Conflict (1945) ***

Release Date: June 15, 1945

Running Time: 86 minutes

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Rose Hobart, Sydney Greenstreet, Alexis Smith

Directed by: Curtis Bernhardt

Two years prior to The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Humphrey Bogart is cast as a wife killer. The primary difference between the two films seems to lie in a more concrete motive the audience would easily be able to latch onto rather than a dull level of confusion involving paintings and bribery. Here the motive is straight forward, love. Or perhaps lust would be a better word for what Bogart is seeking here.

The film opens on Bogart as Richard Mason, a man celebrating his fifth anniversary with his wife Kathryn (Rose Hobart). From the start it is obvious the marriage is an unhappy one, something Kathryn needles Richard about. She sees that he has an infatuation for her younger sister, Evelyn (Alexis Smith), and he doesn’t bother to deny it. Kathryn will not grant him a divorce and takes pleasure in letting him know that. Later, at the anniversary party, Dr. Hamilton (Sydney Greenstreet) entertains the guests with a story about an unhappy couple that will in many ways mirror the events to come.

On the drive home, Kathryn and Evelyn are talking and Kathryn attempts to convince her sister to leave town to visit their mother who is lonesome. Angered by this, Richard crashes the car, suffering a broken leg while the passengers escape unscathed. While recovering, Richard exaggerates the seriousness of his injury, pretending to need a wheelchair long after the cast has been removed. Under this guise, and arranging a work meeting that will prevent him from accompanying his wife to a mountain resort, he plans the perfect murder, one that he seemingly would be unable to have committed. The plan works out perfectly with one little exception. On her way out of town, Kathryn stops by Dr. Hamilton’s home and is gifted a rose that he pins to her jacket. This simple act of kindness will eventually be the key to unraveling her murder.

As a mystery, Conflict struggles a little. There really isn’t a true mystery here. We see the murder take place so we know Richard is the guilty party. The film is also very obvious when revealing the slip-up that will eventually be Richard’s undoing. We catch the mistake right away and, more importantly, the film wants us to know who else caught the mistake and knew what it meant. That robs the film of much of the suspense. Later into the picture we get what feels like an homage to The Tell-Tale Heart as little things start to happen or appear that would seem to suggest Kathryn may yet be alive. These events may confuse and disorient Richard but not the audience who was privy to the earlier slip-up and can put two and two together. 

This film could have been a train wreck with the wrong cast involved. What saves it is a truly stellar, if a little over-the-top performance by Bogart. We see from scene one that he is a deeply unhappy man wishing to be out from this marriage to a woman everyone around him thought was not a good fit. Dr. Hamilton even mentions at one point that no one thought the marriage would last. Richard and Kathryn are good at putting on a face around their friends but in private things are a little more honest and raw.  Bogart is an expert at portraying this pain and resentment. We feel for him, even though we can’t get behind him when he channels those feelings into murder.

Rose Hobart has a much harder part to play here. She has only a few scenes to get across where she is at in this relationship. Her interactions with Richard directly are sharp and mean-spirited at times yet we can also see that deep down she still loves Richard. When Richard is unable to go with her to the mountain resort she seems disappointed. Later, on the drive up the mountain alone, when she comes across Richard out in the middle of nowhere, she seems happy to see him at first, an emotion that would only be expressed in this situation were it were genuine. Rose has so little screen time as Kathryn yet we learn everything we need to know about her side of the marriage in those few scenes. 

Alexis Smith is plain awful in this film. She is badly miscast as the naive younger sister. She was much better served as the home-wrecker Cecily in The Two Mrs. Carrolls. She is never convincing when she is on screen and watching her act here is just plain painful. Sydney Greenstreet is better but he doesn’t have much of a character to work with. Dr. Hamilton is notable in one way though. It’s the only time he and Bogart co-starred in a film where he played a good guy and Bogart was the villain. 

Conflict is a good film but not a great one. The story is derivative and too heavily telegraphed to be much of a mystery. The supporting characters are all either forgettable or miscast. It glides by on the charisma of its two leads, Bogart and Hobart, who do an excellent job of showing rather than telling. This, and some fantastic filming (just look at the car crash and you’ll be amazed what can be done without CGI or fancy stunt driving) elevate this from its B movie trappings.

