Sahara (1943) ***1/2

Release Date: November 11, 1943

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, J. Carol Nash

Directed By: Zoltan Korda

Set against the backdrop of the British retreat during the Western Desert Campaign in World War II, Sahara presents some breathtaking visuals of the dangers of desert warfare and the heroics of the men entrenched there. The film opens with a brief historical note about the men training for desert warfare in actual battle conditions before dropping us directly into the fray. We get no scenes showing us who any of the characters were before the war and very little in the dialogue to shade these characters in, yet they don’t feel generic. There are tropes, of course, but we see throughout the action the person behind these facades and get a good solid sense of the characters of these men. 

Humphrey Bogart stars as Sgt. Joe Gunn, commander of the Lulubelle, a U.S. Army M3 Lee desert tank assigned to the Libyan desert. They have recently become separated from their unit during a general retreat after the fall of Tobruk and are headed south in hopes of reconnecting with their unit, however radio contact has been lost and they are uncertain of where to rendezvous with the rest of the group. Along with the U.S. soldiers assigned to the Lulubelle there is also a small group of British officers led by medical officer Captain Halliday who defers his command to Gunn as he commands the tank. The men are running dangerously low on water and, after running into a Sudanese Sergeant and his Italian prisoner, Giuseppe, almost leave the Italian behind rather than ration the water even further. However, Gunn has a change of heart and allows the man the travel with them rather than die out in the sand. Later they pick up a Nazi pilot after they shoot him down. Gunn shows both prisoners humanity even after the Nazi doesn’t reciprocate. 

The men eventually manage to reach a well, the last they would be able to reach before succumbing to the elements, but it is only providing a small trickle of water that may dry up at any moment. While stockpiling what little they can two German advance scouts arrive and are captured by the Americans. From one of the men information is gleamed that nearly five hundred more Germans are on their way, desperate for the water. Gunn and his men must decide whether to flee or risk sure death in a bold attempt to delay the Germans while a single man is sent ahead in an attempt to secure reinforcements. 

Nearly a third of the film takes place during the final siege. It is bloody and violent, and adequately conveys the true desperate situation both sides are in. The camera doesn’t shy away from showing the dirty, savaged faces of the men, dehydrated and exhausted, yet resolved to make a stand. This tension is broken up brilliantly with some ingenious tactics by Gunn as he schemes to show the water starved Nazis that his, Gunn’s, men have water to spare. He has two men pantomiming bathing themselves in water when they in reality have none to spare. The show is believed, yet doesn’t have the desired effect with the Nazi commander who would rather die fighting than give up all their weapons in exchange for the water. It’s a brutal standoff in which many people on both sides don’t make it.

This is a gorgeous film to look at. Watching it on a small screen in the comforts of your living room will not sufficiently convey the sheer magnitude of this production. It simply must be seen on the big screen to be completely appreciated. If you can find one without any air conditioning in the middle of August that would be even better. This is not a war movie designed to be military propaganda, pushing the glamour and heroics but ignoring the true horrors of the conflict. 

This could have been a truly dour film. What saves it from that and elevates it into the realms of classic cinema is the performers. There are a lot of interesting choices made in bringing the characters to life. We get the two men passing money back and forth between each other as the make bets on Gunn’s command decisions. We also get Frenchie (Louis Mercier) who brings a level of humor to virtually every line of dialogue he spouts. Even among the two POW’s we have an interesting dynamic. The Italian, Giuseppe (J. Carrol Naismith) is a sympathetic character, humanized by his pictures of his family and his lack of love for Mussolini. He is in the conflict because of his country, not because of any dreams of domination and prejudices. The same cannot be said for the Nazi, Captain von Schletow (Kurt Krueger). His motives are purely for the Nazi party and Germany, looking for any opportunity to turn the tide against the Americans and escape.

The story is taut, full of great performances and set pieces. During the climax it does step towards glorifying heroics in the face of sure defeat, yet it never glamorizes it. This is a dusty and dirty film and it never says away from depicting the sheer desperation both sides faced in this campaign. It is shot beautifully and convincingly and looks glorious when projected on as big a screen as possible.

Beat the Devil (1953) ***

Release Date: November 24, 1953

Running Time: 94 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Edward Underdown, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre

Directed By: John Huston

When you pair legendary director John Huston with an all star cast that includes Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley, and a pre James Bond era Bernard Lee, you have certain expectations. Add in a screenplay co-written by Truman Capote and based on a thriller novel by noted reformed communist author Claud Cockburn (under the pseudonym James Helvick) and those expectations hit the stratosphere. It is perhaps those lofty expectations that made Beat the Devil such a disappointment to audiences back in 1953. Upon initial screenings several minutes had to be excised, lost to time until only a few years ago when the uncut version was finally rescued and restored. The reception to this film upon initial release was bad enough that its star, Bogart, who lost quite a bit of his own money financing it, disliked it profusely. This disdain also saw the film’s copyright go without renewal leading it to drop into the public domain. Its reputation in therefore a bad one, yet to judge it so is being too harsh. The film is no Casablanca, yet there is a campiness to it that makes the proceedings a true delight to witness and the cast is clearly having a ball playing such broad characterizations amidst what should be a serious story, yet somehow is not. 

Billy Dannreuther (Bogart) and his wife Maria (Gina Lollobrigida) have fallen on rough times leading the two to reluctantly team up with four criminals: Peterson (Robert Morley), Jules (Peter Lorre), Ravello (Marco Tully) and Major Jack Ross (Ivor Barnard), who are scheming to illicitly acquire some Uranium rich land in British East Africa. The six of them are in port in Italy waiting for the ship they chartered to be repaired before they can set out for Africa. There, Billy and Maria become acquainted with another married couple, the oddly paired Harry (Edward Underdown) and his wife Gwendolen (Jennifer Jones). Harry and his wife are booked on the same ship bound for Africa. Harry is a stereotypical Englishman while his wife is flighty and prone to exaggeration. Gwendolen soon begins an affair with Billy while Maria is flirting with Harry. Gwendolen also talks up her husband in such a way that the men begin to suspect the couple may be attempting to get the land, themselves.

