You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939)

Director:  Lewis Seiler

Writers:  Robert Buckner, Don Ryan, Kenneth Gamet, Lewis E. Lawes, Jonathan Finn

Composer:  Heinz Roemheld

Starring:  Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Billy Halop, John Litel, Henry Travers, Harvey Stephens, Harold Huber, Joe Sawyer, Joe Downing, George E. Stone, Joe King, Joseph Crehan

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  AMERICA'S TWO-FISTER ANSWER to the Gun-Mad Rats Who Rule the Underworld!

Plot:  Youthful tough Johnnie Stone has fallen under the influence of petty crook Frank Wilson, who involves him and robbery and murder using his sister's boyfriend's stolen gun.

My rating:   6/10

Will I watch it again?   Nah.

The Bogart of THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) (and beyond) is the Bogart I love.  A lot of what he did prior to that, mostly his really early stuff, he was stiff and the stuff caricatures are made of.  But here he is just two years away from being memorialized as Sam Spade that he's not just a cookie cutter bad guy and not just some other run of the mill actor walking the walk and talking the talk like any low rent stiff could do.  He, as Frank Wilson, does a great job manipulating Johnnie (Billy Halop) and he keeps on doing it until he's physically unable to, and by that time the damage is done.  I liked the film but it was painful watching Halop play the anguishing Johnnie.  The kid, as an actor, was trying too hard which meant his acting chops weren't up to the task of filling the role.  It doesn't help him that he's got a lot of screen time.  Besides, Johnnie was pissing me off to almost getting Fred killed by the electric chair.  All he had to do was tell the truth.  I suppose that was a big part of building suspense.  It just frustrated me and I was glad when it was finally over and Johnnie was finished.  It was a pleasant surprise hearing and then seeing Eddie "Rochester" Anderson pop up as a convict.  I love that guy.  It's an OK flick where you have to take the bad with the good.

Isle of Fury (1936)

Director: Frank McDonald

Writers: Robert Hardy Andrews, William Jacobs, W. Somerset Maughm

Composer: Howard Jackson

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods, E.E. Clive, Paul Graetz, Gordon Hart, George Regas, Sidney Bracey, Tetsu Komai, Miki Morita, Houseley Stevenson, Frank Lackteen, George Piltz

More info: IMDb

Plot: In the South Seas, Val Stevens and Lucille Gordon are getting married when a ship goes down offshore. Val rescues Captain Deever and passenger Eric Blacke. Later Eric saves Val from an octopus. Unknown as their friendship develops is the fact that Val is a fugitive and Eric is the detective sent to arrest him.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This is one of the few pre-famous Bogart films from the 1930s I've seen where he's not a stock bad guy.  He's actually doing some acting here and this is the Bogart that resembles what he was later to become.  Those other thug roles are interchangeable and bland.  This island adventure has him newlywed and in danger of losing her to the new dude in town that washed up on the shore.  There's a lot more to it but that's the main focus.  Bogart's got some problems at work that he alone has to solve.  The neat thing is he's a good man but his new bride is sweet on this other fella.  She's got good reasons for it and so does the new guy.  It's more complicated than the normal love triangle stuff.  Everyone's a good person so that makes it difficult for who to root for.  And then a big piece of information is dropped at the end that changes everything, something that's been hidden from the audience.  Sneaky bastards.  It's not a very good film but it's also far from bad and it's a reasonable hour long B-picture from the future star that's not a bad way to kill an hour.

Dark Victory (1939)