The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) **

Release Date: March 4, 1947

Running Time: 99 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Nigel Bruce, and Ann Carter

Directed by: Peter Godfrey

An artist with a sadistic secret, a trusting wife who begins to suspect her husband is trying to kill her, and a rich woman who is trying her hand at home wrecker. All of this sounds like a typical season on a uninspired soap opera. For a daytime drama this might be passable but for an A-list motion picture starring some of the biggest actors and actresses of the day it is downright disappointing. 

Humphrey Bogart stars as Geoffrey Carroll, a painter who begins the film wooing Sally Morton (Barbara Stanwyck) while hiding from her that he is still married. When she finds out he lies and tells her that he is in the process of leaving his wife who, by his account, is an invalid. He also reveals that he has a daughter, Bea (Ann Carter). Sally wants nothing to do with all this and leaves him. Shortly thereafter Geoffrey’s wife dies from a mysterious illness and, soon after, Geoffrey and Sally get married.

Through a friend of Sally’s, Geoffrey is introduced to Cecile Latham (Alexis Smith), a wealthy woman who has set her eyes on him under the pretense of commissioning him to paint her portrait. What she really has in mind in to get between the couple and take Geoffrey for her own. Geoffrey is hesitant at first but eventually agrees to the job. Shortly thereafter, Sally starts getting sick much the same way the original Mrs. Carroll did. 

Reportedly Bogart didn’t want to be here at that time making this film. During the production he and Lauren Bacall tied the knot, even shutting down the filming while they went off on their honeymoon. Whether this event effected his performance or not can be debated but he does come across as not totally committed to the role. There are times where he looks like he would rather be somewhere else than on this set. Even when the moment calls for him to portray intensity he is not very convincing here. While some of his most intense performances were still in the future, most notably The Treasure of the Sierra Madre the following year, he had demonstrated in the past that he was capable of playing things dark and charming. 

Not all of the blame for this film falls on Bogart’s shoulders though. Barbara Stanwyck is equally poor in a role she allegedly took out of sheer boredom. In the early scenes she is entirely too chipper. Later on, as her suspicions of her husband deepen, she descends onto overacting and some of the most outrageously hilarious voice over ever put on screen. Whether you blame her for this or shift that blame to Peter Godfrey, the director, for staging it that way as well as not reigning in his actors, it amounts to the same, an over-the-top performance that is disjointed and laughable.

The rest of the cast is game, yet amount to mere caricatures. Nigel Bruce is perhaps the worst of these as Dr. Tuttle, an alcoholic physician whose boisterousness is only eclipsed by his ineptitude. Alexis Smith is a generic gold digger with the only distinction being she is the one with the gold. The only true standout amongst the secondary cast is young Ann Carreras the daughter Beatrice Carroll. Ann made a career out of playing characters like this and she is fantastic here, livening up every scene she is in.

This was never going to be a great film. It’s roots are as generic and cliché as the final product. The greatest performers would struggle to make this even a good film and, as mentioned above, it had some of the greatest performers in it. It’s a B film filled with A-list actors and actresses and as such it cannot possible escape that trapping. At best it is a somewhat generic thriller. At worst, it is a completely forgettable film best swept under the rug.

In a Lonely Place (1950) ***1/2

 Release Date: May, 17, 1950

Running Time: 94 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Martha Stewart

Directed by: Nicholas Ray

Humphrey Bogart proves that if anyone can make such a despicable character likable he can. That is a battle any seasoned actor would struggle with when tasked to play the role of Dixon Steele, a screenwriter struggling to write a hit film while simultaneously battling a raging temper that can turn deadly at any moment. Also, there is a romance involved, just to make things even more interesting.

Dixon hasn’t had a hit film in years, something that his agent reminds him at every turn. However, Dixon also refuses to take a sure-fire hit, adapting a best selling novel, because he doesn’t want to follow the one requirement stipulated with that assignment, remain faithful to the book. A young woman, the hat-check girl at the restaurant Dixon is dining in, Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart), has read most of the copy on the book and, with Dixon’s invitation, accompanies him to his apartment with the intention of walking him through the story. Afterwards she leaves on her own only to turn up murdered later that same night. The prime suspect is Dixon but his neighbor, Laurel (Gloria Grahame), saw the girl leave while Dixon stayed at home, providing him with a solid enough alibi to keep him from being arrested. A romance blossoms between the two but things soon turn dark as Dixon demonstrates that his temper is hot enough to possibly lead to murder. Soon, Laurel begins to doubt his innocence.