There are many great set pieces making up Beat the Devil, some of them technologically impressive for the time. When Peterson determines Harry may be trying to beat them to the land he abandons his fear of flying and insists on taking a plane at once. While driving to the plane their vehicle starts acting up prompting Peterson, Billy and the driver to get out and push. Unfortunately they are on a slope and the vehicle gets away from them, cruising down the road, amazingly taking corners, before finally crashing through a wall and falling into the ocean below. News of the crash gets back to the others who assume Peterson and Billy have been killed in the crash. The remaining men in turn immediately look for a way to spin this to their advantages, including Ravello who takes Harry into his confidence over the uranium scheme. 

In the original book the men never make it to Africa. That would have never worked for a film so, correctly, it was changed making the final act more cinematic. Instead, the group end up shipwrecked and captured by the Arab soldiers, the leader of whom sees right through their phony stories. Billy, through a series of lies convinces the leader to send them back to Italy right where they left off. It is just the kind of ending a film like this needs. They go around in a circle and no one gets what they really want. A letter arrives from Harry, who escaped the ship before the engines had failed, leading to the shipwreck. This letter punctuates the shaggy-dog aspect of this tale so poignantly that even Bogart’s Billy is forced into laughter, proclaiming loudly, “This is the end, the end!”

Unfortunately this film failed to find much of an audience when it originally released and was panned by critics at the time. But time has been favorable to it and a reexamination of it shows that it is actually a very well made farce, designed to string audiences along for a ridiculous ride filled with humor and oddities. From the first moments we see Peterson, Julius and Ravello walking with sole focus through Italy (Gwendolen announces they must be desperate men as none of them looked at her legs when passing by), we get the tone of this film. John Huston strikes that tone perfectly throughout. It failed to impress critics back in 1953 and audiences didn’t flock to it either. Since then, Bogart fans and John Huston fans have discovered it and breathed new life into what could have been a forgotten film. We are all the more fortunate for it as it is a wonderful film well worth the viewing.

Up the River (1930) **

Release Date: October 12, 1930

Running Time: 92 minutes

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, Claire Luce, Warren Hymer

Directed By: John Ford

Legendary director John Ford who would later go on to make many films with the likes of John Wayne, Henry Ford and Lee Marvin, helmed 1930’s Up the River, his only film starring Humphrey Bogart. Ford had a career that spanned from the early 1910’s all the way into the 70’s. When his failing health finally ended his amazing and long running career. He cut his teeth in the silent era and it is this influence that is most obvious when watching Up the River. Right out the gate it is obvious that this is a film right on the edge of the transition between silent films and talkies. Title cards crop up from time to time to explain the setting or the situation much the same way they did when there was no better way to convey this information. It was a crutch early filmmakers relied on until they found more natural ways to do it. The story also falls on vaudevillian tropes that better served the silent era such as sight gags sans witty dialogue. Other conventions, some no longer politically correct, also date this film. It is a film of its time; a time capsule into a world that no longer exists.

The story is almost non-existent here. Steve (Humphrey Bogart) is being held at a southern prison along with his friends and fellow inmates Saint Louis (Spencer Tracy in his motion picture debut), and Dannemora Dan (Warren Homer). Steve is one of the trustees, well regarded by the guards and the warden, and entrusted in checking in newly incarcerated prisoners. One of these new prisoners is Judy Fields (Claire Luce) who has taken the rap for con man Frosby (Morgan Wallace) and is serving a year. The two fall in love and promise to marry once both are free. Steve finishes up his sentence several months before Judy and travels home to his family who know nothing of his incarceration. But Frosby follows him and, using this knowledge, blackmails Steve into defrauding the family and neighborhood with bad bank bonds. Word gets back to Saint Louis and Dan who break out of prison, during a talent show for the inmates, to deal with the fraudster.

What becomes apparent early on is that Bogart is uncomfortable in front of the screen here. He had appeared in a couple of short films before this but was relatively new to film acting at this time and that shows on screen. It wouldn’t take long for him to find his niche but it wouldn’t happen here. Two years later he would appear in his first gangster role and settle comfortably into that stereotype for the next decade. Here, he is trying to play a part that is outside his comfortable range and it comes across forced and unconvincing. 

In stark contrast, Spencer Tracy, who also was new to the scene, is spot on in the role of Saint Louis, a career convict who is loyal enough to break out of prison to help his friend and honest (?) enough to check back in when it’s all over. Tracy is having a blast in such a broadly drawn character showing clearly that he was born for the screen. He has just enough dark humor to him that we can see in the right circumstances he could be a dangerous man, yet we are drawn to him anyway. It’s a shame the rest of the film is not up to his level.

The threadbare story coupled with some really poor pacing problems really sink this picture. Scenes have a tendency to go on well past the point of necessity. This is most obvious during the talent show where while acts are on display. This is a holdover to the days of vaudeville where audiences expected more of a variety show then just a straight up narrative. It may have played better in the 30’s but modern audiences will find it disrupts the pacing. 

The comedy is very hit and miss, too. Some of the bits are outright hilarious. Saint Louis’s knife throwing act is dark and hilarious. This comes back in another humorous scene on board a train as he prepares to throw a small knife into the floor he and Dan are sitting on and, presumably, between the fingers of Dan’s outstretched hand. It’s funny and also a little unnerving, enhancing the humor. The final set piece involving a prison baseball game is the best scene in the entire movie, landing joke after joke, many of which would become clichés in later films. Other moments are just plain bizarre such as the inclusion of twin girls who speak everything in harmony. Moments like this hit the ground with a heavy thud. Even worse then that, though, is a music and dance number involving convicts in black face, including several closeup shots of a black prisoner laughing uproariously at what now days is highly offensive.

Up the River is a product of its time. Many MANY elements here have not aged well. If it weren’t for the brilliant performance of Spencer Tracy this might be forgotten amongst so many other films of the era. It has a unsatisfying resolution to the Frosby plot line, making that whole part of the story feel more like filler than an actual integral part of the story. It runs too long and spends too much time away from Saint Louis and Dan, who is playing the straight man to Spencer Tracy and thus fails to make much of an impression on his own. The film is hardly a train wreck but is so tonally off that it makes it a chore at times to watch all the way through. 

