, and Kay, a rich man’s mistress. And now we have the Gangster Baby Face Martin coming back to the East Side street where he grew up to say goodbye to his mother, who denounces him as a murderer, and his childhood girlfriend who is now a prostitute.
In one of the most memorable moments ever put to film is the scene in which Baby Face Martin and his old girlfriend Francey finally come together. At first he wants her to run off with him but as she explains it, she is too sick to travel. In the play her profession is not so veiled and her sickness is syphilis. The Hays office would never allow such things to be said on screen in 1937 but we get it. The scene is so tragic, Francey’s life is now a “dead end” and she cannot go on. The great Claire Trevor as Francey reciebed an Oscar Nomination for her brilliant five minutes of screen time. Mr. Bogart’s reaction, the sad disappointment and shock at what he did not see at first is on the money.

8) Petrified Forrest (1936) His break out picture. He is tremendous. If I could go back in time I would want to see him do this on Broadway. In fact this may have been the last live theater he did. Both Mr. Bogart and us (the rest of the world) owe a huge debt to Leslie Howard. The story goes that Leslie Howard wanted in his contract that Mr. Bogart recreate his Broadway performance of Duke Mantee on screen when it came time to make the movie. After some protesting from Warner Brothers (they wanted Edward G. Robinson who did not want to play another gangster), the light was seen and we have this celluloid legacy. Bette Davis ain’t bad either as Gabrielle the waitress. Former actor turned director Archie Mayo was responsible for almost 90 pictures. He helmed the Glenn Miller vehicle Orchestra Wives and the Marx Brothers Night In Casablanca but his skills peaked on Petrified Forrest.

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