Humphrey Bogart : Overrrated
Ben_Fisher1
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Ok, first off I realize I am going to get some angry responses over this, but, can we please discuss what it is about this actor that has made him so great, and universally admired. Ok he was in very iconic movies like the awful 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'Casablanca' but he always seems to me a very one note actor. Okay there were many stars like this at the time who were typecast, people like Hepburn ( who I love) Cagney, Garbo etc but they at least, had some real presence, and imo a strong talent.
Bogart, or 'Bogie' became iconic for playing tough guys, fair enough, but his delivery is so excruciatingly wooden at times, and when called upon to portray genuine emotion, he often just can't manage it. 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' is a great film, but old Bogie almost ruins it for me with his hammy, unconvincing performance, especially in the scenes where he loses his sanity. Yes, acting was different then, but to me he always stands out as being more turgid than most. For instance I consider James Stewart a far better actor. So can someone please explain to me why Bogart is considered so wonderful?
Bogart, or 'Bogie' became iconic for playing tough guys, fair enough, but his delivery is so excruciatingly wooden at times, and when called upon to portray genuine emotion, he often just can't manage it. 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' is a great film, but old Bogie almost ruins it for me with his hammy, unconvincing performance, especially in the scenes where he loses his sanity. Yes, acting was different then, but to me he always stands out as being more turgid than most. For instance I consider James Stewart a far better actor. So can someone please explain to me why Bogart is considered so wonderful?
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I thought that he was excellent in The African Queen and The Caine Mutiny, but I agree that he is over rated. I much prefer Edward G Robinson and James Cagney who for me were far more charismatic.
For Bogart at his hammiest, you can't beat the hilariously awful The Two Mrs Carrolls, which is my all time favourite bad film.
He plays a mad artist who paints portraits of his wives and then poisons them. He is already married to the second Mrs Carroll (Barbara Stanwyck) when he falls for what he hopes will be wife number three, and that's when the fun begins.
Even more absurd is Warner Brothers idea of what a typical English town is like, so the cathedral bells never stop ringing. Also just to convince us that Brooklyn born Barbara is English, we hear her trilling from her bedroom, "Sweet lass of Richmond Hill".
Then to add to the hilarity Bogart keeps rubbing his forehead to indicate madness. There is never a dull moment and I really do recommend it.
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Sorry but his voice and acting style just grate on me so much. He's the same as John Wayne, in that he embodied a type, but was very limited as an actor. Cagney was a better actor and more versatile I think.
Although I don't particularly like Depp or Bloom, both could have acted rings around Mr Bogart.
Of course The Maltese Falcon is an excellent film, nominated for three Oscars, and in most lists of great films. The French Academy refers to it as one of the original Films Noir. For me it does not quite fit as a film noir, the term is bandied around for any black and white film of the forties and fifties, but as they just say early I suppose it can fit.
Bogart is a bit subtle for some. Compare him doing Captain Queeg with an imagined Cagney performance - who would have revelled in the role but would have overdone it for me.
To mention Bloom in any connection with Bogart, is foolish,ignorant silly and just wrong.
HB is a legend
I think all these lists of the great movies of all time are compiled by critics who can't always be relied upon, it is subjective after all. Some classics i agree on Citizen Kane, The Philadelphia Story, The Third Man, Odd Man Out, Adams Rib, Woman of the Year, It happened one Night, to name a few. All great movies, which to me, still have something excellent about them, be it script, dialogue, performances. But some 'classics' such as Bogart's Casablanca I just can't warm to. I find the dialogue at times so camp that it's unbelievable, no one I know seems to agree with me. Because it's a hallowed 'classic' it's deemed untouchable. Bogart just doesn't convince me with his performnces, at times he emotes like he's in silent movies.
I agree with you, I think that Bogart and Bergman were a deadly combination, but then to me, she was the most over rated actress ever.
I loved John Gielgud's comment on her, "Dear Ingrid, speak five languages and can't act in one of them!"
Ah, now see I disagree with this, I find Ingrid one of the more natural actresses of that period. She was faultless in 'Notorious' that performance really stands up. I also think she is the best thing about 'Casablanca'. Geuilgud bless his heart was a great shakespearean actor, and I like him alot, but he was a catty old queen too:D and he was always the same in most of his screen roles too.
John Gielgud's movie career wasn't exactly stellar.
But his theatre career was very distinguished, and he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his hilarious performance in Arthur at the age of 76.
I respect your opinion, it is just that she always left me cold, and I saw most of her films. My Mum was a big fan and took me to see everything she did in the 1940's, but I could just never warm to her.
Bacall has always insisted that she never looked on him as a father figure, even though her own father walked out on the family when she was a kid.
To be fair, she had already been signed for the film by the director Howard Hawks, and if anything her romance with Bogart probably hindered her film career. Hawks had big plans for her, but didn't approve of their relationship, and lost interest in building her up once she married Bogart. She restricted her film work so that she and Bogart were never apart for long, and then had two children which left her even less time to build her career.
She said later that it wasn't until her big success on stage in "Applause", the musical version of All About Eve that won her the Tony Award as Best Actress, that she ceased being looked on as just Bogies widow.
Yes, and she was 19, and he was 45 I think! That would raise a stink today, people would be disgusted.
Many modern actors could but I wouldn't put Depp or Bloom in that company.
Possibly, but it lasted until his death in 1957, and seems to have been a very happy marriage.
Bacall's second marriage was to Jason Robards jnr, a Bogart lookalike, but it didn't last.
A bad film that somehow manages to be even worse than Hemingway's worst novel, that it is based on.
I KNOW!:p it is absolutely awful, and yet it's another one the critics rave about:o I honestly can't stand Bacall's mannered, and self consciously 'sexy' performance either. I think it was an effort to ride on the success of Casablanca.
I still maintain that she became that she became a very good actress, although a nasty piece of work in real life, and I was there to witness just how unpleasant she could be to the loyal fans who supported her.
Is it? I'm pretty certain that most critics think it is a poor film, not saved by Bacall's smouldering screen presence and her immortal line on how to whistle.
Casablanca is undoubtedly a great film. Arguably, it shouldn't be, given the dialogue, that is not just corny by contemporary standards; apparently the cast were cracking up with laughter on set having to deliver the lines. However, as a piece of cinema, it works brilliantly (the singing the duel between Die Wacht am Rhein and La Marseillaise is probably one of the greatest scenes ever shot) and is rightly on most people's lists of greatest ever films.
Holden was good in Stalag 17 though. Ach So!