Essential Bogart Viewing?
 

I've been attempting to work my way through Humphrey Bogart's filmography since I saw "High Sierra" "The Maltese Falcoln" and "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" in my Films of the 1940s class. I really enjoyed all three.

Since then, I've added all his available films on to my Blockbuster queue, but it just seems to daunting of a task. As much as I dig the guy, I'm not sure I want to spend my time going through everything.

I started with "The Petrified Forest" which I enjoyed, and almost fell asleep watching "Dead End".

So basically, I want to know every Bogart film that a veteran Bogart fan would want a rookie like me to see.

I'll start off by saying "Casablanca" obviously. And just to set the record straight, is it "Casa 'blank' uh" or "Casa 'blonc' uh"?

Alright, go...!

Bogart - now THERE'S a subject I'm expert in (I've been a big fan for 27 years)...

The Petrified Forest - great movie, glad you liked it.

Bogart's movies from the 30's that should be viewed:
The Petrified Forest
Dead End
Black Legion
San Quentin
Angels With Dirty Faces
King of the Underworld (not great, but an early leading role in a decent movie)
The Roaring Twenties
Invisible Stripes

The 40's:

They Drive By Night
High Sierra
The Maltese Falcon
All Through The Night (!!)
Across The Pacific
Casablanca
Action in the North Atlantic
Sahara
Passage to Marseille
To Have and Have Not (!!)
Conflict (underrated Film Noir)
The Big Sleep (!!!!!)
Dead Reckoning (overrated Film Noir, but still good)
Dark Passage
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Key Largo
Knock on Any Door
Tokyo Joe

The 50's:

In A Lonely Place (disturbing Film Noir)
The Enforcer
The African Queen
Deadline USA (!!!!!)
The Caine Mutiny
Sabrina
The Barefoot Contessa (unusual movie, great performance by Edmond O'Brien)
We're No Angels (understated, low key Bogart comedy)
The Desperate Hours
The Harder They Fall (Bogart's final movie, and a great way to go out)

Some of those you've already seen, but that's a fairly complete list of the "Must See" Bogart movies.

My favorite film of all time you've already viewed "The Maltese Falcon"...Casablanca should be viewed pretty quickly after...it has a a lot of favorite actors as well : Bogart, Ingrid bergman, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Claude Rains...it's simply a smörgåsbord of talent. Other favorites of mine : In a Lonely Place (seems terribly underrated to me, my favorite noir), sabrina (Hard to imagine bogie in a comedy but Audrey Hepburn is wonderful), the caine mutiny, key largo, the big sleep.

Hope you enjoy your journey. I haven't seen all of bogart's repertoire but he's usually pretty solid even if the movie stinks.

Michael

I guess my list isn't getting shorter after all!! :lol:

B5Erik's list is a bit intimidating, isn't it. He's right though, in the sense that Bogart has such an amazing track record of consistency. Almost every Bogart movie is at least "good", most are at least "very good", and the number of flat-out masterpieces he made in his too-short 15-year leading man run is rivalled by very few.

I'm not the Bogart scholar, by any means, by I can highlight some of my favorites past your initial 3 movies:

Casablanca - obviously
The Big Sleep - classic noir
To Have and Have Not - Bogie and Bacall for the first time; a must-see
Key Largo
The African Queen - "comic" Bogie, but great fun; and Bogie's only Oscar win
Sabrina - another great and classic "comic" Bogie
The Caine Mutiny
High Sierra

Like I said, there are so many good movies it's hard to go wrong. These are the ones that stand out for me. Despite his modern "image", as the cynical world-weary tough guy with a heart of gold taken from movies like Casablanca, Bogart actually shows a great deal of range in his career, and shows bravery in tackling some unflattering roles.

One of the few Bogart movies not to make B5Erik's list is "Return of Dr. X". What's up with that?!? Just kidding :) I recently saw this. Despite the movie's flaws, it's fascinating to see a pre-star Bogie essentially play a Boris Karloff role (a white-hair streaked, pasty-faced, bunny stroking, blood-drinking zombie no less). Despite Bogart's embarrassment over the movie, he gives it his all and is clearly the best thing in the movie.

I'm seeing quite a few of Bogart's titles listed on IMDB are not available on DVD. Are more of his films still getting the DVD treatment?

"Return of Dr. X" isn't on Blockbuster.com...oh well. I will find it someday!

