Humphrey Deforest Bogart was born on December 25, 1889. There is some speculation out there that his real birthday was earlier that year, but that changing it to Christmas Day would increase the sense that he was a good guy. Regardless, most biographies that I came across, including the official Humphrey Bogart website maintains that his birthday is Christmas day.
He grew up in New York, New York with his father Belmont Deforest Humphrey, a doctor, and his mother Maude, a portrait artist. He had two younger sisters, and the family lived very comfortably.
During the end of World War One he joined the navy. It is here that many believe he received his well known scar on the right side of his upper lip. It was said that he was escorting an angry prisoner who attacked him and ripped his lip open. It is now a kind of iconic marker for Humphrey, and is believed to also be the incident in which his lisp resulted from.
In his career, Bogart appeared in more than 80 films. His journey to stardom began with experience on stage. In 1920 he was offered a job by the father of well-known stage actress, Alice Brady. He became a company manager, and was soon involved in acting. He began to rise in the field when his performance in The Petrified Forest was well received.
When the plays success ultimately inspired a movie version, Warner Bros. eventually hired him for the part through the persistence of actress Leslie Howard. This contract moved him to Hollywood where he made 12 films with Warner Bros. before he accepted the role as Sam Space in the Maltese Falcon in 1941. His popularity rose from there and he next appeared in Casablanca in 1942 in his first real romantic lead role. This role also vaulted him to the position of the highest paid actor in Hollywood as he made 460,000 a year by 1946.
Humphrey’s impact on American movie culture seems to be profound according to commentary after his death and even today. Terry Teachout, a drama critic for the Wallstreet Journal, said of Bogart,
“Of all the male actors of the studio era, Humphrey Bogart is one of the very few who still has a central place in American popular culture (though John Wayne and James Stewart come close). His raspy, lisping voice and bony face, which conformed to no known standard of masculine beauty, were easy to imitate but impossible to duplicate, as successive generations of Bogart impersonators have learned to their sorrow.”
I found this profound, because outside of multiple marriages, there is not a lot of controversy surrounding Bogart. It seems his popularity is tied to his personality and his acting, which is a different cultural marker than today’s celebrity. He did not make himself ridiculous to gain popularity.
It actually seems his image stemmed from his ability to come across, successfully, as multiple character types. Commentary on Bogart remarked on his aloofness to the Hollywood grandeur that actors can be caught up in, but conversely his commitment to his performance and the authenticity of his characters.
Teachout also talks about his ability to be successful as a mature character. He referenced Brad Pit and Leonardo DiCaprio as popular modern actors who struggle to consistently garner roles that do not involve crazy antics or a boyish nature. Perhaps that is not just the actors fault, as much as it may be the fault of the culture that movies can reflect, but there is an obvious distinction among critics of how masculinity has evolved through the years.
Bogart died on January 14, 1957 after a struggle with throat cancer.
His only academy award came from his work in The African Queen with Katherine Hepburn.
In 1999 the American Film Institute rated Bogart as the Greatest American Male Star in the history of American cinema.