One of In a Lonely Place’s strengths is that it doesn’t tell you who killed the girl until the very end. At no point are we sure Dixon didn’t do it. We believe Laurel’s provided alibi but not that Dixon couldn’t have slipped away unseen and committed the murder anyway. The resolution is not made clear until things are revealed in the last couple of minutes and Bogart does a good job at keeping us guessing. Midway through the film in a fit of rage Bogart sideswipes a car while driving recklessly. When the other driver is acceptably upset with the damage to his vehicle things degenerate to Bogart beating him mercilessly, even to the point of picking up a rock with the intent of bashing the guys head in. Only the cries of Bogart’s passenger stop him from doing it. There is no question that he is capable of murder in the heat of anger. What we aren’t shown is if he could do it dispassionately. 

Bogart doesn’t play Dixon like a man who is innocent of the murder. Quite the opposite in fact. He is friends with one of the officers investigating the crime, Brub Nicolai (Frank Lovejoy), a man whom Dixon served with during the war. Brub invited Dixon over to dinner one evening and the interchange between Dixon, Brub, and Brub’s wife (Jeff Donnell) is chilling as Dixon relays in great detail how the murder could have been done. The scene is disturbing and effective at showing not only how good of an imagination Dixon has but that, alibi or no, he could easily have done it. It is easily one of the best scenes in the whole film. 

The romance between Dixon and Laurel starts to sour as Laurel starts to seriously doubt Dixon’s innocence after the brutal attack on the motorist. She begins to dread seeing him, yet he remains oblivious of this and presses her to marry him. She agrees but makes plans to flee rather than become his bride. Gloria Grahame portrays her uncertainty and fear perfectly which makes the final moments of this film all the more tragic. We feel her pain and fear even as she realizes that whether he is innocent or not he is still a dangerous man. 

In a Lonely Place is an acting powerhouse with tremendous performances by all the leads. It leaves you guessing at every turn without spoiling the surprise until the very last moment. Bogart manages to make Dixon Steele a likable character despite a growing sense of dread as we start to see just what he is capable of. Gloria is shot for shot at his level as the woman who falls in love, then slowly trades that love for fear of the man who is capable of anything. It is a well made film that is riveting from frame one and never lets up until the very end.

The Wagons Roll at Night (1941) **1/2

 Release Date: April 26, 1941

Running Time: 84 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Eddie Albert, Sylvia Sidney, Joan Leslie, Sig Roman

Directed by: Ray Enright

Eddie Albert stars as Matt, a local grocery clerk turned hero, then lion tamer in The Wagons Roll at Night. Pair that with an unscrupulous circus manager played by Humphrey Bogart, a drunken lion tamer incapable of keeping an aggressive lion named Caesar from escaping his cage and terrorizing a mother and infant, and a unconvincing love plot marred by murderous jealousy and you can see why this film doesn’t incite much excitement. 

The story is pretty straight forward. Nick Coster (Humphrey Bogart) owns and manages a circus. Through some carelessness Caesar the lion escapes and manages to enter a grocery store. The clerk on duty, Matt, manages to subdue the beast long enough for him to be recaptured. He is heralded as a hero for this, having also saved the lives of a woman and her infant. The resulting publicity leads Nick to hiring Matt as a new back-up lion tamer banking on the new found fame to draw in audiences. Also, Nick needs someone in the position because the current lion tamer, Hoffman, is an alcoholic and has become unreliable. Hoffman (Sig Roman) takes this personally and sets out to sabotage the new upstart. However Matt does well in the position and Nick fires Hoffman, while keeping Hoffman’s lions.

Hoffman refuses to accept Matt’s apology for taking his job and starts a fight that leaves Hoffman injured by Caesar. Fearing being accused of intentionally injuring Hoffman Matt is taken into hiding from the police by Nick’s girlfriend Flo Lorraine(Sylvia Sidney), to Nick’s family home even though Nick strongly objects to his family intermingling with the circus performers. There Matt meets Nick’s sister Mary and the two fall in love much to Nick’s strong objections. This leads to some clashing between the two men that ultimately turns deadly.

Eddie Albert was a relative newcomer when he starred in this film having hit the scene just three years prior. Even this early in his career he had charisma on screen that would help him become a bona fide star early into the 1940’s. Even so he is a little out of his comfort zone coming across as a little too naive. He would be completely overshadowed by Bogart and Sylvia Sidney were the two not badly miscast in roles outside their wheelhouse. At this point in his career Bogart was still mostly a secondary character actor best at playing gangsters and hoodlums. Here he is supposed to be a businessman running a somewhat successful circus and it never quite clicks. Likewise Sylvia comes across at times like she is in over her head and is never convincing as Nick’s love interest. 

