Humphrey Bogart makes guarded men worth spending time with, letting us see what it costs them to keep other people out. We recommend Casablanca for the hurt beneath the sourness, and for his responsiveness to Ingrid Bergman.
Fi1m perspective
In Casablanca (1943), Humphrey Bogart makes Rick Blaine's reluctance to let anyone close look like work. The sourness takes effort, and he lets us notice it without making Rick seem unaware of what he is doing. That is why we find the character companionable even when he is keeping other people at a distance. Bogart gives us something to watch beyond the hard manner: a man trying to keep his unhappiness private.
His early supporting gangster roles allowed fewer possibilities, before The Petrified Forest (1936) brought his breakthrough and The Maltese Falcon (1941) made him a star. As Samuel Spade in the latter, he helped establish the hard-boiled screen detective, a figure whose toughness does not make his motives simple. It is a useful preparation for Rick, though the romance in Casablanca asks us to attend more closely to the hurt, and to consider what it takes to get past his defences.
Ingrid Bergman gives him the right resistance as Ilsa Lund, whose feelings matter as much as Rick's. Their scenes are worth watching for the face of the person who has just stopped speaking, when the response matters as much as the words. We were moved by Casablanca because Bogart makes Rick's wish to keep his distance so plainly difficult to sustain. The plotting is sometimes decidedly convenient, but the performances keep the unhappiness convincing. Bergman is not simply there to make him look wounded; she makes us care about what Ilsa wants.
Later roles tested how much decency we should expect beneath that reserve, even when the voice and manner seemed familiar. The Big Sleep (1946) put his Philip Marlowe alongside Lauren Bacall, in familiar detective territory. John Huston made harsher use of his toughness as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). As Dixon Steele in In a Lonely Place (1950), Bogart found a darker vulnerability than Rick's. For a less comforting evening after Casablanca, try that one.
Biography
Humphrey Bogart was an American actor. He was born on 25 December 1899 in New York City and died on 14 January 1957.
Bogart began his career on the Broadway stage and made his film debut in Up the River (1930). He appeared in supporting roles, often as gangsters, before gaining praise for The Petrified Forest (1936) and Dead End (1937). His breakthrough came with High Sierra (1941) and The Maltese Falcon (1941).
He is known for his performances as Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1943), Samuel Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941), Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1946), and Charlie Allnut in The African Queen (1952). Bogart received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Casablanca and won the award for The African Queen.
