Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Bogey - part II

In the words of the immortal John Huston:
"He was endowed with the greatest gift a man can have - talent. The whole world came to recognize it . . . his life, though not a long one measureed in years, was a rich full life . . . We have no reason to feel any sorrow for him - only for ourselves for having lost him. He is quite irreplaceable. There will never be another like him."

well said!!!!

Here's the rest of Bogey's rogues gallery of classic characters with interesting names!

Bogart as Sam Spade along with Peter Lorre, Mary Astor and Sidney Greenstreet in a scene from John Huston's masterpiece "The Maltese Falcon". One of the best examples of every single aspect of a film coming together and meshing perfectly! There was no looking back for Bogey after this one!

A publicity still of Bogey as "Gloves Donahue" in Warner bros classic "All Through the Night"

Bogey as Sgt Joe Gunn in the superb war film "Sahara", one of my all-time favorite Bogart films and just a damn great movie on every level! I had the good fortune of seeing this for the first time in the theater many years ago as a child and I was totally captivated by the performances, the tank, the desert and the constant feeling of THIRST!!! The only other films I can think of that equal that "thirsty" feeling are the different versions of the "Three Godfathers" and of course Sergio Leone's "The Good the Bad and the Ugly"

Bogey has things well in hand as Rip Murdock in "Dead Reckoning" with Lizabeth Scott. I always thought she was a bit odd as an actress. Nice looking but had such a weird voice!!! Too bad they never put her in a film with Eugene Pallette, Charles McGraw, June Allyson and Krusty the Klown . . . maybe the title coulda been "God, I Need a Cigarette!"

A rather intense picture of Bogey as Fred C. Dobbs in another John Huston masterpiece "Treaure of the Sierra Madre". Arguably the greatest performance of his career and no doubt one of the greatest films ever made! Bogey certainly had incredible co-stars in Walter Huston and Tim Holt, and in fact every single aspect of this film - direction, script, cinematography, music, etc, etc is simply fantastic!

Bogey as screenwriter Dixon Steele in the tense Nicholas Ray drama "In a Lonely Place". This is one of my favorite of Ray's films, offbeat and fascinating like most of his work, and gave Gloria Grahame (Whom i believe was Ray's wife at the time) one of the best roles of her career, which she played to the tee! And Bogey is just a living intensity in this!!!

Here we see Bogart as Charlie Allnut in John Huston's "The African Queen" doing something that Bogart himself loved to do!

Bogey as paranoid Captain 'Yellow Stain' Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny", one of his best later films. A great cast, tense direction by Edward Dmytryk and an unforgettable performance by Bogey make this film an absolute must-see!

4 comments:

J.B. said...

You're good, Artman. You almost make me want to really like Bogey -- not that I dislike him, mind you, just that I need to sell myself on him anew with each film...
Thanks for your wonderfully interesting and educational posts, hon.
j
p.s. Funny Lizabeth Scott comment. lol :D

Aldous said...

Yes. In the "African Queen" image, who would know if it's a still from the film or a candid snap of Bogart?!

I suppose the giveaway is that I can't imagine (rightly or wrongly) the real Bogie swigging directly from the bottle.

As great an actor as he was, I am still even more impressed by the man that he was.

I see you have mentioned "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".... That's a real favourite of mine. I wouldn't attempt to compare Clint Eastwood with Bogie, but I have a soft spot for the Spaghetti Westerns, and Clint's last is the best of them by far.

Artman2112 said...

J.B. - i am having trouble believing anyone needs to be sold on Bogey but you'll come around eventually, they all do!

Aldous - you now, i almost wrote that in my caption, about it being a possible candid, i swear i am not making it up, i had it typed and everything and then deleted it! btw, i am a HUGE fan of Leone's films, especially the ones he did with Eastwood and especially G+B+U, but at least once a year i take a day and play the whole trilogy from start to finish!

The Groovy Agent said...

Bogey is the man, this blog is awesome, and I'm off to read about Eastwood (who's also the man)! Awesome stuff, here!