Chain Lightning (1950) **

Release Date: February 25, 1950

Running Time: 94 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey

Directed By: Stuart Heisler

Chain Lightning is a prime example of a film with not enough story stretching things out to meet a runtime. The inevitable result is a film that drags for large periods of time and few scenes to liven things up. Further dampening things is a total lack of chemistry between the two leads. Humphrey Bogart and Eleanor Parker are not a good match and scenes meant to instill an emotional response in the audience fall flat as we feel nothing at all. Scenes involving the test pilot flights liven it up a little but everything comes crashing down when the drama is more earthbound.

Lt. Colonel Matt Brennan (Humphrey Bogart) was a wartime pilot in Europe during the war. On the ground he has a girl, Jo (Eleanor Parker) he wants to marry but is unable to secure the proper permissions when his commanding officer is unavailable shortly before Matt is to ship out to America. While in America, he stops corresponding with Jo, losing contact with her. The war ends and he finds himself wandering aimlessly from job to job until he is offered a position as a test pilot working for the Willis Aircraft Company as the chief test pilot for an experimental high speed jet fighter the JA-3 designed by Carl Troxell (Richard Whorf), a man he knew during the war. Matt’s old flame, Jo, is also there working as  Willis’s (Raymond Massey) secretary.

The JA-3’s tests go well and Willis has an idea to show it off by flying it from Los Angelos to Honolulu. Matt has other ideas, thinking that with some modifications the JA-3 could set out from Nome, Alaska, fly over the North Pole and land in Washington D.C., a trip over double the original plan. The trip will only be possible with modifications to the fuel tanks and the addition of detachable rockets to get the plane to 90,000 feet where it will meet less wind resistance and thus save fuel. Carl is against the flight, though, wanting to push his new plane, the JA-4 that he feels will be ready and superior to the JA-3.

When this film is focusing of flight sequences it is cruising, taught and engaging. The scenes, especially the flight over the North Pole, are exciting and well staged. Some of the effects are badly dated but that is more a sign of the times then poor production values. If more of the film took place in the air this would be a better picture. But alas there is way too much emphasis placed elsewhere.

The relationship between Matt and Jo is given quite a bit of screen time. Quite simply it doesn’t work. There is no heat between the two actors. When Matt finally gets to kiss Jo it is flat and not exciting. We see two actors playing a scene rather than two people deeply in love. When the two of them are together neither of them seems like they want to be there. The writing does them no favors either.

The pacing is glacial most of the time, livening up only during those flight scenes. This makes for an uneven film that mainly struggles because it has too little story for a feature film. It needed to be either tightened up or give the actors more story to work with. As it stands it is just two slow to hold interest throughout. 

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) ****

Release Date: November 26, 1938

Running Time: 97 minutes

Starring: James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, The Bowery Boys

Directed By: Michael Curtiz

This film is widely considered to be one of the best films of all time thanks in large part to the dedication of its lead actor, James Cagney, who was first choice to play the lead role of “Rocky” Sullivan, the man whose life was forever changed by being just a little bit slower than his lifelong friend, Jerry (Pat O’Brien). Rocky’s sacrifice in the films first act, refusing to rat on his friend in childhood, even manages to save Jerry from a similar fate, something that will be echoed in the film’s final act. There is a beautiful symmetry to those two scenes that help elevate this above other gangster films of the time to really make this one stand above its contemporaries and gain the distinction of being one of the greatest films of all time. 

The film opens in 1920 when youths Rocky and Jerry attempt to steal from a railway car. They are overheard and flee the scene. But Jerry is the faster runner and escapes while Rocky is captured and sentenced to several years in juvenile detention. Rocky refuses to give up his friend and takes the sentence all to himself. His time in juvie leads to further criminal acts and more time behind bars until eventually, eighteen years later he is paroled and back on the streets. He had been sentenced to three years in jail for armed robbery and took the rap in exchange for a $100,000 payout from the robbery by his partner and lawyer Jim Frazier (Humphrey Bogart). 

Upon release from prison, Rocky visits the old neighborhood and discovers Jerry is still there, now a priest who oversees many of the youths in the area, determined to help them avoid criminal activities and grow up to live productive lives. The two are genuinely glad to see each other and Jerry helps Rocky secure a place to stay, renting from a young woman the two knew growing up, Laury (Ann Sheridan). When Rocky visits his old partner, Jim, he is promised the $100,000 by the end of the week and is given some spending money to tide him over, money that is soon after stolen from him from a group of young hoodlums played by the Bowery Boys. Rocky tracks them down easily enough taking his money back and earning their adoration. Meanwhile, Jim has no intent on paying Rocky the money and is intent instead on killing him. Jerry is also justified in his concern that Rocky’s influence on the young boys will lead them to idolize the gangster way of life and want to emulate it.

The real power in this film is its message of how adoration can lead people astray and how a man, even one as bad as Rocky, can do the right thing from time to time to save those he truly cares about. He himself may be beyond saving but the generation behind him may still stand a chance if steered in the right direction. The Bowery Boys were the perfect choice to depict that here having gained a reputation themselves for mischievous behavior both in front of and behind the scenes. They never fail to hit the right notes as both aggressive bad boys as well as sympathetic characters in need of a good role model. We see both sides of that coin throughout this film.

If you haven’t seen this film I will not spoil the final scene. I will say, however, that it is a powerful moment in cinematic history that never fails to bring with it a degree of emotional response rarely felt when watching fiction. It strikes the perfect note to end the film on and both Cagney and O’Brien are perfect in it. There is a level of sadness to it but it is also steeped heavily in triumph and gladness that never fails to move me no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

The acting is top notch and the moral of the story is spot on. This movie is leaps and bounds above any gangster film of any era. The only real weak spot would have to be the generic casting of Humphrey Bogart who was, at this point in his career, coasting on roles of this sort. He’s not bad here but the part is poorly underwritten in an otherwise well written script. But this movie isn’t really about Jim and his attempt to kill Rocky rather than pay him. It is about Rocky, Jerry and the Bowery Boys and that’s where it hits it out of the park. Everything else is just background noise.

