As a "first matter," Bogart was from an era when the story and the star mattered more than "action and effects" at the box office(the era we are in, now.)
Consequently, once he achieved stardom, Bogart -- more than almost any other star of his time -- found the GREAT stories and the GREAT movies to be in, time after time:
High Sierra
The Maltese Falcon
Casablanca
To Have and Have Not
The Big Sleep
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Key Largo
In a Lonely Place
The African Queen
The Caine Mutiny
....now, I'm counting those as his "acknowledged classics" and yet his resume has lots of other great, lesser known films -- like Sahara, Beat the Devil, and his final film, The Harder They Fall(a sad, tough movie about the crooked side of boxing.)
Cary Grant, James Stewart and Spencer Tracy had a lot of classics, too...but I think Bogart beat 'em all in the end.
This is not a career many stars can have, ever again. Nicholson, Pacino, Hoffman and DeNiro built similar long resumes from the 60s to the 2010s...but can our NEW generation of stars make their names known in box office hits that are also classics?
With Bogart in perhaps the greatest number of classic films of the Golden Era, we next move to his persona.
Nope, he wasn't pretty like Tyrone Power or Cary Grant. He wasn't "the quintessential American" like James Stewart. But he spoke to a generation with his quiet, cynical cool - and his voice (many Golden Era stars had great voices) and his tough, independent manner.
CONT
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ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
This was key: Bogart died young (of cigarettes) in 1957 AT age 57. But came the "hip" 1960's, college students and other young people across the US AND the world suddenly took the now-dead Bogart on as a hero and an icon. The French movie "Breathless" (1960) has new young French star Jean-Paul Belmondo emulating Bogart; and revival houses across America filled up with young people out to worship Bogart's anti-establishment cool.
In 1969, Woody Allen further enshrined Bogart as "the essence of ladykilling cool" in the play "Play It Again Sam," with the spectre of Bogart guiding Woody through dating and an affair. This became a movie in 1972 and the "Bogart mystique" was further carried on with a new generation who dug him.
So to answer the original question, the appeal of Humphrey Bogart was:
ONE: His great run of classic movies.
TWO: His persona at the time he was a star. (Tough, cool, principled, sad..sexy.)
THREE: Worship of that persona in the 60s and 70's after his death in the 50s.
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Redsfan001 (6159)
3 years ago
Great answer and thanks for listing his best movies.
Two or three of them I haven't seen yet.
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ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
Thank you. Bogart's movies are all pretty great. Like Nicholson(in particular) after him, Bogart was very picky about finding the best scripts and collaborators, so he ended up in great movies.
A lot of the titles I did NOT list are considered pretty great, too. Just not as famous.
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ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
I return to add:
In addition to having so many classic titles on his resume (along with some great movies that were NOT well known classics) Bogart has on his list a VERY SPECIAL single movie:
Casablanca.
Casablanca is a movie that, in the 50's, 60s, 70's and 80's(at least) was known everywhere, quoted everywhere, loved by everyone. The movie routinely ended up in at least the Top Four of greatest movies ever made -- along with Citizen Kane, the now-dissed Gone With the Wind, and The Godfather. The movie is endlessly quoteable ("Here's looking at you , kid" "Round up the usual suspects," "This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," "I'm shocked...shocked..to find gambling in this establishment", "Of all the joints in all the world..." and scores more.)
Bogart would have achieved immortal stardom if Casablanca had been the only film he made.
I'd say it counts for an additional five movies on Bogart's resume, "five for one."
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TrentnQuarantino (9235)
2 years ago
To me ... just my personal opinion that I demand no one to share ...
Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, and Godfather will never last the way Casablanca does. Citizen Kane is probably the best of the three, but today it's pacing is practically unwatchable. I remember seeing CK a long time ago in a class in High School and loving it - on first viewing, like 2001: A Space Odyssey ... but they are hard to re-watch in the same way ... at least for me. GWTW is nostalgia for the Plantation Owners, and Gf is just romanticizing scumbag criminals.
Both Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Casablanca are literary movies, a movie with a point and a message, my favorite kind - and movies that everyone can watch and enjoy without the creep factor most movies have today.
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ecarle (14979)
2 years ago
To me ... just my personal opinion that I demand no one to share ...
Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, and Godfather will never last the way Casablanca does.
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Personal opinions are what help define us as "persons." Though it was pleasant of you to not demand we share yours.
If memory serves, those four movies have been at the top of "Best Movie" lists for decades. They have not been shaken off, though Raging Bull and Vertigo have made attempts.
But here is the thing: Neither Raging Bull nor Vertigo were big hits with the public, and I'm not sure that Citizen Kane was, either. However, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca and The Godfather WERE very BIG hits with the public and thus earned their way to the top with "popular consent." GWTW will forever be problematic from here on out, but its historical import will remain.
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Citizen Kane is probably the best of the three, but today it's pacing is practically unwatchable. I remember seeing CK a long time ago in a class in High School and loving it - on first viewing, like 2001: A Space Odyssey ... but they are hard to re-watch in the same way ... at least for me.
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Well, I think that both Citizen Kane and 2001 qualify as "art films" in which narrative is sacrificed to the technique of the film itself and an overriding sense of "the profound." (Citizen Kane is not JUST a vieled critique of William Randolph Hearst.) They are cold films. Folks reacted to the love stories in GWTW and Casablanca...with their hearts. The Godfather is the most "modern" of these classics(now 50 years old!) and stands in for the action, pacing, profanity, violence (and some sex) that has been in place since 1968 (when the R rating came in.)
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ecarle (14979)
2 years ago
GWTW is nostalgia for the Plantation Owners,
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Well, as I said above, its future is pretty well doomed and it will have to be taken in context for its past.
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and Gf is just romanticizing scumbag criminals.
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Ha. Well, it DID do that -- but we ended up on their side against WORSE scumbag criminals. The movie scrupulously avoided showing the Corleones hurting or killing innocents, or pimping, etc. To me the film is a "profound epic" that also plays as a great action thriller AND a horror movie(as with Psycho and Jaws, killings are the entertainment here and The Godfather has tons more than those other two hits.)
Time marches on, but I think it is important to note that Casablanca was a BIG deal on television in the 60s, 70s and 80s. It got played once a year in most markets and was heavily advertised and heavily watched when it did. EVERYBODY could quote it ("Here's looking at you kid," "I'm shocked to find gambling in this casino".)
Casablanca is still "in the mix" of movies on cable (TCM and the like) but its time and themes are fading. Selflessness; "the cause" over love; and (in a great ending as far as I'm concerned): "the beginning of a beautiful friendship" (Rick and Renault are going to have a lot more fun as womanizing buddies together than Rick and Ilsa would have had.)
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Both Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Casablanca are literary movies, a movie with a point and a message, my favorite kind - and movies that everyone can watch and enjoy without the creep factor most movies have today.
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Yep. We still get a few of those each year, but not many, and not with the widespread audience support -- the markets are too fragmented today.
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TrentnQuarantino (9235)
2 years ago
Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, and Godfather are like those dusty volumes that everyone shows deference to but few watch or talk about any more. The CK critique of Hearst didn't make a f'n bit of difference because now we have thousands of Hearsts and a media that is a the puppet of whoever has enough money to publish their opinions.
People still watch and enjoy and talk about Casablanca - with respect and intelligence. When I visit the Godfather boards it's filled mostly with comments from morons.
And again I reiterate - just my opinion. Sales and awards shows are of no interest to me. They are political. One year I think Pirates of the Caribbean was the best picture, and to me it was just garbage that I would never watch.
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