Humphrey Bogart's Greatest Film Moments

March 31, 2011

By Word & Film

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Biographer Stefan Kanfer has covered such icons as Groucho Marx, Lucille Ball, and Marlon Brando. Now, he turns his attention and his pen to the one and only Humphrey Bogart in Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart. Word & Film caught up with Kanfer recently and asked him to name his three favorite Bogart films. Here’s what Kanfer had to say…

“The Maltese Falcon”
George Raft, a major Warner Bros. personality in the late 1930s and early 1940s, refused to star in this 1942 movie. For one thing, it would be a remake – “The Maltese Falcon” had already been filmed twice before. For another, John Huston, a screenwriter, would be making his directorial debut. When Raft walked, Humphrey Bogart, known as a reliable actor but hardly the kind who would be billed over the title, assumed the role of Sam Spade. He played opposite Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet (a sixty-one-year-old stage actor who had never appeared in a movie), and Peter Lorre. Together, they made a masterpiece of film noir. Bogie was on his way. Click here to watch Kanfer’s favorite scene from “The Maltese Falcon.”

“Casablanca”
Nothing about this Warner Bros. feature should have worked. When the cameras began whirring, nobody knew how the script would end. Would Ingrid Bergman go off with Humphrey Bogart or Paul Henreid? Why would the secretive leader of the underground wear a bright white suit? If Casablanca was in the desert, why did fogs swirl around scenes of action? Nevertheless, when the film wrapped, everything fell into place—partly because the cast was filled with refugees whose faces and accents showed the terrible plight of World War II refugees, partly because the lines were unforgettable: “Here’s looking at you, kid”; “I stick my neck out for nobody”; but mostly because Bergman was at her most radiant, and Bogart at his noblest. When he selflessly forsook her and went off to liberate France from the Nazis, he went from player to the most important American film actor of his time. Click here to watch Kanfer’s favorite scene from “Casablanca.”

The Caine Mutiny
Humphrey Bogart took a pay cut to appear as Captain Queeg, a naval officer whose underlings take command of his ship when it founders in a typhoon. The rebellious group, faced with a court martial that could result in jail time, or possibly even a death sentence, rely on the cross-examination skills of their defense attorney, played with great relish by Jose Ferrer. Fred McMurray is perfect as the conniving Queeg-hater, and Van Johnson makes an idea cat’s-paw. Nonetheless, the picture belongs to Bogart, whose portrait of paranoia is reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s press conferences during the days of Watergate (Caine preceded them by almost two decades.) Yet Bogart manages to invest Queeg with humanity, and thus, in the end, makes the Captain a pitiable figure. An underrated performance in a seldom-seen picture. Watch Kanfer’s favorite scene below.

What are your favorite Humphrey Bogart film moments?

Tags: Biography, Casablanca, Classics, Humphrey Bogart, John Huston, Lucille Ball, Marlon Brando, Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet, Stefan Kanfer, The Caine Mutiny, The Maltese Falcon, Video