The Big Shot (1942) **1/2

Release Date: June 13, 1942

Running Time: 82 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Irene Manning, Richard Travis

Directed By: Lewis Seiler

After High Sierra hit the screen but before Humphrey Bogart was to take on his most iconic role as Rick Blaine in Casablanca, Bogart made one final gangster film for Warner Brothers. It is a perfectly acceptable film for what it is but fails to be anything more than that. High Sierra feels more like the end of an era for Bogart than this and thus The Big Shot comes across more like an encore that ends a show on a less than stellar note. Fortunately, many years later, Bogart would return to the genre one last time in The Desperate Hours, his second to last film, to show he could play criminals better than most. Here, though, there is nothing too exceptional about his character or the story.

Duke (Bogart) is a gangster who was once a Big Shot. He has spent time in prison thrice and another conviction would be a life sentence. He has a history with Lorna Fleming Irene Manning) , wife to Martin Fleming (Stanley Ridges), a crooked attorney who wants to hire Duke for an armored car robbery. When Lorna shows up at Duke’s apartment the night of the planned robbery, Duke skips out on the heist which goes south leaving people dead on both sides. An eye witness is badgered by the police into claiming Duke was there when he wasn’t. Duke turns on Martin, threatening to expose his part in the heist if an alibi isn’t manufactured for him. Martin agrees but changes his mind when he finds out Duke was with Lorna that night.

The man supplying Duke with an alibi is proved to be lying in court and the two go to jail, Duke for life and his alibi, George (Richard Travis), for a year for perjury. Eventually, Duke escapes prison but George, who attempted to stop Duke from escaping, is accused of being an accessory that ended up with one of the guards killed. George is now being threatened with a murder charge and a much lengthier prison sentence. 

This film is pretty rote and unoriginal. That isn’t to say there is nothing here of interest. The heist scene involving several gunmen and the armored car is staged well and the stunt work is first rate and shockingly violent at times. This, however, is at odds with the portrayal of the police throughout the remainder of the film. They are shown as incompetent and inattentive, failing to even notice when Duke strolls into the police station to turn himself in once he establishes his alibi. They are also shown to be determined to pin the crime on someone without any evidence at all, more interested in getting Duke than proving he was even there in the first place. This causes us to struggle having someone to root for as we also cannot get behind Duke. 

Fortunately there is George who shows up in time to give us a truly good character to stand behind. George is a man who is in need of some quick money so he can marry his sweetheart even though her family doesn’t approve. When he is sent to prison he tries to befriend Duke but gets nowhere with the man. We like his character enough so that when he is wrongfully accused of colluding with Duke and an accessory to murder we want Duke to do the right thing and exonerate the man. 

The finale of the film is well staged but struggles with the limitations of a low budget film from this era. There is a chase scene in the mountains on snow covered roads that involves several cars and motorcycles. Unfortunately, well the stunts are first rate the rest of it is diminished by some obvious reuse of footage and sped up frames to give the illusion of speed. It’s still exciting to watch, and the ending is heartbreaking, but better cinematography would have really sold the illusion better.

In the end this is really an unexceptional film that could have been so much more than it ended up being. It holds the distinction of being the last gangster film Bogart would ever do for Warner Brothers and the last time he would play such a role until thirteen years later when he would star in the superb The Desperate Hours for Paramount. As a swan song it is lacking. Had it come a few years earlier it would probably be looked on with more favor but where it lands in Bogart’s oeuvre makes it feel like a lesser film than it really deserves. Still, it had potential. It just couldn’t quite make it happen.

The Caine Mutiny (1954] ***1/2

Release Date: June 24, 1954

Running Time: 125 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis

Directed By: Edward Dmytryk

From the first moments it is obvious that some compromises were made to the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk the get it in theaters. It was a necessary compromise however as a film of this scope could not have possibly been made back in 1954 without the assistance of the US Navy and the Navy had many issues with the novel. Part of the appeasement made to get that assistance was a prominent disclaimer that opens the film declaring that there has never been a mutiny on board a US Naval ship. There was some softening of Commander Queen, too, to make him more sympathetic and a victim of battle fatigue rather than an outright madman. Purists of the novel and subsequent stage play might take offense at these changes but they actually make the film more powerful than it otherwise would have been. It certainly gave Humphrey Bogart something more substantial to latch onto.

Ensign Willy Keith, newly commissioned, is assigned to the USS Caine under the command of William De Vriess (Tom Tully). Executive officer Maryk (Van Johnson) and communications officer Keefer (Fred MacMurry) are also aboard. De Vriess is popular with his crew but his laid back command style bothers Keith, causing friction between the two men. Not too long after reporting for duty, Keith is pleased with the news that De Vriess is being relieved by veteran commander Phillip Queeg, a no-nonsense leader intent on whipping the men into better shape via strict discipline.

Problems begin to form though as Queeg seemingly focuses too much on minor details leading to various mishaps such as when he is too intent on dressing down an enlisted man for an untucked shirt and fails to heed the warnings his helmsman is giving him that they are about to cut across their own towing line, severing a tether between the Caine and its target. Queeg insists the incident never happened and the tow line was simply faulty and broke on its own accord. Later, on an escort mission during an invasion, Queeg orders a yellow die marker dropped into the water and abandons the mission and the ships he was escorting before reaching the designation point, leaving them to fend for themselves. His officers refuse to support the decision and he is nicknamed “Old Yellowstain” as a symbol of cowardice. 

Keefer, believing Queeg to be paranoid and unstable, attempts to convince Maryk to relieve Queeg of his command under article 184 of the Navy Regulations but Maryk is reluctant to take that action as it could lead to his court martial should it prove to be the wrong choice. His mind is changed however when Queeg goes on a rampage, turning the whole ship upside down in search for an unauthorized spare key to the food cabinets when a small amount of strawberries turns up missing. Maryk is determined to speak to the admiral about his beliefs only to suddenly lose the support of Keefer, the man who was trying to convince him to do it in the first place. Keefer now fears having his own name involved in this and won’t support the action. Eventually Maryk will have to step in when Queeg’s actions jeopardize the life of the crew which leads to a court-martial where Maryk will have to defend his actions, even as Keefer shows his true colors and refuses to support Maryk’s decision.