Director: Edmund Goulding

Writers: Casey Robinson, George Emerson Brewer Jr., Bertram Bloch

Composer: Max Steiner

Starring: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, Cora Witherspoon

More info: IMDb


Plot: A young socialite is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, and must decide whether she'll meet her final days with dignity.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Great cast.  For the first hour or so there are many moments of melodrama and overacting.  But then something happens and Judith (Davis) goes through her transformation from silly, carefree socialite to facing reality and dealing with it head-on.  Bette Davis is fantastic!  I didn't realize how amazing she was until the final third of the film.  She's marvelous in this picture.  It's great to see a 1930s picture with Bogart where he's not a cardboard bad guy.  He's fun here but you might laugh when you find out he's playing an Irish brogue.  I thought he was just a regular guy stable hand.  It doesn't matter, Bogie's fun and shows up from time to time in his supporting role.  But when he gets serious, talking about love, it's cheesy.  Ronald Reagan has a smaller role.  He's fine when he's playing a carefree playboy but he's horrible at playing drunk.  He gets the award for going overboard in this picture.  Max Steiner's score is soft, lovely and reserved.  It's a side of Steiner that you don't often get.
That last couple of scenes, though, had me tearing up and it's all Davis.  It's a good flick that snuck up on me.  The Warner Bros. DVD presents a grainer-than-usual print with extras in a commentary track with Jim Ursini and Paul Clinton, a 10 minute featurette on the film and how amazing that year was for now-classic film, and the theatrical trailer.

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)

Director: Anatole Litvak

Writers: John Wexley, John Huston, Barre Lyndon

Composer: Max Steiner

Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins, Donald Crisp, Gale Page, Henry O'Neill, John Litel, Thruston Hall, Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Roesnbloom, Bert Hanlon, Curt Bois, Ward Bond, Vladimir Sokoloff, Billy Wayne, Robert Homans, Irving Bacon

More info: IMDb

Tagline: . . . a thunderbolt of thrills and intrigue

Plot: Dr. Clitterhouse is fascinated with the working of the criminal mind. His interest is so deep that he finds the best way to observe criminals in action is to become one himself! Whilst robbing a safe at an exclusive party he stumbles across an organized gang trying to the same thing. He teams up with the gang to observe them in action but one of the members, Rocks Valentine would like nothing better than to see Clitterhouse out of the way.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? YES!

Robinson is one of my favorite actors and he, along with James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart (also in this film) and Errol Flynn, are on my short list of wanting to watch their entire catalog.  This movie is loads of fun and it's due to the delightful performance by Robinson, the crisp, witty dialogue and the taut pacing. This picture is an awful lot of fun.  I couldn't get enough of Robinson's rapid fire jabs at Bogart (who took it but didn't like it).  for a film from 1938 this picture takes some unusually daring and mature steps.  Oh, and the ending really stunned me.  Considering how crime pictures were treated in the 30s and 40s, the fate of a certain someone will definitely surprise you.  It's definitely a solid Warner Bros. crime flick but the few laughs in it come from Dr. Clitterhouse's biting wit.  He's quick on his feet and this guy knows how to survive in the criminal world using only words.  Warner Bros. pretty much owned the crime genre throughout the 30s and 40s and I like seeing their films of this era that stand out from the standard crime picture that they also churned out.  This one is different and enjoyable as hell.  Warner Bros. gave this film the Warner Bros. Night at the Movies treatment which means you get goodies before the movie like a trailer (RACKET BUSTERS), a newsreel and some shorts.  You also get a commentary track from Dr. Drew Casper and Richard Jewell and two radio broadcasts of this story with Robinson, and the theatrical trailer.  It's a great disc and a no-brainer for fans of Robinson, Bogart or vintage crime pictures.

Invisible Stripes (1939)

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Writers: Warren Duff, Jonathan Finn. Lewis E. Lawes

Composer: Heinz Roemheld

Starring: George Raft, Jane Bryan, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart, Flora Robson, Paul Kelly, Lee Patrick, Henry O'Neill, Frankie Thomas, Moroni Olsen, Margot Stevenson, Marc Lawrence

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Three Men and a Girl... Bound by Invisible Ties - Branded by Invisible Stripes

Plot: An ex-con who wants to go straight has difficulties trying to reintegrate into society while on parole.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Probably.