It's part of a larger set: "Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection". I don't think the one movie is available separately. There are some good movies on that 5-movie set, the best of which is Karloff's "Mask of Fu Manchu", the original (but no relation to the Bogie movie) "Doctor X", a wonderfully shot "Mad Love" with a terrific Peter Lorre, and a couple of good Tod Browning movies: "Devil Doll" and "Mark of the Vampire" (with Lugosi). If you like 30's horror, it's a great buy for the $20 or so you can typically find the set for.

Here's what Bogart has to say about this movie:

Please allow me to add !!!!!!!, ok?

I love that movie in so many different ways. This is just one of em:

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/4261/hairwd4.gif

that's a great quote, where's it from??

I'm not sure if I like '30s horror. Never tried it. My only real exposure to pre-80s films are from my film classes ('40s in one and whatever the prof. felt like in the other). I DO want to see older films because I do enjoy them, and I feel like a true film buff should (obviously). Growing up in the kind of flash, boom, bang movies of today, it's harder for someone like myself to stat entertained, but I'm trying.

That said, since I enjoyed Bogart's films in class so much, I want to start with him. I also liked the Hitchcock film we watched, "Rope". So he may be next.

Anyways, that's my story. :)

I second CONFLICT. Very underrated and not as well known but great. Hey, it's got Sydney Greenstreet! Couple others that may not be great but are pretty good are THE BIG SHOT and THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS.

Out of curiosity you could check out his only western(I believe) THE OKLAHOMA KID. Another oddball one is THE WAGONS ROLL AT NIGHT with him as a circus manager.

My faves:

Casablanca
The Big Sleep
Dark Passage
In A Lonely Place
High Sierra

I don't want to hijack & turn this into a Hitchcock thread, but Rope has always been a favorite of mine & Hitchcock is an excellent way to get into older movies. Start with Psycho, North By Northwest, Notorious, or Rear Window. Then you can move onto Foreign Correspondent, Rebecca, Lifeboat, & others.

:D Nice.

But, what about Dorothy Malone in the book shop? She takes off her glasses and lets her hair down and, "Hel-lo!!" Damn! I would have forgotten about the case for about an hour, too!

In a Lonely Place. Great film plus you get Gloria Grahame at her best.

Funny this thread just came up today. I recently just bought a bunch of Bogart films that I plan on viewing. Haven't seen any classics movies in years. I just watched Dead End yesterday. It was fairly slow and most of the film took place on one set on the docks. The one i really want to see is the Maltese Falcon, but I don't have a copy of that one yet.

'Dead End' is the last one I saw. I was reading somewhere how that set was pretty elaborate at the time and the studio heads refused to do it on location. (I think, correct me if I'm wrong).

Plus, it won a couple of awards, I believe. And the "Dead End Kids" or something went on to be in several more films.

However, it just didn't capture me. It was fairly slow, like you said. The end was pretty good stuff though, just getting there took awhile.

Still, I'm glad I saw it.

I've been slowing getting into Bogart too, glad this thread came about.

Just got Casablanca, but might get one of those Bogart set from WB.

I never understood the attraction to him, as a star, as an actor, until I saw him in Casablanca (my first Bogart movie), now I understand. :)

All of the women are great looking in that movie, even the cab driver that's only in the movie for about a minute:

http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/268/cablx0.gif

And then, of course, the girl in the book shop:

http://www1.filehost.to/files/2007-0...SleepHello.gif

Even with Lauren Bacall in the picture, my favorite is Martha Vickers.

:lol:

i just picked up Casablanca today and it will start my adventure into Bogart. excited to sit down and watch it.

Damn! I forgot to list

Bullets or Ballots!

Another good one from the 30's where Bogart has a strong supporting role.

All of you have one foot in the grave. See you in hell.

Oh Casablanca was pretty good.

Another good one with Bogart as second fiddle, BROTHER ORCHID.

Just watched The Desperate House. Fairly good movie. It' unuasual watching it today as people get shot and you don't see any blood. One character gets hit on the back of the head yet the bruise appears on his forehead; unless I missed something.

Just saw They Drive by Night. I noticed that Ida Lupino, Bogart, and director Raoul Walsh all team up in High Sierra the year after this one, too. Apparently George Raft was offered the lead in High Sierra, but didn't want to die in the end. Oops.

I thought They Drive by Night was supposed to be film noir, but didn't really see signs of it until about halfway through...that's when it really picked up and was a wild ride of a finish. Good stuff.

Bogart just had a supporting role, so he wasn't around much. Still, it's nice to see him in these earlier roles where he wasn't such a stud yet....