The Naval scenes are simply stunning. I reiterate from before that there is no way this film could have been realistically made without the assistance of the US Navy. There are many scenes that would have lost their realism had this film been made entirely on sound stages using miniatures in a water tank. Director Edward Dmytryk took full advantage of having access to these Naval ships to film some truly stunning scenes. It is this level of realism that helps smooth over some obvious miniature work later in the film during scenes of rough weather. 

The central drama that drives the story is well written and performed here. Humphrey Bogart shows just how good of an actor here as he plays things subtly in his early scenes, hiding his paranoia and fear until the right moment for maximum effect. When he is dressing down the crewman for his untucked shirt, it is definitely overboard, yet we can still see his point of view to a degree. This ramps up slowly until we begin to see just how far gone Queeg really is. The first time he juggles a pair of metal ball bearings in his hand, using them like a modern day fidget spinner, we don’t fully understand it. When he does the same thing in his final scene at the court martial, just the sound of them alone is enough to drive home his condition. Like Pavlov’s dogs, that sound elicits a response in us because we have been effectively conditioned to know what to expect when we hear them.

Equally impressive is Van Johnson as Maryk. He is a man who knows his place in the military and is reluctant to step outside that chain of command, yet understands the safety of the crew and the mission trump that of the chain of command. He is reluctant to take that step and relieve Queeg of his command, yet when that decision is finally forced on him he does it, knowing he could be hanged for it. 

Keefer is another story altogether. Fred MacMurray is primarily known as a father figure, a typecast he got from his many films made at Disney as well as his role on My Three Sons. He always seemed to be playing good natured guys and stand up men in his films. Yet he was a slime ball in The Apartment, a film many credit as being against type for him. He is neither a leader or father figure here, nor is he a slime ball. He is, however, a cowardly manipulator who backs off when it’s his neck on the line. He’s all for reporting on Queeg until he actually has to do anything then he suddenly thinks it’s not the right thing to do. When called to testify on the mutiny he makes it clear that he feels Maryk was not justified even though it was he that was pushing for it all along. When he is eventually called out for his cowardice he doesn’t even have the courage to stand up for himself but just stand there looking ashamed and pathetic.

If there is any weak element to this film it is the character of Willy Keith. Effort was made to round out his character by introducing a love interest and a conflict with his overbearing mother. All this accomplishes is becoming a distraction to the main story and slowing down what is otherwise a good solid pace. The scenes are unnecessary and just serve to make the film longer. Actor Robert Francis is fine here although he was not great. He had a short career in just four films, all military roles, before his life was cut short just one year after this film. His character is too stiff and we never really care for him and his personal issues the way we do about Maryk and Queeg. The novel focused more on Keith but the film wisely shifted focus to the more interesting characters.

This is a film with few flaws. Keith is the biggest with his uninspiring home life and battles to get his girl to accept his proposals. Everything else is firing on all thrusters presenting “truths [that] lie not in its incidents, but in the way a few men meet the crisis of their lives.” That statement at the beginning of the film tells you all that this film will be about while at the same time letting you know it will not take too harsh of a shot at military leadership. It could have been a heavy blow against the effectiveness of the film but it is handled so well that we almost forget we read it right at the beginning of the movie. It is well acted and well dramatized and deserves all the recognition it got then and the reputation is survives on now.

High Sierra (1941) ***

Release Date: January 21, 1941

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy

Directed By: Raoul Walsh

Humphrey Bogart was primarily known in his early career for playing gangsters and other various lowlifes. These early pictures he would play gangster #3, then gangster #2 before finally settling in as lead gangster, head of a group of nefarious baddies destined to go down in a blaze of glory in the final reel. 1941 marks the end of an era for Bogart. It wouldn’t be the final performance in this type of a role but it would be the beginning of the era when he would stop being known as just another gangster actor and would branch out heavily into other roles such as The Maltese Falcon, several war pictures (All Through the Night, Across the Pacific), and of course Casablanca. He had one gangster film for Warner Brothers left in him, The Big Shot, but that plays more like an afterthought than an epithet. It seems fitting that this transition would be marked with the film High Sierra, a film that, when summed up could appear like just another B-movie crime film but is actually so much more.

Bogart stars as Roy Earle, a bank robber for hire who is suddenly and unexpectedly paroled from prison. His benefactor is Big Mac (Donald MacBride), an aged gangster with serious health problems. Mac wants Earle to do one final job for him, robbing a California Resort Hotel with the assistance of a couple of hired guns and an inside man, Mendoza (Cornel Wilde), the desk clerk who is tasked with alerting the men when the time is right for the robbery. Roy doesn’t much care for Mendoza as he sizes the man up as a coward and a reminder of when he put his trust in a similar person causing the whole order to go south.

Along for the ride is Marie (Ida Lupino), a dance hall girl who came with one of the hired guns. Roy wants her gone immediately but she pleads her case and he relents, allowing her to stay. As a sort of mascot for the group, A dog named Pard soon takes a liking to Roy but Roy is warned that the dog brings bad luck having been cared for by two previous owners who subsequently died. Roy doesn’t believe in such superstition and takes in the dog. It is a decision he will come to regret.

Roy is not written as the typical cold hearted criminal. It is true that he is a killer and he demonstrates that when the situation demands it of him by not hesitating to pull the trigger on someone. But before we are ever shown the harder side of his character we see a different side, one that the police would hardly scribe to the man. Early in the film, while traveling from prison to the hideout in Nevada, Roy has a near collision on the road with the family of Velma, a young woman with a club foot whose traveling to California. The surgery needed to correct the defect is too expensive for the family but Roy is smitten with Velma and arranges for the surgery to be paid for out of his own money. He falls for the woman and is devastated that, while very grateful to him, she doesn’t love him back. Marie, in turn, has fallen for Roy after things turn sour between her and the man she came to Nevada with in the first place.

The actual heist that all of this is leading up to really isn’t much of the story at all. Predictably things don’t go off without a hitch leaving the police on the lookout for Roy. Even though Roy goes on the run with Marie and Pard, it’s fate that leads to Roy facing off with the pursuing law officers alone, just as he began the film, on the steep rocks of the Sierra Nevada mountainside. Like most of the men Bogart has portrayed up to this point, he is a loner, destined to go out that way.