There are plenty of good things to be said about this Stunt work with the lions is mostly convincing for its time, especially in the earlier scenes. The finale is harrowing and well staged if a little hammed up by Bogart’s performance. Eddie Albert is, as always, watchable even as he is a little green around the ears. 

This is an interesting period in Bogart’s career, just a year away from his big breakout in Casablanca. He was already trying to get away from the cliched mobsters he had made a career out of playing in the 30’s so taking a role like this makes sense for him. However he struggles with making it a truly memorable performance that could have elevated him and this film above merely passable entertainment. He would soon find his footing and become the star he is now known for but he wasn’t quite there yet. In the end, The Wagon’s Roll at Night is an average film, forgettable to all but the die hard Bogart or Eddie Albert fans.

The Desperate Hours (1955) ***1/2

Release Date: October 5, 1955

Running Time: 113 minutes

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Martha Scott, Dewey Martin, Mary Murphy, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton

Directed by: William Wyler

Glenn Griffin and two thugs escape prison and take hostages in this taught crime drama late in the career of Humphrey Bogart. If the plot sounds familiar it’s because it’s very similar to that of 1936’s The Petrified Forest, a film that also featured Bogart as the lead criminal. The premise is the same yet these two films are very different in tone and style. In The Petrified Forest Bogart is playing to the back row as if he were on stage, a holdover from when he was on stage in that same role. Here he is more seasoned and much more competent. The film also doesn’t feel like several different films spliced together the way The Petrified Forrest does.

The plot is very simple. Dan Hilliard (Fredric March), his wife Ellie (Martha Scott), and their two children Cindy (Mary Murphy), and Ralphie (Richard Eyer) are the typical American family. Dan is the breadwinner while his wife takes care of the home. Mary is a teenager who had a straight laced steady boyfriend and Ralphie is the younger brother who is a bit mischievous but generally a good son. The only thing that puts them in the path of Glenn and his two fellow escaped cons, his brother Hal (Dewey Martin) and the demented Sam (Robert Middleton), is while driving through the neighborhood Glenn spots Ralphie’s bike in the yard and decides that a family with a young kid would be less likely to make trouble for them for fear of the child’s life. They take the family hostage, looking for a hideout while waiting for Glenn’s girlfriend to arrive with some money so that they can flee south of the border and out of the law’s reach.

What happens over the remainder of the film is tense and disturbing at times but it also has some logistical and logical flaws that seem hard to swallow. For instance, Glenn allows Cindy to leave on a date with her boyfriend ostensibly to avoid any suspicion. This seems much more risky than just having her tell the boyfriend anything to prevent him from coming over. It is played out over a phone call between the two where the boyfriend is too insistent to accept she won’t have him over that night but it plays false. Glenn could have easily taken another hostage should this happen minimizing any chance of Cindy losing composure and spilling the beans of her family’s predicament. Likewise Glenn allows Dan to go to work rather than have him call in sick. Sure, there is the threat of harm to his family if he goes to the police but this seems like too much of a gamble. 

But aside from these leaps of logic the film is taught and the tension is real, something that the earlier film The Petrified Forrest failed at. The film doesn’t hold back actually showing the criminals as indiscriminate killers, willing to kill an innocent passerby who happens to notice a strange car in the Hilliard’s garage. Only Hal comes across as sympathetic, first defending Cindy from the advances of Sam, then later realizing things between all of them were turning sour and knowing when to bail on his brother. His final outcome is tragic as he is the only one of the criminals we feel any real sympathy for. 

We also see the story from the police’s perspective as they narrow in on the escapees. We are treated occasionally to scenes involving the clues that help narrow down their search. It’s great in providing a ticking clock for the criminals as well as for the Hilliards. Director William Wyler was no newbie to cinema having helmed some of the greatest films of the era. He took what could have been a generic hostage film and imbued it with an overall sense of dread and realism that elevates it above many of its contemporaries. Still, he knew what type of movie he was making and didn’t try to reinvent the genre. It hits all the typical notes for this type of film and ends on a note that is no surprise to anyone.