Man was it tough for felons in the 30s.  Cliff (Raft) couldn't get a break for nothin'.  He wasn't even allowed to own a car and then some. It was rough seeing him on the skids.  Interesting note, the woman who plays his mother, Flora Robson, was only 7 years older than he was.  She's got a rough enough face that they had her looking older but still.  Funny stuff that Hollywood joint.  Bogart's playing the same type of criminal roles he'd gotten used to that decade but something changed with the actor.  He's a lot more comfortable.  Before he played these one-note characters in such an over the top fashion that he'd sometimes come across as a bad, middle of the road actor.  Anyway, it was nice seeing him more grown up as an actor, like the star he became right around the corner.  There's no mistaking that Marc Lawrence.  Man, what a mug on that guy.  My friend had to point out that Cliff's brother, Tim, was played by William Holden.  I went through almost the entire picture not recognize him.  Boy was he young.  Geez.  Because this is a crime picture of this era you kind of know how it's going to end.  And it does.  The Warner Bros. DVD is loaded with extras including a commentary track by Alain silver and James Ursini, the theatrical trailer and a plethora of goodies with their Warner Night at the Movies which has a trailer for YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH MURDER, a newsreel, a 15 minute film called THE MONROE DOCTRINE, another short called MR. & MRS. JESSE CRAWFORD AT HOME, another 18 minute short called QUIET, PLEASE, a prison-themed cartoon called BARS AND STRIPES FOREVER and an early Bugs Bunny cartoon called HARE-UM SCARE-UM.  It's a great disc. 

Black Legion (1937)

Director: Archie Mayo

Writers: Abem Finkel, William Wister Haines, Robert Lord

Composer: ???

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Ann Sheridan, Helen Flint, Joe Sawyer, Clifford Soubier, Alonzo Price, Paul Harvey, Dickie Jones, Samuel S. Hinds, Addison Richards, Eddie Acuff

More info: IMDb

Tagline: They murdered at midnight!

Plot: When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

If you watch some of Bogart's earlier work, and I'm talking about the pictures he made in the early-to-mid 30s where he was largely a bit player, you couldn't see much in his performances that would lead you to believe he'd be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.  He played a lot of thugs and criminal lowlifes.  In fairness, he wasn't given much of an opportunity to show off his acting chops. That's why it's so refreshing to see him stretch a bit in one of his first top-billed roles.  He makes a fine go at it, too, with a range of emotions, breathing life into the character of Frank Taylor.  At first he's a loving family man but that all changes when he loses his big promotion to a...FOREIGNER!!!  OH, NO!!!!  It's time for a KKK-esque group, The Black Legion, to step in and make things right for Frank and his fellow 'patriots'.

 

Naturally this is the wrong path for Frank but he's going to have to learn that lesson for himself.  There are lots of fine performances in this moral tale of bonehead groups like this.  The pacing is pretty quick until it gets to the last eleven minutes of the trial but even that has a few surprises left to spring on us. It's a good picture and probably one that most fans of Bogart will dig.  Warner Bros. knows how to treat their films right (but not all the time).  With this minor Bogart effort they give us a commentary (with Patricia King Hanson and Anthony Slide), the film's trailer and their 'Warner Night at the Movies' which has a trailer for THE PERFECT SPECIMEN (), a newsreel, a soundie (old timey music video) of Cab Calloway singing Hi De Ho, the 17 minute short film UNDER SOUTHERN STARS (1937), and a cartoon short PORKY AND GABBY (1937) which leads into the film. 

Brother Orchid (1940)

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Writers: Earl Baldwin, Richard Connell, Richard Macaulay, Jerry Wald

Composer: Heinz Roemheld

Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Ann Southern, Humphrey Bogart, Donald Crisp, Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, Charles D. Brown, Cecil Kellaway, Morgan Conway, Richard Lane, Paul Guilfoyle, John Ridgely, Joseph Crehan, Wilfred Lucas, Tom Tyler, Dick Wessel, Granville Bates, Paul Phillips

More info: IMDb

Tagline: We'd like youse to meet Brother Orchid!