What really elevates this film above the many MANY other gangster films of the day is just how well developed Roy is as a character. This is no generic gangster that populated such films as Brother Orchid, Angels With Dirty Faces or The Petrified Forest. In those films Bogart was menacing but one-dimensional. Here, almost from the first scene, we see Roy Earle as more than just a criminal. He has principles and a low tolerance for abuse to women. When Red, one of his hired gang, abuses Marie, Roy steps in and puts Red in his place, stopping short of killing the man. Later, when spurned by Velma who is holding out for her man out east, Roy doesn’t take repayment for the expensive surgery he paid for. Instead, he leaves the family behind and seeks solace with Marie, the two becoming lovers.

Bogart is in fine form here in the lead. Something as simple as a short haircut went a long way toward selling him as older than he really was. He was just over forty when filming this movie but looks at least a decade older. But it’s not just the look that sells this character. Bogart carries himself differently here than he would playing a younger man. Just in the way he walks, the looks on his face when he’s sizing up those around him, conveys his world weariness. This is a stellar performance from an actor many people dismissed as having little range. 

There is plenty of action in this film but that is not what this film is all about. Boiled down it is a tragic character study about a man who has chosen to be a criminal but has a real soft spot in his heart. He is capable of great kindness but the circumstances he has put himself in have permanently locked that part of a normal life away from him. It magnifies the tragedy when we see him truly happy in the presence of Velma, hopeful she will love him even after hearing her heart belongs to someone else. He doesn’t truly fall back into bitterness until after even he cannot ignore that it will never happen between them. The light leaves his eyes and we know from that point onward what the final trajectory of his story will be. But knowing that doesn’t make the journey any less exciting or fulfilling. 

Big City Blues (1932) **1/2

Release Date: September 10, 1932

Running Time: 63 minutes

Starring: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Walter Catlett

Directed By: Mervyn LeRoy

Big City Blues is a prime example of a film that doesn’t have much of a point beyond just being there to provide an hour of entertainment. There are no real messages behind the proceedings nor is there an agenda to get across. It exists as a farce, a broadly painted portrait of big city corruptibility and the naive nature of country folk getting swallowed up by the temptations and excitement of the city.

Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) has just inherited $1,100 from his aunt. Having lived his whole life in rural Indiana he decides to use that money to move to New York City where life is more exciting than what he is accustomed to. The railman selling him his ticket to the big apple has some experience with New York and imparts some words of warning that fall on deaf ears. He sells Bud the ticket but places a bet on the side with one of his friends that Bud will be back in less than a month with his fill of the city. 

Bud arrives in New York and checks into a plush hotel where he is later greeted by his street smart cousin Gibby (Walter Catlett) who immediately starts fleecing the naive young man out of his inheritance. Gibby introduces him to the city life including two chorus girls, Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell) and Faun (Inez Courtney). The group throw a party in Bud’s hotel room along with several other acquaintances of Gibby’s and at some point a fight breaks out between two of the men. The lights go out and when they come back up, one of the female guests, Jackie (Josephine Dunn) is laying on the floor dead. Everyone from the party flees including Bud and Vida, whom Bud has fallen in love with. Naturally, the police are now looking for Bud as the prime suspect since it was his room Jackie was killed in.

 Director Mervyn LeRoy paints this picture with extremely broad brush strokes. Every scene, every character is so broadly drawn that it is difficult to take any of it seriously. This wouldn’t be a problem if the film was successfully attempting to be a screwball comedy but it isn’t doing that. It’s a farce, for sure, but one that takes itself too serious at times to make for a successful one. 

Of the main cast Joan Blondell comes out the best. She has next to no character to work with but manages to make what she does have sympathetic and even charming. It is no wonder Bud falls for her so easily. Joan had to have known how shallow this character was when she read the script and she proved why she was such a star with how she handled it. When she’s saying her goodbyes to Bud in the final act we see the pain in her eyes and believe it is hurting her, even though she barely has had time to get to know Bud. In contrast, we get none of that from Eric Linden who seems to have learned nothing from the events of his time in the city. The only interesting turn we get from his character is that, even though he predictably ends up back on the train to Indiana in the end, he is still intent on returning to the city to make another go at it. 

Walter Catlett is an absolute delight chewing the scenery as the greasy weasel cousin Gibby. He, like nearly everything else here, is playing things very broadly. But it is such a delight watching him fast talk his way into Bud’s money and, while we dislike him for being so shady, we still like it more when he is on screen. He seemingly knows everyone in town and has a con for every situation. 

Rounding out the cast are several uncredited performances by soon to be stars Humphrey Bogart, Lyle Talbot, Evelyn Knapp, and several others. They are peppered in, mainly at the apartment party. Of these, Bogart makes the biggest impression as Shep, a friend of Gibby who is there to enjoy the booze and the women.

The story is predictable for the most part with the possible exception of Bud’s determination to return to New York. Even the railway clerk is puzzled by this decision and nothing in the film, besides Vida perhaps, explains why Bud feels this way. It’s an odd note to send the film off with but at least it was unexpected. 

Sirocco (1951) **1/2

Release Date: June 13, 1951

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lee J. Cobb, Märta Torén

Directed By: Curtis Bernhardt

What happens when the Hollywood studio system attempts to make a exotic location film without actually going to that location? You run the risk of getting a film that is so fake looking that it undermines anything else you do in it. With a good production crew and the right casting you can overcome that problem. That wasn’t done in 1951’s Sirocco, a film that cry’s out in every scene that it was filmed entirely on Hollywood sound stages. This is a real disappointment as there are many good elements to this film but they do not add up enough to overcome the movie trickery. 

The movie takes place in Damascus 1925 during the French colonial rule in Syria. French soldiers are dealing with guerrilla warfare against the native Syrians who are being supplied with weapons and ammunition via smugglers. Military authorities initially plan to retaliate against the killing of French soldiers by executing five Syrians for every French man killed. Colonel Feroud ( Lee J. Cobb) convinces his leader General LeSalle (Everett Sloane) to alter that plan and simply detail them for 48 hours instead. 

Feroud is interested in negotiating peace between the French and Syrians. He calls together five of the city’s profiteers and accuses them of overcharging for their goods including much needed food. When he informs them that they will be selling their supplies for greatly reduced rates only Harry Smith (Humphrey Bogart) appears willing to go along with it. An investigation into Harry’s background shows him to be a WWI war hero. 

