| Publication Overview In this appreciation of Bogart 50 years after his death, American film critic Richard Schickel observes that of his cohort of male stars, which includes Astaire, Cagney, Tracy, Gable, Cooper, Grant, and Wayne, Bogart now glows the brightest. Projecting tough romanticism in sympathetic roles and evoking unsympathetic characters' demons without negating their humanity--think of Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Dixon Steele in In a Lonely Place (Schickel's pick as Bogart's best performance)--he forged a masculine persona that continues to be the envy of men and irresistible to women. In his review of Bogart's life and career, British film critic George Perry points up Bogart's real personality--preferring privacy and nonactor friends, unwise in marriage until wedding Lauren Bacall, hard-drinking and -smoking, impatient with fools and bullies, genuinely gentlemanly in his manners. While evaluating certain films differently (Perry is kinder to more of Bogart's lesser efforts), the two critics together make this a quite satisfying commemoration of a thus-far unforgettable figure.
Ray Olson |
