dual personalities

Tag: Humphrey Bogart

January 18, 2021

“Tune my heart to sing thy grace”*

by chuckofish

We did not do anything very exciting this weekend–at least not as exciting as going to a Zoom wedding like daughter #2 and Baby Katie, who attended her BFF Edwina’s nuptials on Saturday. They got dressed up and DN popped the Prosecco and it was a whole thing. I salute Edwina and Kevin for not putting it off because of the crazy time we live in. Because as Harry said to Sally, ““When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with a person, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Speaking of movies, the other night we watched Action in the North Atlantic (1943) a typical Warner Brothers patriotic war film of that era starring Humphrey Bogart as the 1st Officer on a Liberty Ship in a convoy bound from Halifax to Murmansk. After German subs crush the convoy, his ship loses the convoy and heads alone to Murmansk.

In spite of attacks by German planes and a sneaky Nazi sub and the captain being wounded, the gallant crew manages to get the cargo through. I was quite impressed by the special effects wizardry–the whole thing was filmed in a tank on the back lot! Anyway, the movie works as an effective propaganda tool for recruiting for the wartime Merchant Marines. There is even a moving burial at sea scene where Bogart reads a good portion of the naval service for eight seamen who have died to which he adds:

Now, that’s the word of God. And it’s good. But I don’t think He’d mind if I put my oar in. These are eight men we knew and liked, guys like us. Guys we ate with and slept with and fought with. Well, we were just a little luckier than they were. We’ll miss them. All of them.

This all reminded me of one pf those “luckier guys” I was reading about in the Jewish Light obits recently, who died in his nineties. He had joined the Army Air Corps during WWII at 19. As a ball turret gunner in B17 bombers, he flew 33 missions over Germany. Back in St. Louis after the war, Lou worked in advertising for over 44 years. He had big accounts–“Everything from Scoop to Nuts”–and a good long life. But he was a ball turret gunner at 19! That’s the guy who hangs from the belly of the plane armed with two machine guns. Let’s just take a moment.

Lest we forget. Regular guys do amazing things and they do it 33 times.

Forgive me if I got a little off track there, but that’s how my mind works. The wee babes came over Sunday with their parents for taco night. We caught up on the weeks activities and gazed at the fire.

I just love the fire.

I hope you enjoy your day off (if you have one).

Jesus said, “I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Luke 6:27–36 (The lesson appointed for use on the feast of Martin Luther King, Jr.)

*Robert Robinson, 1758, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. I am glad to know that this old English hymn is still sung, including many times by the David Crowder Band. Who doesn’t love Crowder?

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August 8, 2017

“Nothing for nothing, kid.”

by chuckofish

The other night I watched Dead End (1937) which I had not seen in years. I was quite struck by it. Based on the Sidney Kingsley play, the screenplay is by Lillian Hellman and it is directed by William Wyler. dead-end.jpgIt stars Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney and Humphrey Bogart, who are all first-rate, especially Bogart who is remarkably vulnerable as the vicious gangster whose heart is broken twice in one day.

Furthermore, the character actors really impressed me. Marjorie Main (Bogart’s mother) and Claire Trevor (Bogart’s former girlfriend)

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each have one scene and they steal them impressively. The young boys in the movie are all good too–they must have impressed someone, as they got their own movie franchise–the Dead End Kids–as a result.

It’s a simple story about haves and have-nots, which takes place in an East Side slum, overlooked by the high-rise apartments of the rich.  Although nobody is preaching anything, we all get the point. It is realistic and gritty and violent–but the grit and the violence are mostly inferred, suggested…

Hugh “Baby Face”: Why didn’t you get a job?

Francey: They don’t grow on trees.

Hugh “Baby Face”: Why didn’t you starve first?

Francey: Why didn’t YOU?

A strong screenplay, a great director and a terrific cast equals a classic movie that never becomes dated, because the feelings that are evoked are still the same eighty years later.

By the way, today is Sylvia Sidney’s birthday, so why not toast her, and, if you have the chance, watch this fine film!

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August 1, 2013

A new month and a few things to keep in mind

by chuckofish

deskaugust

A new month, a new calendar page and the end of summer in sight. For those of us in this flyover state it has not been a bad summer weather-wise. Indeed, we have had lovely long stretches of Michigan-esque weather. By this time, usually, we are counting the days ’til fall, but not this year. I am in no hurry for school to be back in session full throttle. I plan to enjoy the dog days that are left of summer 2013.