Feroud presses for an audience with Syrian rebel leader Emir Hassan (Onslow Stevens). General LaSalle refuses to let him make contact in person so when Feroud sends another soldier in his place that man turns up murdered. Meanwhile, Balukjiaan (Zero Mostel) has been picked up by the French soldiers and accused of gunrunning for the Syrians. He denies it, pointing his finger at Harry Smith instead. Harry, who has begun making advances towards Violeta (Märta Torén), mistress to Feroud, finds out he has been fingered and must flee the country. Violeta wants to go with him after pleading with Feroud to allow her to leave and getting denied. Reluctantly, Harry agrees to take her with him.

This could have been a stellar film. It has all the right elements, intrigue, colorful characters, a gruff and selfish leading man who can be seen as both amoral and having a conscience. When pressed late in the film to choose between certain escape and the very real possibility of his death, he doesn’t take the easy road even though there is nothing standing in his way. This makes Harry a bit of an enigma, a man who we don’t quite know how to take. On the one hand he is selling guns and ammunition to the rebels, profiting off the killing of French soldiers. On the other, he is willing to risk capture and execution to help Violeta escape the country. It’s also his plan, a plan that has a high risk of his own death, that frees Feroud from the Syrian rebels once Feroud manages to secure a meeting with the rebel leader and is taken captive. 

As mentioned above, nothing here feels authentic. Films like The African Queen used real locals to build a sense of realism. Films like Casablanca, tied down to studio backlots and sound stages benefited by casting real refugees from across the globe to lend an authenticity to the background characters. Sirocco does none of this. None of the French have even a hint on an accent. We’re expected to believe that these men are French soldiers when they don’t even come across as even generic European, let alone French. The sole exception is Swedish born Märta Torén who breathes fresh air into her scenes and really sells her deep unhappiness with her lot in life. Everyone else in the main cast is American and doing nothing to disguise it. 

Sirocco struggles to build up any genuine excitement in it’s story, then squanders what little it has is melodrama and scene after scene of people talking rather than doing. With interesting dialogue this can work but it doesn’t have that going for it either. It bogs down in scenes that barely move the plot along and take too long to do even that. In the end it falls short of being boring but is never quite lively, either.

Deadline - U.S.A. (1952) ***

Release Date: March 14, 1952

Running Time: 87 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore, Kim Hunter, Martin Gabel

Directed By: Richard Brooks

If you are looking for a film with a feel good ending where everything turns out for the best for all the heroes, this is not the film for you. This is a more realistic look at what can happen when the founder of a well respected newspaper, The Day,  dies and his heirs’ and widow’s only interest is to turn a quick buck by selling to the nearest competitor. It depicts the upheavals of people’s lives and livelihoods as well as the integrity of the managing editor, Ed Hutcheson (Humphrey Bogart) as he balances an attempt to save the paper from being shut down with the sale as well as the integrity of journalism to tell the truth right up to the end with a story involving the murder of a young woman and the involvement of a racketeer named Tomas Rienzi (Martin Gabel). 

The bulk of the story takes place around the investigative journalism as seen through the eyes of various men working for The Day. That doesn’t mean, though that the drama going behind the scenes at The Day get short shifted though. That bit of drama is ever present throughout the picture as we see some of the staff remain stalwart while others have to take jobs at rival papers to take care of their families. These latter men are looked down on and in one incident, become the source of an in house brawl. Hutcheson is trying to hold all this together while also attempting to keep the paper from the chopping block. His only hope there lies in the hands of the founder’s widow, Mrs. Garrison (Ethel Barrymore), who is the only member of the family not certain selling is the right thing to do. 

The investigation into the murder of Bessie Schmidt leads to racketeer Rienzi through illegal dealings the gangster had with her brother, Herman (Joe De Santiago) in the past. Hutcheson offers money and a safe haven to Herman in exchange for the whole story but that turns out to be more than he can actually offer in the face of Rienzi, whose men saw Herman entering the newspaper offices. The drama boils down to whether Hutcheson can afford to publish what he knows and face the possibility of retaliation for it. 

As mentioned above, this is not the type of film that gives everyone a happy ending. Not everyone is going to walk off into the sunset with all their wants and desires fulfilled. To do so would be to cheapen the drama and undermine the realism of the picture. This was loosely based upon the closing of The New York Sun, a situation that would have still been topical when this film went into production. It also takes some of the story from a biography about the demise of The New York World newspaper in 1931 which folded when the sons of Joseph Pulitzer decided to sell rather than run it. 

I will not spoil the ending of the film other than to say it ends on the right note for the story it is conveying. It is bittersweet and Bogart delivers some powerful lines along the way. We sympathize with him as he faces off against losing his job as well as possibly his life but stalwartly refuses to back down and lose the integrity of The Day. A side story also has him dealing with the loss of his wife, Nora (Kim Hunter), who has left him and is moving on with her life, much to his dislike. These scenes are peppered in throughout and serve to humanize Hutcheson. 

This is a poignant film with a lot to say about organized crime, journalism and personal, as well as business, integrity. It is bolstered by a strong performance by Bogart who takes a character that could have easily been a caricature and made it a well rounded individual filled with determination as well as real human shortcomings. It is as relevant today, with newspapers disappearing worldwide, as it was in 1952. Deadline-U.S.A. has a message and it gets that across in a poignant way without coming across as sermonizing. It also manages to make it entertaining along the way. 

The African Queen (1951) ****

Release Date: December 26, 1951

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn

Directed By: John Huston

‘Twas a stroke of genius that lead to the casting of two strong personalities such as Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in this war drama romance. Both are hard headed and strong willed character actors who are guaranteed to clash yet are also believable as a couple once things swing that way. This is also helped out by a story that is riveting and easy to get engrossed in with stakes that can be understood by virtually everyone. The WWI setting may not have been topical but with the war in Korea going on it made for an easy substitute.

