Review: A new Bogie box set worth checking out

Image Credit: Everett CollectionWhen Humphrey Bogart was struggling to make his name on Broadway in the 1920’s, scalpel-wielding theater critic Alexander Woollcott sized him up thusly: he “is what is usually and mercifully described as inadequate.” Harsh. Then, in 1930, the young wannabe with the scarred lip, snarling lisp, and looks that might charitably be called “unconventional” finally landed a contract with Fox. The studio cut him loose after two years. Most actors might have thrown in the towel and started selling encyclopedias at that point. But Bogart’s best years were ahead of him.

In 1936, the not-so-young-anymore tough guy caught a break when A-list pal Leslie Howard lobbied to get him a part in Warner Bros.’ The Petrified Forest. The film is hardly a classic. But to quote a film that is – Casablanca — it marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Over the next dozen years – from 1936 to 1948 – Bogart made a string of masterpieces at Warner Bros. That gilded period, when Bogie became “Bogie,” the hardboiled hard guy, doomed lover, and Greatest Movie Star of All Time is the subject of the fantastic new box set, Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection. Comprised of 24 films on 12 discs loaded with extras (plus a thirteenth with a documentary about the history of the studio), The Essential Collection kicks off with 1936’s The Petrified Forest and hits on indelible masterpieces like 1941’s The Maltese Falcon, 1942’s Casablanca, 1946’s The Big Sleep, up through 1948’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It’s hard to imagine a more impressive run of iconic performances.

If you love movies, then you’ve no doubt seen a lot of these films already. But let’s single out three of the best. The Maltese Falcon, which is also making its Blu-ray debut, may be the best of the bunch. It’s certainly the film that catapulted Bogie to super-stardom. Based on Dashiell Hammett’s noir crime novel, Bogart plays tough-talking private detective Sam Spade — a fedora-wearing gumshoe with a gun at his hip, a Chesterfield dangling from his lip, and a wiseguy crack for every two-bit hood or dangerous dame who crosses his path. With John Huston making his debut behind the camera, it’s also as twisty as a pretzel, with character actor turns from Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook, and the truly wonderful Sidney Greenstreet as “The Fat Man”.

Five years later, Bogie essentially played the same character with a different name, Phillip Marlowe, in 1946’s The Big Sleep. This time the pulp fiction belonged not to Hammett, but Raymond Chandler, and its plot (littered with kinky motives and dead bodies) is so labyrinthine that director Howard Hawks infamously had to call Chandler personally to find out who killed the chauffeur. Chandler, on the other end of the line, had to admit that even he didn’t know and he wrote the thing! It doesn’t matter. It’s a first-rate film loaded with wiseguy patter (“she tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up”) and double-dealing femmes fatale, including real-life love interest Lauren Bacall, who matches Bogie’s Marlowe quip for sassy quip. They were the Brangelina of their day.

While Bogart, in our memories, is often pigeonholed as these smart-talking sleuths or as the suave Rick Blaine from Casablanca, he could also mix it up. Take his turn as down-and-out scoundrel Fred C. Dobbs in John Huston’s 1948 classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (the other film making its Blu-ray debut, and looking better than ever). Broke and forced to beg for spare change south of the border, Bogart hooks up with Tim Holt and Walter Huston (crusty coot and father of director John) to prospect for gold in the mountains where banditos run wild (“Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!”). When the trio strike the motherlode, Bogie’s Dobbs turns into a greedy, paranoid monster. But instead of being broad, Bogart gives a finely calibrated performance as precise as a Swiss watch. It’s arguably his best role, not to mention the last he would give during his miraculous 12-year run at Warners. Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection: A