But it doesn’t need to be. A film isn’t great simply by being surprising. All it needs to do is be great at what it is and this film is just that. It takes many familiar tropes and portrays them perfectly. There are a few stumbling blocks mentioned earlier but even though they seem a bit far fetched those scenes are still tensioned filled and a joy to watch. Bogart is great, chewing the scenery in a way only he could and he is surrounded by supporting actors and actresses who all nail their roles to perfection making his partners as well as the Hilliards well rounded characters. This really helps ratchet up the tension as we can identify with the family and dread what Glenn and Sam (not so much Hal) may do to them. It’s legitimately scary and disturbing at times lending a sense of realism that isn’t always found in this type of film.

They Drive By Night (1940) ***

Release Date: August 3, 1940

Running Time: 95 minutes

Starring: George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino

Directed by: Raoul Walsh

It’s difficult to imagine in retrospect a time when Humphrey Bogart was not top billed in a film he starred in. Sur there were plenty of pictures in the 30’s where he was just a bit player but by 1940 he was a known commodity and, while his true box office draw was still two years off, he was a star on the rise. It was during this time that he took a co-starring role alongside George Raft in They Drive by Night, taking second billing to Raft who was definitely the bigger star at the time. Many of Bogart’s later rolls would be passed on by Raft paving the way for Bogart to cement his position in Hollywood history. Films like Dead End and High Sierra were originally going to be Raft films but went to Bogart after Raft turned them down. These films made Bogart a star and George Raft’s popularity wane. But in 1940 Raft was the bigger star and commanded the majority of the screen time here.

They Drive by Night is an interesting film in many ways. For the time it was atypical for either actor seeing the two of them as truck-driving brothers Joe and Paul (Raft and Bogart) barely scraping by working for a businessman who doesn’t pay them regularly and is willing to let someone else take over their delivery when they bust a tire rather than advance them their pay to get it fixed. This eventually leads the two to go into business for themselves buying their own loads of produce so they can profit from the deliveries rather than just taking a cut. Just as things are looking up though Paul falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the truck leaving them without their vehicle and profits as the product was destroyed in the crash. Worse, Paul loses an arm in the wreck leaving him unable to drive anymore. This forces Joe to take a job working in a trucking business for Ed Carlen (Alan Hale) and his wife Lana (Ida Lupino), a woman who has her eyes on Joe. Meanwhile, Joe has met Cassie (Ann Sheridan) hitchhiking earlier and intends to make her his wife. 

There is a lot of plot for such a film. It threatens at times to bog down the overall narrative yet it never does. For a film that is primarily about the trucking industry and the drivers who struggle to make a living it never gets boring. The film is peppered with colorful characters to liven up most every ensemble scene. Just in the diner early on we get treated to some comedic performances as characters hit on the waitress, Cassie, play pinball endlessly, and throw out a loan shark, Farnsworth (an uncredited Charles Halton) looking to repossess Joe and Paul’s truck for missed payments. Cassie stands out above all of them with her brassy no nonsense attitude and quips, eventually quitting and catching a ride with the brothers because her boss kept trying to tie her apron strings when she had no apron on in the first place. 

The second half of the film takes a hard turn however as the tone shifts from good natured humor into film noir territory. While there is some suspense in the first half it is nothing compared to after Ida Lupino steps in. We see her early on in the film and know immediately she wants to be with Joe despite being married. The levels she is willing to sink to to make it happen however only become apparent later in the film when we get a better sense of her marriage to Ed. The film takes a dark turn late into it and it never really lightens up. This tonal shift is abrupt but manages to not derail the film thanks to the terrific performance by Ida Lupino who portrays her deep unhappiness well. Her complete breakdown later is a little over the top and is the only weakness to an otherwise spot on performance. 

Bogart is also great as Paul. He is married to a woman who would do anything to not be so lonely while Paul is on the road. She longs for children but Paul feels they are too poor to afford it. His accident seems like a miracle to her when it only depresses Paul who feels he can no longer work. The role is small, much smaller than that of his brother, but Bogart imbues it with wit and sarcasm and just enough personality to make it a three dimensional character.

Raft is a little less engaging although not by much. He gets the lion’s share of the film and the most character development yet he seems to be basically the same at the end of the film as he is at the beginning. He has screen charisma and gains some confidence in his abilities outside of driving trucks but that is about it. This is the type of role that doesn’t really take any effort to portray and is consequently less interesting. One wonders how much better the film would have been Raft and Bogart switched rolls. 