Plot: When retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

My four favorite old school actors are Cagney, Robinson, Bogart and Flynn. You'd think that I watch their pictures all the time but for some damn reason I haven't been but I'm changing that.  I'm having a blast visiting (and revisiting) their catalogs.  I just adore Edward G. Robinson.  He was so talented on and off the screen and he seems like he was a real swell guy in real life.  He was great in any kind of role.  He's made me laugh hysterically, cringe at his ruthlessness (have you seen KEY LARGO (1948)? WOW!) and shed a few tears. This gangster comedy isn't so big on laughs as it is on heart.  There are some great gags and the delightful Ann Southern has a few, but it's with Little John's (Robinson) transformation from gang boss to being a little guy at a monastery-like community that's the real show.  And just when you think he's satisfied and he's played out his lot, he surprises us again and again in the final act of the picture.  It's a great performance (as usual) and you get to see the many sides of the actor.  He had it and he had it in spades.

The supporting cast is great, too.  Ann Southern is hilarious and a treat to watch.  Bogart was delegated to being the bad guy (as usual but not for long) in the supporting role and he's great at it but he's not in the picture all that much.  This is Robinson's show all the way.  The Warner Bros. DVD comes with a few extras including a commentary track with Alan L. Gansberg and Eric Lax, the theatrical trailer and their great 'Warner Night at the Movies' which includes the trailer for IT ALL CAME TRUE (1940) (also with Bogart and Sheridan), a newsreel, a sounidie with Henry Busse and His Orchestra (9 minutes) which has the band playing "Wang Wang Blues", "Hot Lips" and "Along the Santa Fe Trail", a color cartoon called BUSY BAKERS (1940), a B&W cartoon called SLAP HAPPY PAPPY (1940) which leads into the feature film. 

The African Queen (1951)

Director: John Huston

Writers: C.S. Forester, James Agee, John Huston, Peter Viertel, John Collier

Composer: Allan Gray

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Theodore Bikel, Walter Gotell, Peter Swanwick, Richard Marner, Errol John, Gerald Onn, John von Kotze

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The greatest adventure a man ever lived...with a woman!

Plot: In Africa during WW1, a gin-swilling riverboat owner/captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

For as long as I can remember the AFI top 100 film list showing up with this on it, it was one of the few (and, ultimately, the last) movies on it I hadn't seen.  Now I have.  It's a good picture.  On a road trip recently I listened to a lot of Lux Radio Theater broadcasts that starred people like Bogart, Flynn, Cagney, and Robinson and this was one of them.  It's essentially the same story but condensed for a 45 minute radio broadcast.  So when I fired up Netflix streaming to watch it I was well aware of what to expect.  I dug it.  Rose (Hepburn) is WAY too uptight but then she is a staunch Christian and it is one hundred years ago.  Charlie (Bogart), on the other hand, is a great guy, my kind of guy, except that he's WAY too forgiving and accommodating with Rose.  When she pours out his last two cases of gin into the river I can't believe he didn't flip the fuck out.  Hell, the very next scene he's praising her for it.  The hell?  I assume a few days had gone by and he was sobered up and lonely as hell since she wasn't talking to him.  Shit, maybe it was the constant exposure to the hot jungle sun.  I'm going to chalk it up to that. At least leave the brother one bottle.  Geez.

The ending was fun.  I would give this a higher rating if they'd actually been hung after all.  That would have been a great, balls-out, insane ending.  I guess the Germans didn't earn their reputation for efficiency until after WWI.  Regardless, how amazing would it have been if this didn't end happily for our two lovebirds?  Hepburn wrote a book about her experiences making this picture (which I've had for 25 years and have never read).  I think it's time I dusted it off and give it a shot.  Speaking of shots...where's that gin?

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Director: Raoul Walsh

Writers: Mark Hellinger, Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, Robert Rossen

Composers: Ray Heindorf, Heinz Roemheld

Starring: James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, Gladys George, Jeffrey Lynn, Frank McHugh, Paul Kelly, Elisabeth Risdon, Edward Keane, Joe Sawyer

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The land of the free gone wild! The heyday of the hotcha! The shock-crammed days G-men took ten whole years to lick!

Plot: After the WWI Armistice Lloyd Hart (Lynn) goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally (Bogart) turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett (Cagney) becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes!