The story is relatively straightforward forward. Samuel (Robert Morley), and his sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) are Methodist missionaries in German East Africa during the beginning of the war. When German soldiers burn the village they serve in and round up the people into service, Samuel protests and is injured. He subsequently died leaving Rose alone to fend for herself. Their supplier of food and other goods, Charlie Allnut, (Humphrey Bogart), a Canadian mechanic who captains a single person steamer up and down the river, arrives and assists in burying Samuel as well as evacuating Rose from the area. 

While on the river, Rose comes up with a plan to aid in the war effort by using the steamer as a makeshift torpedo, with the aid of some gelignite Charlie has onboard, to sink a large gunboat that is patrolling a large lake downriver and preventing the British from attacking. Charlie is hesitant at first, stating that the way would be suicidal with dangerous rapids and a German patrol in the way but Rose persists and eventually convinces him to try. The remainder of the film is taken up with this journey down the river as the two face many dangers and slowly begin to fall in love with each other.

There has already been hundreds and hundreds of pages written about the various merits of The African Queen that it would seem almost insurmountable to come up with anything new or enlightening seventy years after it debuted. What I can say about this film is that it is a real tour de force for both leads as they are asked to share the bulk of the screen time to themselves with no one else to bounce off of. In that way it can be compared to such films as True Grit and its sequel Rooster Cogburn which also focused primarily on an odd couple off by themselves. Films like this can die on the vine if the chemistry isn’t right. Fortunately, this film has that undefinable chemistry in spades, building up right from the start to the point that when Charlie and Rose finally do kiss we have been anxiously awaiting the moment. 

Adding onto our interest in their relationship, we also have a vested interest in their self assigned mission. Their success might not bring in a turning point to the war but it would make a great deal of difference to the region as well as the overall safety of Rose and Charlie. We are so invested in our leads that the rest of it is just gravy on top. Audiences at the time were largely made up of people who had either participated in in some way or lived through the Great War. Those who were too young would have at least gone through WWII followed by Korea and could easily understand the feelings of our two leads as they face off against an invading superpower. The timing here greatly elevates the emotional payoff this movie is going for.

Everything about this film is spot on, from the lead actors to the beautiful scenery filmed on location in Uganda. Films in the past that tried to approximate location shoots always seemed to come across as a little fake and staged. Here, the location stands out as a character of its own, something that cannot be accomplished on a stage. Some of the model work needed to film scenes on the rapids is a little dated but that is a sign of the times when it was filmed. The climax of the film hits all the right notes as well leaving us with a satisfying conclusion to an already stellar film. 

This is a highly entertaining film that hardly seems dated aside from a few effects shots. The romance and the drama are all deftly handled and never hit a false note. The conclusion plays exactly as you would expect from this type of a film but that is just fine, too. This isn’t the type of movie that needs twists and turns to it. It is better off staying true to the drama and introducing conflict and drama naturally. It is a near perfect film that will satisfy virtually anyone willing to give it a couple of hours of their time.

Dead Reckoning (1947) **1/2

Release Date: January 15, 1947

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott

Directed By: John Cromwell

Dead Reckoning is an odd film that hearkens back to earlier Bogart Noir films such as The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon. What it doesn’t have is the fun and excitement those films have in watching the mystery unravel on the big screen. Instead, it substitutes that sense of mystery with twist after twist until all you want is for it to come to an end so that you can stop getting pulled back and forth in a mystery that really isn’t all that interesting in the first place.

The film opens with Captain ‘Rip’ Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) approaching a priest, Father Logan, who was a well known paratrooper in the war. Murdock needs to tell someone about the past few days in case his enemies catch up to him. A good chunk of the remainder of this film is told in flashback. His story begins just after WWII when two paratroopers, close friends Murdock and Sergeant Johnny Drake (William Prince) are traveling from Paris to Washington D.C. 

Drake finds out en route to D.C. that he is to be awarded the Medal of Honor and flees the train before photographers can snap any pictures of him. Murdock goes AWOL, tracking his friend to Gulf City in the south only to find out Drake is dead, burned in a car crash. As it turns out, Drake had joined the army under an assumed name and was afraid the publicity of the Medal of Honor would bring this to light. Drake, before joining the war effort, was accused of killing a rich man because he was in love with the man’s much younger wife, Coral (Lizabeth Scott). From the moment Murdock meets Carol things start to get complicated and bogged down. The remainder of the film is filled to the brim with gangsters, gambling and double crossings. The ultimate reveal of the true killer becomes obvious well before the finale yet the film wants to try, unsuccessfully, to obfuscate it.

The film plays up heavily the relationship that developed between Murdock and Carol. Carol was originally intended for Rita Hayworth as a follow-up to Gilda yet it doesn’t play like a typical Hayworth character. In fact, Carol as a character is more in line with the on screen personal of Lauren Bacall, then Bogart’s wife. Bacall could have added an interesting degree of heat to this role that just isn’t here. Lizabeth Scott was fairly new to the scene when cast in this film and her inexperience is a bit of a hinderance to it. She appears to be channeling Bacall in both her mannerisms and vocal performance, invoking a smoky, sultry tone whenever she speaks. It is mostly effective but sometimes it rings flat and is at odds with the scene in play.

Bogart is in fine form here even though he was unhappy to be here, disliking being loaned out to Columbia Pictures for this. He didn’t let this effect his performance though and remains perfectly cast in a role he could do in his sleep. It is as close as audiences would get to him returning to Sam Spade or Phillip Marlow and could have easily been reimagined as a sequel for either character. 

The mystery is what ultimately sinks this ship, though. It is overly complicated by unnecessary twists that only serve to muddy up waters in an attempt to keep audiences from guessing the true killer. It doesn’t work though and when the reveal is made we already know it and are not surprised in the least. The mystery isn’t much of one and consequently fails to liven up an already overlong film. Staging much of the drama in flashback with a framing story only serves to drag it out even more. It needed to lose the framework and trim down some of the double crosses and twists and it would have been a stronger film for it.

As a mystery it struggles to be compelling for it’s bloated runtime. As a drama it isn’t particularly interesting, either. It had a lot of potential and only managed to land a fraction of it all. It can be compared to detective noir films like The Big Sleep but that comparison will only make it appear lesser in every way. It is not a bad film by a long shot but, once the story gets going, a real sense of what could have been permeates nearly every scene. It misses the bullseye, but not by much.