This is a tricky film to get all the elements right and make entertaining. Raoul almost nails it completely. Where he struggles is in the final act. The tonal shifts and an uneven performance by Lupino in the final few scenes make the last ten minutes uneven and a little awkward. Ultimately though it is a fine film that showcases an early Bogart performance that proves he could be more than just gangsters and thieves. For that and some truly fun performances by a fine supporting cast this film excels when it could have easily stumbled.

We’re No Angels (1955) ***1/2

 Release Date: July 7, 1955

Running Time: 106 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, Leo G. Carroll, Joan Bennett, Gloria Talbott

Directed by: Michael Curtiz

Devil’s Island, 1895. Three escaped convicts, Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), Jules (Peter Ustinov), and Albert (Aldo Ray) arrive looking for an opportunity for some easy money. Through a chance acquisition they arrive at a store run by the Ducotel family with patriarch Felix (Leo G. Caroll), the main shop runner who is in over his head, running the store into the ground through incompetence and an inability to pressure his few clientele into paying their outstanding bills. They immediately see an opportunity to con him out of money and supplies. While ostensibly repairing a leaky roof on the shop the three cons they overhear all the drama currently going on in the Ducotel household. Felix is indebted to his cousin Andre (Basil Rathbone) a wealthy businessman who owns the shop and will kick the family out if it isn’t turning a profit. Amelie (Joan Bennett) is the long suffering wife who worries about losing everything they have if this happens. The daughter Isabelle (Gloria Talbots) is in love with Andre’s son, Paul (John Baer) who may not be reciprocating that emotion. In fact, a letter arrived that very day stating that Paul was to be married to someone else to help further his father’s business interests. All of this is revealed rather amusingly to the three convicts as they watch like angels from above through an open window leading out to the roof.

We’re No Angels is a farce, a bit of a screwball comedy that plays out a little like a soap opera with a double shot of comedy to get it over the threadbare story. It get’s its inspiration from a French play La Cuisine Des Angels by Albert Husson which was Americanized as My Three Angels by Samuel and Bella Spewack and well it plays out as such, making use of minimal sets and being dialogue heavy it never really feels like a filmed play the way many filmed plays of the 40’s and 50’s did. Director Michael Curtiz was no director for hire having made such classics as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca knew how to shoot a film, even one as low key as this, and have it avoid the claustrophobia effect many filmed plays have.

So much of this film rides on the performances and every one of the main cast is stellar in it. Leo G. Caroll whom I mostly associate with in sci-if and governmental roles like Alexander Waverly in The Man From U.N.C.L.E is perfect here as the awkward and unsure of himself Felix, a man who can’t knuckle down and do what he knows is needed to be successful. Joan Bennet has a little less to work with as a character but she shines as the wife who knows what her husband is and doesn’t come down too hard on him. Gloria Talbott makes the most of what could have been a thankless roll but her bright optimism makes her a delight to watch.

But the real stars of the film are Bogart, Ustinov and Ray. These three have the unenviable task of making murders and thieves likable. There is little subtlety to any of their performances but we cannot help but fall in love with them. Aldo Ray is the ladies man who is romantic at heart. He drives much of the romantic plot between Isabelle and Paul. Bogart is the craggy one who deep down has a heart and wants to help out the Ducotel family when it won’t personally benefit himself, though he will continue the charade of planning to steal them blind long after he no longer plans to do so. Ustinov is the least developed of the three but his goofy Jules is at times the most relatable of the three.

The film was marketed as a Christmas comedy and while it does take place around Christmastime it is really more of a religious allegory. The three cons play out like guardian angels from above, hearing of a struggling family and descending from the heavens to make all things right. And when all that is accomplished they walk off into the distance with halos ablaze, content that their deed is done and it’s time to move on. It’s cheesy and corny and the story is virtually nonexistent but it is a sheer delight to watch. It doesn’t need plot twists and contrivance to keep  things interesting. It doesn’t need action and adventure. It doesn’t even need mystery or suspense. There could have easily been a subplot involving the police closing in on the three escapees. None of that really matters and thus is left out of the story and it is the better for it. The film ran over fifteen minutes longer than the typical comedy yet nothing feels unnecessary or a filler. It goes down easy and is just fun to watch so many seasoned veterans enjoying themselves on screen even as we enjoy watching them. That chemistry plays out on screen making this a highly recommendable film.