Marriages:
Helen Menken (m. 1926 – d.1927)
Mary Philips (m.1928 – d. 1937)
Mayo Methot (m. 1938 – d. 1945)
Betty Joan Perske a.k.a. Lauren Bacall (m.1945 – w.1957 )
Children: (Bacall) Stephen and Leslie
Filmography:
The 1950s
1956 - The Harder They Fall (Eddie Willis)
1955 - We're No Angels (Joseph)
1955 - The Desperate Hours (Glenn Griffin)
1955 - The Left Hand of God (Jim Carmody)
1954 - The Barefoot Contessa (Harry Dawes)
1954 - Sabrina (Linus Larrabee)
1954 - The Caine Mutiny (Lt. Cmdr. Philip Francis Queeg)
1953 - Beat the Devil (Billy Dannreuther)
1953 - Battle Circus (Maj. Jed Webbe)
1952 - Deadline - U.S.A. (Ed Hutcheson, Managing Editor of The Day)
1951 - The African Queen (Charlie Allnut)
1951 - Sirocco (Harry Smith)
1951 - The Enforcer (Dist. Atty. Martin Ferguson)
1950 - Chain Lightning (Lt. Col. Matt Brennan)
1950 - In a Lonely Place (Dixon Steele)
The 1940s
1949 - Tokyo Joe (Joe Barrett)
1949 - Knock on Any Door (Andrew Morton)
1948 - Key Largo (Frank McCloud)
1948 - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Fred C. Dobbs)
1947 - Dark Passage (Vincent Parry)
1947 - The Two Mrs. Carrolls (Geoffrey Carroll)
1947 - Dead Reckoning (Captain Warren 'Rip' Murdock)
1946 - The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe)
1945 - Conflict (Richard Mason)
1944 - To Have and Have Not (Harry Morgan/Steve)
1944 - Passage to Marseille (Jean Matrac)
1943 - Sahara (Sgt. Joe Gunn)
1943 - Action in the North Atlantic (Lt. Joe Rossi)
1942 - The Big Shot (Joseph 'Duke' Berne)
1942 - Casablanca (Rick Blaine)
1942 - Across the Pacific (Rick Leland)
1942 - In This Our Life (Uncredited cameo appearance as Roadhouse owner)
1942 - All Through the Night (Alfred 'Gloves' Donahue)
1941 - The Maltese Falcon (Sam Spade)
1941 - The Wagons Roll at Night (Nick Coster)
1941 - High Sierra (Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle)
1940 - They Drive by Night (Paul Fabrini)
1940 - Brother Orchid (Jack Buck)
1940 - It All Came True (Chips Maguire/Mr. Grasselli)
1940 - Virginia City (John Murrell)
The 1930s
1939 - Invisible Stripes (Chuck Martin)
1939 - The Return of Doctor X (Marshall Quesne)
1939 - The Roaring Twenties (George Hally)
1939 - The Old Maid (Clem Spender, replaced by George Brent, uncredited)
1939 - You Can't Get Away with Murder (Frank Wilson)
1939 - Dark Victory (Michael O'Leary)
1939 - The Oklahoma Kid (Whip McCord)
1939 - King of the Underworld (Joe Gurney)
1938 - Angels with Dirty Faces (James Frazier)
1938 - The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse ('Rocks' Valentine)
1938 - Men Are Such Fools (Harry Galleon)
1938 - Racket Busters (John 'Czar' Martin)
1938 - Crime School (Deputy Comm Mark Braden)
1938 - Swing Your Lady (Ed Hatch)
1937 - Stand-In (Doug Quintain)
1937 - Dead End (Baby Face Martin)
1937 - San Quentin (Joe 'Red' Kennedy)
1937 - Kid Galahad (Turkey Morgan)
1937 - Marked Woman (David Graham)
1937 - The Great O'Malley (John Phillips)
1937 - Black Legion (Frank Taylor)
1936 - Isle of Fury (Valentine 'Val' Stevens)
1936 - China Clipper (Hap Stuart)
1936 - Two Against the World (Sherry Scott)
1936 - Bullets or Ballots (Nick 'Bugs' Fenner)
1936 - The Petrified Forest (Duke Mantee)
1934 - Midnight (Gar Boni)
1932 - Three on a Match (Harve, Ace's henchman)
1932 - Big City Blues (Shep Adkins, uncredited)
1932 - Love Affair (Jim Leonard)
1931 - A Holy Terror (Steve Nash)
1931 - Women of All Nations (Stone)
1931 - The Bad Sister (Valentine Corliss)
1931 - Body and Soul (Jim Watson)
1930 - A Devil with Women (Tom Standish)
1930 - Up the River (Steve)
The 1920s1920 -
Life (uncredited Bit Part)
Works Cited
"Biography." The Official Humphrey Bogart Website. Web. 14 May 2011.
Teachout, Terry. "Humphrey Bogart, Grown-Up." Commentary 131.4 (2011): 67-70. Print.
Roy, Liebman. "Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart." Library Journal 135.19 (2010). Print.
In class, I asked about Bogart tugging on his ear throughout the Big Sleep. It is likely he did this just for the character, but I was curious about whether Bogart did that in general???
