Your TOP Bogart movie..?

[MisterCairo]

Casablanca. The greatest of many greats.

 

[Stanley Doble]

My favorite Bogart movie is Beat the Devil. It is not his greatest picture but a very funny script by Truman Capote with a great supporting cast including Peter Lorre, Robert Morley and Gina Lollabrigida and Jennifer Jones.

The Big Sleep is a lot better, and makes more sense, in its original form. It was recut after To Have And Have Not was released, with some scenes cut and new scenes added, to capitalize on the Bogart/ Bacall "magic". The original to me is a better movie. It is available on DVD.

Spoiler alert, if you have not seen The Big Sleep you might want to skip this part.

In those days a blackmail investigation was a delicate matter. Official policy was to protect the victim from exposure or publicity. This explains why the police recommended a private detective, as it would be more discreet to keep the affair off the police blotter. Why Detective Ohs recommended Marlowe for the job. Why Marlowe went to such great lengths to shield the Sternwoods.

There is also a twist in the plot. Marlowe was hired to get a blackmailer off General Sternwood's back. But everyone thought he was investigating the disappearance of Sternwood's friend Sean Regan. Regan was actually killed by the youngest Sternwood daughter Carmen. Her older sister Vivian covered up the murder with the help of gambler and fixer Eddie Mars. This involved Mars' wife going into hiding and spreading the story she ran off with Regan.

Marlowe had no interest in this affair but everyone thought he did.

The unexplained murder was that of the Sternwoods' chauffeur. Blackmailer Joe Brophy admitted running him off the road and taking a certain incriminating photo away from him by force. A few hours later the car and chauffeur were found dumped in the ocean several miles away. Brophy denied killing him but what does that matter? He would deny it if he were guilty. It seems logical that he went too far and killed the man while struggling to take the photo away, then dumped the car and the body, and later denied the murder although he could not deny taking the photo, as he was caught with it in his possession.

 

[Blackthorn]

My favorite one isn't on the list: Left Hand of God. I like it for a number of reasons, but mostly because it's just so off beat for a Bogart movie. I also like it because I've been to China several times, and have a real affinity for the poor of that country...as does the priest Bogart plays.

 

[Touchofevil]

Like many, I am a huge fan of Bogart. And although I do own and very much enjoy all five of those allowed for voting, I would place "The Maltese Falcon" at the top. Another film that I enjoy is the under appreciated "Dark Passage".

 

[O2BSwank]

I voted for the Big Sleep because it was based on the Chandler novel which I preferred to the Hammet novel. I think the movies version of the Maltese Falcon is better than the book. Although Key Largo has such a great cast and Bogie plays such a conflicted man. Love them all watch them all.

 

[Gene]

The Big Sleep for me; less convoluted than The Maltese Falcon.

 

[DNO]

The Big Sleep followed very closely by all of the others!

 

[Widebrim]

While Casablanca is a better movie, and Ingrid Bergman my favorite actress of the era (and I think one of the most beautiful women of all time...), I find myself watching The Big Sleep more than the others. The plot is too convoluted to follow, but something about the grity and sordid story and characters and the lovely Martha Vickers calls to me...

Ditto.

 

[nihil]

I just saw The Big Sleep a few weeks ago, for the first time. What a masterpiece! It have taken the place as one of my absolute favorites

 

[Atomic Age]

I find it amusing that people find the plot of The Big Sleep as "incomprehensible". Its really only incomprehensible to modern audience who are used to having things spelled out for them. Complicated, yes. Incomprehensible, no.

To adult audiences of the day, who were use to picking up subtle reference from film makers who were restricted by the production code, it would have been fairly clear that Arthur Gwynn Geiger, the first murder victim in the story, was a blackmailer who got women doped up on opium, took pornographic pictures of them, and used the pictures for blackmail. It also seems that he would sell the photographs to his male clients through the book store front, if the women paid the blackmail or not. It would also have been obvious that Geiger and his chauffeur, Carol Lundgren, were gay and were lovers.

All the clues are there if you know how to read a movie made under the production code. The problem was that the subject of the story in the book was almost unfilmable under the production code. The Maltese Falcon had to imply that Joel Cairo was gay. But for The Big Sleep they had reveal most of mystery plot, and motivations through implication.

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

I recall that movie being ridiculous. Is that with the underground nazi spy headquarters at the end?

I have never seen (and have always wanted to see) Petrified Forest.

I love All Through The Night. Its basically a screwball comedy with Bogart in it.

