Post by mikef6 on Apr 27, 2017 19:53:44 GMT
I have arrived! Better late than never.
Like my friend Salzmank, I am going to go with 4 conventional and 4 unconventional
Conventional:
Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Key Largo
Unconventional:
Black (not “Dark”) Legion: Frank Taylor (Bogart) loses his expected promotion to a younger man named Dombrowski. Taylor listens to a radio rant by a man who blames everybody’s problems on “foreigners” who are taking jobs and opportunities away from “real Americans.” Taylor is introduced to the anti-immigrant group and quickly falls into a nightly routine of terrorizing anyone who is Jewish or Irish or notably “ethnic.” Timely or what?
To Have and Have Not: Bogart at his most iconic as a man who, in the beginning, sticks his neck out for nobody but who by the end dedicates himself wholly to the cause of freedom and justice. This is also the film where he met Bacall. The definition of “chemistry.”
San Quentin: Not a big milestone in Bogart’s career even though he gives it his best as he was known to do in even the thinnest material. The director and editor seem to know this because second-billed Bogart gets the climactic final scene all on his own and it is his mug we see at the last fadeout. Top-billed Pat O’Brien is kind of dull and plodding. Leading lady Ann Sheridan is lovely (and shows more décolletage than I think is usual at this period in Hollywood).
The Harder They Fall: Bogart’s last film; he died of throat cancer eight months after its release. He goes out on top with one of his finest performances as a middle-aged man who finds himself laid off with no means of support for himself and his wife. He takes a job in publicity with a shady boxing promoter. After trying to ignore the exploitation of the fighters, he regains he former basic decency. Wonderful.