ReplyDeleteAlso, since this film is an adaption of the book, I'm curious to know how much the author (Chandler?) worked with Hawks or the screenwriters.
Some other questions that occurred to me later:
Was the censorship on films largely owing to the war? Was certain content deemed inappropriate simply due to the political things going on?
When were Bogart and Bacall married? During shooting? Between shooting and production? After distribution?
Why were the armed forces the first to see the film? It was mentioned in class that the armed forces were the first to view screenings of the film. Why? Did they see the original version or the later version?
Do you think that a huge part of Bogart's masculine image is owing to the womanizing factor? I feel like his cool with the ladies is something other male leads have emulated throughout film history. Harrison Ford definitely emulates the same sarcastic suave in films like Star Wars and the Indiana Jones films. Or even Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the Ocean's 11-13 movies, definitely exercise that cool, detached charm. Those are just a couple of films and actors that come to mind, but I feel like just as the romantic male lead is supposed to be a knight in shining armor, the truly masculine male has to have a certain powerful seduction over females. True?
These are questions for the whole panel and the class in general, not just Stephanie. I just posted here to comment on the Big Sleep in general.
Did anyone else notice how the entire time Marlow and Vivian seem to be competing with each other and towards the end before the "final showdown" when we feel as though the two of them are on the same page and looking to take on the world something happens. Marlow is loading bullets into his gun and after he does this he places it into his pocket and pulls out a second gun, which was bigger. It is at that moment when the "bad guys" pull up and he watches them get out and turns to Vivian and tells her to go look out the back and if she sees anyone to scream her head off like she did last time.
ReplyDeleteMy question that springs up is the fact that Marlow has two guns never fires a shot in the scene, but has Vivian scream instead of giving her a gun. Is this a sign of the times where women in films weren't supposed to show violence, or is it Marlow showing his dominance over Vivian since she would be screaming for his help instead of handling the situation by herself?
The Production Code came in a decade before WWII, so it wasn't the war that brought censorship. Bogart and Bacall were still in the early stages of their relationship during the shooting of Big Sleep, so it wasn't until sometime later they were married.
ReplyDeleteOne final point, despite his four marriage I don't think it would be entirely accurate to term him a womanizer, at least not in the sense Warren Beatty was. Obviously, he wasn't entirely innocent either.
One thing that I think is interesting in these early films is that the studio owners seemed to be helping to form their idea of masculine and feminine roles. Were they following the image of what society dictated for these roles, or was Hollywood starting to influence how they wanted people to view the roles of men and women?
ReplyDeleteBogart was very masculine in this movie, but on the other hand so was Bacall. I find it interesting that even though Hollywood might be trying to influence gender roles of the times, they are doing so with an overly masculine woman. Bacall's character does however adhere to Bogart's character and what he says to do, however she is a very strong woman and there is masculinity in both characters. So my question is, did Hollywood purposfully choose movies with masculine woman so that they may be put in their place by the leading man of the movie? Or is it just coincidence?
ReplyDeleteI believe the idea of the strong female in the Big Sleep can be attributed to it being within the film noir genre which generally had strong women or I have heard it said "women of questionable virtue" and that was a characteristic of the genre. The discussion of masculinity in film here is interesting because you can see how it has changed over the years with leading men. Seems that many have a certain charm to them or a way with words, or defined by the way they dress, talk, etc...But then we had this time period where masculinity seemed to detour away from that in movies with leading men such as Stallone and Schwarzenegger and other muscle bound men who defined masculinity in a different way and then we saw a shift again when leading men in action movies didn't need to be muscular or macho.
ReplyDeleteMany good comments here. The whole issue of who (or what) is influencing who is an irresolvable conundrum to an extent, at least if we're asserting a single direction. However, we don't need to consider these issues unilaterally. It can certainly work in both directions.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if pressed I think of Hollywood and texts in general (film, novels, magazines, etc.) as more reflective than influential, but there's no doubt such texts work to reinforce the images they're reflecting.
The more assertive (and so masculinely defined) feminine image is a good point with Bacall, both in her actions and her attributes, especially vocally. (Apparently both Bogart and Bacall's low speaking range are so distinctive there's even a malady named after them called Bogart and Bacall syndrome, which designative vocal cord fatigue as a result of speaking outside the normal speaking range.) Kiowa makes a good point in noting the effect genre has on the female characters as well as the male ones.