One I haven't seen anyone bring up yet is The Barefoot Contessa. Really a wonderful film, beautifully photographed by Jack Cardiff. Bogart and Gardner are great in it!

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

Much as I like Sleep and the novel it's based on, neither one is that solidly plotted. The story goes that when Hawks & Co. were filming Big Sleep, they were confused about who had murdered a minor character. Unable to figure it out, or to puzzle it out from the novel, they went to see Chandler.

He couldn't figure it out either -- or had forgotten in the six or so years since he'd written the novel. So even the creator of Philip Marlowe and the other characters was lost!

Chandler's novel was actually cobbled together from 4 unrelated short stories he had written for Black Mask Magazine, so its not surprising that the plot is serpentine.

Doug

 

[DNO]

Almost forgot...I'm also a fan of one of his more forgotten movies: We're No Angels (1955) with Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov.

 

[Edward]

Voted for Casablanca here. The others do some things better: I like the darker atmosphere of Maltese Falcon, and nothing comes close to the chemistry he has with Bacall in The Big Sleep. Casablanca has it all, though - the comedy, the sharp dialogue, the amusing propaganda edge, even the perfectly crafted ending that flies in the face of "romance" nonsense... it has it all. Truly a film you'd never see made right today. You can guarantee they'd screw up the ending...

 

[Benzadmiral]

Chandler's novel was actually cobbled together from 4 unrelated short stories he had written for Black Mask Magazine, so its not surprising that the plot is serpentine.

Doug

That's right. Chandler was a master at "recycling" already published material.

 

[Alex Oviatt]

This is actually my favorite: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ZcLFW2UvI

 

[Widebrim]

I find it amusing that people find the plot of The Big Sleep as "incomprehensible". Its really only incomprehensible to modern audience who are used to having things spelled out for them. Complicated, yes. Incomprehensible, no.

To adult audiences of the day, who were use to picking up subtle reference from film makers who were restricted by the production code, it would have been fairly clear that Arthur Gwynn Geiger, the first murder victim in the story, was a blackmailer who got women doped up on opium, took pornographic pictures of them, and used the pictures for blackmail. It also seems that he would sell the photographs to his male clients through the book store front, if the women paid the blackmail or not. It would also have been obvious that Geiger and his chauffeur, Carol Lundgren, were gay and were lovers.

All the clues are there if you know how to read a movie made under the production code. The problem was that the subject of the story in the book was almost unfilmable under the production code. The Maltese Falcon had to imply that Joel Cairo was gay. But for The Big Sleep they had reveal most of mystery plot, and motivations through implication.

Doug

True, Doug, including the fact that some references/nuances were more apparent to a '40s audience. However, even contemporary reviewers found it difficult to follow the plot. It is easier to understand if you've read the book. Regarding Joel Cairo, it should be fairly obvious to even a modern viewer that he is intended to be homosexual; although perhaps not as easy to determine with Lindsay Marriott in Murder, My Sweet.

 

[Atomic Age]

True, Doug, including the fact that some references/nuances were more apparent to a '40s audience. However, even contemporary reviewers found it difficult to follow the plot. It is easier to understand if you've read the book. Regarding Joel Cairo, it should be fairly obvious to even a modern viewer that he is intended to be homosexual; although perhaps not as easy to determine with Lindsay Marriott in Murder, My Sweet.

I've watched The Maltese Falcon with numerous groups of people, including family, friends and several classes full of film students. I have yet to find anyone who figured out from the film alone that Cairo was homosexual. It always has to be pointed out to them, and then they ask, "how do you know that?" Then you have to point out the scented business card among other things.

Yes contemporary reviewers found the film complicated, as they did with the book, but I don't think any of them didn't understand the blackmail plot.

Most people I know don't get the fact that Marriott is either. I think the fact that he is "going out with women" throws them off.

Doug

 

[Mrs Chaddsley_Corbett]

Casablanca is scheduled to be played at an open air theatre here in Australia, on top of a car park?

http://www.showmeperth.com.au/event/stella-artois-sunday-classics-casablanca-pg

 

[Feraud]

I love All Through The Night. Its basically a screwball comedy with Bogart in it.

Absolutely! A very cool wartime film pitting New York tough guy gamblers and other assorted shady characters against conspiring Nazis!
What a cast- Bogey, Conrad Veidt, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, Frank McHugh, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, William Demarest, and others.
I always enjoy seeing this on TCM.