The August TCM star of the month is old Humphrey Bogart, film idol and Episcopalian.

bogart

As I’ve mentioned before, my mother had a preference for Warner Brothers stars, such as Bogart and Errol Flynn, because she went to see all those movies at the Lewis J. Warner ’28 Memorial Theater at Worcester Academy (which I blogged about here). Like my mother, I feel that same thrill when the Warner Brothers logo appears and their rousing theme is played at the beginning of all their movies. TCM is not showing anything that I haven’t seen a million times and my favorite Bogart film, The Petrified Forest, is not on the line-up, but oh well. They are all still better than anything you’ll see on network television–reruns and commercials!

Tonight, however, they are showing my second-favorite Bogart film Key Largo, which is also one of my all-time favorite movies. I just saw it again recently and it really is fabulous. John Huston and Bogart were a good team and the star is at his best, ably supported by Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Lauren Bacall. So be sure to tune in or (at the very least) set your DVR.

August 1 is also the birthday of Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891), American writer and author, of course, of Moby-Dick.

Herman_Melville

This would be a great month to read the great book! You know you’ve been meaning to. Here’s a little something to get you in the mood.

“There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one pause:– through infancy’s unconscious spell, boyhood’s thoughtless faith, adolescence’s doubt (the common doom), then scepticism, then disbelief, resting at last in manhood’s pondering repose of If. But once gone through, we trace the round again; and are infants, boys, and men, and Ifs eternally. Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more? In what rapt ether sails the world, of which the weariest will never weary? Where is the foundling’s father hidden? Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.”

August 1 is the birthday as well of Jerome Moross (August 1, 1913 – July 25, 1983) who composed works for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, soloists, musical theatre, and movies. He also orchestrated motion picture scores for other composers. His best known film score is that for the 1958 movie The Big Country, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score.

Jerome Moross - The Big Country - Front

The winner that year in that category was The Old Man and the Sea, scored by Dimitri Tiomkin. Hold the phone! Are you kidding me? Jerome Moross was robbed! But why am I never surprised? Anyway, you might want to watch that movie–it’s a good one. It misses being a great western because of the annoying plot and the super annoying character played by Carol Baker. Nevertheless, it has some great people in it: Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, and Burl Ives (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). And the score is probably the best ever.

So here’s to a good August filled with great movies and great books! Let’s all have a good one.

5 Comments
November 1, 2012

What to watch

by chuckofish

Ralphie: Hey Curly, what all happens in a hurricane?
Curly: The wind blows so hard the ocean gets up on its hind legs and walks right across the land.
Toots: And singin’ this song: Rain rain, go away, little Ralphie wants to play.

I don’t know about you, but all this non-stop weather talk has put me in the mood for Key Largo (1948).

It is a humdinger of a good movie, based on a play by Maxwell Anderson, the screenplay written by Richard Brooks and John Huston. You just can’t do much better than that. It is a classic Warner Brothers production of the 1940s, featuring some of its greatest stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor (in her Academy Award-winning performance), and a host of character actors. The music is by Max Steiner. The full Warner Brothers treatment.

(On a personal note: I have a fondness for Warner Brothers movies, because my mother did also. When she was growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts she had a friend whose brother went to Worcester Academy where there was the Lewis J. Warner ’28 Memorial Theater. Built in 1932, it was a gift from Warner Brothers Studio President Harry Warner, who donated the building to honor the memory of his only son. Lewis died within three years of graduating from the academy. They showed Warner Brothers movies there on Saturdays and Mary would go there with her friend to see all her favorites: Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart et al.)

Key Largo tells the story of Frank McCloud, disillusioned WWII veteran, who visits the hotel of his deceased friend’s father in the Florida Keys and falls in love with the man’s widow. When mobster Johnny Rocco arrives on the scene with his crew of henchmen just as a hurricane bears down on them, drama ensues.

I think it is my favorite Humphrey Bogart movie (except for The Petrified Forest, of course). And Claire Trevor was never better (even in Stagecoach where she was also terrific.).

What does a girl have to do for a drink around here?

Her Academy-Award winning big scene is a classic. You can imagine a lesser actress really over-playing it. She gets it just right.

I wish this clip included what happens after she sings, because it’s the best. The timing is perfect: Bogart-Robinson-Bogart. Thank you. Hats off to the director, John Huston, as well.

The special effects are not great, but who cares? You get the idea just fine. It was adapted from a play, so it has that stage-y quality. But I don’t mind. And I don’t mind the flag-waving aspects either. Not at all. They’re kind of refreshing.

9 Comments