In terms of the comeuppance more masculinely defined women often receive (as we see with Tracy Lords in Philadelphia Story), I don't see it as coincidental. What's interesting to me in that regard is that Hepburn seems to have chose the role deliberately for just that reason: in other words, she's demonstrating she's not what she's being accused of (i.e., too assertive, unwomanly, etc.). She's actually (the film implies) a good little girl after all--or at least is willing to learn how to be one.
It sits less well with a contemporary audience, but one can see its appeal at the time--and the professional efficacy it might serve.
After watching The Big Sleep, I was really interested in Bogart's character because he definitely demonstrated a very masculine role in various ways such as being suave and sarcastic with the women, as Maddie mentioned, but he also was physically not that dominant, at least not according to what I think the present ideal is. Obviously there are different definitions of masculinity in various films, past and present, but I feel that many modern movies perhaps provide an almost hypermasculine ideal regarding the male physique. This is especially evident in the numerous superhero movies that seem particularly prevalent in recent years. I am curious about how this may inform our interpretation of masculinity in The Big Sleep. It was mentioned that Bogart actually wore stilts to provide some additional height. But even with that, he was a fairly small man and although there are still smaller male actors today, I wonder if masculinity has become increasingly defined by a dominant male physique? Basically, I just was really interested by how Bogart played such a masculine role by maintaining control in many situations and by being super suave with the ladies, while being a fairly small man physically, mainly because I think that would potentially be more challenging to accomplish in today's acting environment.
ReplyDeleteThe "Heroes, Antiheroes . . . " text does have a problem with their argument that the masculinity becomes associated with dolts in recent film. They do mention the superheroes, but don't quite admit the monkeywrench it throws in their argument. Genre again plays a role with the actors. Tom Cruise, for instance, is around Bogart's stature, and others like Matt Damon or Leonardo DiCaprio are similarly unimposing physically. Even some that we might consider physically imposing aren't especially so--Robert De Niro, for instance. Attitude and behavior often trump more overt physicality.
ReplyDeleteHowever, your observation on the hypermasculine figures such as recent superheros and earlier figures played by Schwarzenegger and Stallone is noted in studies such as Jeffords, Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era and Trasker's Spectacular Bodies. Both books to consider if anyone wants to pursue the issue further in the paper for the course.
That seems like it might be a good read because after that period of the hypermasculine figures in these action movies in the 80's and then you shifted to more of an unsuspecting hero with guys like Nicolas Cage, Keanu Reeves, an aging Harrison Ford, Mathew Broderick, Will Smith, Jackie Chan, etc...
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that Bogart seems to play very masculine roles in his films, but (in his real life) always seems to have a wife by his side. There literally wasn't a year between 1926 and 1957 that he wasn't married. I wonder if he was a needy type and not the "man's man" that everyone sees him as on screen....or perhaps it was just the way of life at that time...I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI think being "needy" is still common today with actors/actresses. Look how they go from person to person, i.e. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are two I can think of off hand. I think it's an "actor-thing."
ReplyDeleteIn response to two of Maddie's questions:
ReplyDeleteBogart and Bacall married in May of 1945, about six months after The Big Sleep was filmed, but before it was released. Also, I can't find a citation of exactly WHY the original version was shown to troops in 1945, but I think I read somewhere that this was a common practice. I surmise that since it was completed it gave them something new to watch that wasn't war-related.
I wonder if the studio was using the troops as a testing group. I did read at the time that Big Sleep also didn't get released right away because Warner had a backlog of war films to release and wanted to get those out first because they were time sensitive, so maybe Big Sleep was screened to the troops because of this because it's release was delayed in the states.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Bogart was not the most attractive man, he definitely had his way with the ladies. It appear as though the ladies found him irresistible! One can pick up many aspects in which he shows his masculinity. For example, dialog is one. Bogart in my opinion, takes full control of dialog. He comes across with a very care free attitude but is secure of having the situation under control. Another instant where his masculinity shows is the physical fights.
ReplyDelete