All Through the Night (1941)

Not too long ago I decided I wanted to watch every film Humphrey Bogart made. His characters tend to be similar to each other but, unlike Clooney characters, Bogart's never seem to materialize out of nowhere. Each has a backstory, each has some heavy weight they're carrying.
They're all well-rounded in that way and yet they're all a bit different. I've seen nine so far, but after seeing, All Through the Night I might just be happy with what I've already seen and move on.

All Through the Night came out right after The Maltese Falcon, Bogart's big break as a leading player. But in All Through the Night, Bogart plays a gangster, a role he pretty much always played in B movies before The Maltese Falcon. So all that character depth I previously mentioned? Not so much. In fact, at least three other guys in the movie are playing almost the exact same part as Bogart. And everyone except the Nazis and the women are talking in wise-guy voices that all sound exactly the same. Turn away from the screen and there's a good chance you won't know who is talking.

And yeah, there's that Nazi thing. What starts out as some gambling gangsters trying to figure out who killed their favorite cheesecake baker spins into the discovery of an evil Nazi plot for chaos and destruction. I almost can't even believe it as I type it. It all pops out of nowhere amongst fight scenes that are borderline slapstick.

It's all so ridiculous that the only redeemable part that comes to mind is Peter Lorre, who is as creepy as ever as Pepi, the watchdog/hitman.

Rating: 1/5
Recommended for: People who cannot get enough of the 40s movie gangster accent

Dark Passage (1947)

Humphrey Bogart plays Vincent Parry, a convicted murder who has just escaped San Quentin Prison. Lauren Bacall is Irene Jansen, a woman interested in his case who shelters him. Vincent, believing he was framed, is desperate not to be sent back to prison so he enlists the help of a plastic surgeon to change his appearance.

This was a big deal for the studio because they were shelling out the money for Humphrey Bogart to star in this movie, but Vincent didn't look like Humphrey Bogart until after his surgery - meaning Bogart's face doesn't even appear on screen until the last third of the movie. The first two thirds we just see his hands and a first-person point of view followed by a brief time with his face in bandages.

First-person (or subjective) camera work was still rather exotic at the time. In today's context though, it feels like a video game. Another interesting filming choice was that this movie was shot on location in San Francisco. It's refreshing when compared to all the obviously studio set films of this era - even with the driving scenes clearly being in front of a screen.

As for the story, it's limited by the fact that Vincent is hiding and has nowhere else to go. Yet even in a confined plot Bacall and Bogart play off each other wonderfully. Dark Passage was the third out of the four on-screen partnerships between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and just like the rest, it makes you wish there had been more than four.

Rating: 3/5
Recommended for: Bacall/Bogie fans who wonder what plastic surgery was like in the 40's

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

In case you're not familiar, The Maltese Falcon is the standard for all film noir as well as Humphrey Bogart's career even though its actually a remake of a film that came out only ten years earlier. Humphrey Bogart is the smooth yet cold detective Sam Spade. Mary Astor is Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the frightened dame looking for help finding her missing sister.

When Spade's partner is killed during the investigation, Spade reluctantly picks up the case because, as he puts it, "When a man's partner gets killed, he's supposed to do something about it." Brigid's case isn't what she originally made it out to be and soon enough Sam is involved in the hunt for a statue called The Maltese Falcon. He tangles with a few others looking for it too, including Sydney Greenstreet in his first film role as the gentlemanly yet commanding Kasper Gutman and his oftentimes screen partner, Peter Lorre as Gutman's dapper associate, Joel Cairo. Distinct, memorable performances come from both these men.

While Mary Astor was the female star of the film, Lee Patrick is the one who really stands toe to toe with Bogart as Spade's secretary Effie. She slides in and out of scenes with ease, showing her distaste in small ways without words or disrespect. Meanwhile Astor stands around looking like a worried flower about to wilt, making you wonder how the heck she got involved with any of these people in the first place. And then of course there's Bogart bringing depth to the tough Sam Spade with movements as small as a smile. It's clear he does everything he does with great thought behind it and even though Spade isn't necessarily a nice guy, it's easy to find yourself rooting for him.

The film itself has great flow with the exception of any time anyone disarms anyone else. It's amusing, coming across as a hiccup with moves you can see coming across the room, but that's a style of the time. Outside of that you just float right through.

The Maltese Falcon shines even more so through its fantastic cinematography. Pause it at nearly any moment and you have a beautifully-composed black and white photo. This was soon-to-be-well-known writer/director/actor John Huston's first time directing and he's comes pretty strongly out of the gate. He doesn't shove anything in your face. He just lets you discover the film naturally and that's more beautiful than any jewels the falcon may have encrusted in it.

Rating: 5/5
Recommended for: Photographers and people who like to see where things got their beginnings

Key Largo (1948)

The John Huston-directed Key Largo is a rather simple and straight forward film noir. Humphrey Bogart stars as WWII veteran Frank McCloud. McCloud has stopped in Key Largo to pay his respects to a deceased comrade's family which includes the man's widow Nora, played by Lauren Bacall, and his father, as done by Lionel Barrymore. The hotel the two run has been taken over by fugitive gangsters awaiting a transaction. Predictably enough, as a hurricane brews outside, tempers brew inside. Lead gangster Johnny Rocco's abuses build up and someone has to stand up to him. Frank McCloud is not really interested in be that someone, regardless of him being the most likely candidate.

McCloud is archetypical Bogart hero who has moved on and is attempting to live the rest of his life in peace. And of course there's a woman and circumstances beyond his control trying to drag him back into the fray. It's is not the most exciting of the Bogart/Bacall on-screen partnerships, but it's their last and they work together well. The film itself is a confined tension builder akin to 12 Angry Men but falls just short of that same intensity. That might be due to story pacing which is a little on the slow side. It's a great cast though. Everyone is clearly committed and pulling their weight. So overall, not the best film ever but not a bad one at all.

Rating: 3/5
Recommended for: Any adult who is hankering for some film-noir and has one hundred minutes to spare.

Extended Review: The last twenty minutes or so finds Frank McCloud on a boat with bad guys. Immediately I found myself wondering if I had inadvertently switched over to To Have and Have Not, which has Bogart's character on a boat... trying to escape from bad guys. It seemed too uncanny to call a coincidence. A little research reveals the film was incredibly loosely based on a Maxwell Anderson play. Since they were re-writing everything anyway, when it came time to make up the ending they used the unusable boat shootout from... To Have and Have Not. Well, it worked.