Warner Bros. sure made some great gangster pictures back in the day.  This one is one of three pictures Cagney and Bogart made together and it's fun.  You can tell right off the bat that Hally (Bogart) is bad news and is going to ultimately lead to some serious trouble for Eddie (Cagney).  The picture is one of those 'rise to the top only to be taken down' types.  The performances are great, the music, the sets, the camera work, the whole nine yards.  It's great entertainment.  It's lighter than ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938), with ANGELS being the better film bar none, but it's got the incredibly charismatic Cagney doing what he does best.  I love that guy.

San Quentin (1937)

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Starring: Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Barton MacLane, Joe Sawyer, Veda Ann Borg, Archie Robbins, Joe King, Gordon Oliver, Garry Owen, Marc Lawrence, Emmett Vogan, William Pawley

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Out Of The "Pen" . . . Into The Jaws Of Death!

Plot: Ex-Army officer Jameson (O'Brien) takes a job a prison guard at San Quentin. Joe (Bogart), the brother of his new girlfriend May (Sheridan), is sentenced to the prison for robbery. When Jameson tries to separate lawbreakers from hardened criminals, bad guy Hansen (Sawyer) tries to stir up trouble by telling Joe about Jameson's interest in his sister.  Shit gets real.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Nice!  I'm a huge Bogart fan and it's nice to see an early picture of his where he plays a good guy (sort of) for a freakin' change.  In the 1930s he mostly played one-note, short-tempered and short on brains heavies.  Here he's actually a nice guy but his emotions end up changing all of that (for a little while at least).  Pat O'Brien plays the gentle guy who's going to set the prison straight and even he gets to do something I don't normally see him do and that's show a dark side.  He actually yells in this flick.  Ann Sheridan is A-OK, hubba hubba in my book.  I like the secondary actors, too.  There's lots of typical prison slang and characters but that's part of the charm.  The ending was pretty damn cool and not completely what I expected.  Seeing Bogart start to step away from the hot-headed bad guy without an education was really nice and you get to see him do some acting. 

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Director: John Huston

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Lee Patrick, Sydney Greenstreet, Ward Bond, Jerome Cowan, Elisha Cook Jr., James Burke, Murray Alper, John Hamilton

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A guy without a conscience! A dame without a heart!

Plot: Sam Spade is a partner in a private-eye firm who finds himself hounded by police when his partner is killed whilst tailing a man. The girl who asked him to follow the man turns out not to be who she says she is, and is really involved in something to do with the 'Maltese Falcon', a gold-encrusted life-sized statue of a falcon, the only one of its kind.

My rating: 10/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Geez.  What can I possible say about this flick except that it's fucking awesome!  Bogart owns this role and he along with the supporting case rule this picture.  Well, not entirely.  The story and dialogue are amazing.  The words rip through the actors' mouths like bullets from a tommy gun - fast and furious.  There are more clever lines in this picture than a weekend-long dinner party at Oscar Wilde's place.  Every single actor was perfectly cast.  I was fortunate enough to see this at a local performance theater that showed a few old movies every Saturday for a few weeks.  I couldn't catch even half of them but I cancelled plans to see this one, one of my favorites.  What a grand night that was.  Man, I love this picture.

Kid Galahad (1937)

Director: Michael Curtiz

Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Wayne Morris, Jane Bryan, hary Carey, William Haade, Soledad Jimenez, Joe Cunningham, Ben Welden

More info: IMDb

Plot: When a bellhop knocks out fighter Chuck McGraw, promoter Nick Donati realizes he's a potential champ. "Kid Galahad" justifies Nick's confidence, but Nick's mistress Fluff falls for him; in turn, the Kid falls for Nick's young sister. Now overprotective brother Nick turns against his new fighter, leading to a near- disastrous title fight and a murderous confrontation.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Why can't they make trailers like that nowadays?

Great flick! Robinson has always been one of my top favorites since I was a kid.  Here he starts out as a fast talking, fun loving guy but by the end of the picture he's a touch, mean sumbitch that really shows some anger.  There's a great deal of emotional weight brought on by his character by the end of the movie.  He pulls a major dick move.  I was captivated.  Bette Davis is fun and spits out dialogue like a Tommy Gun with bullets and Bogart oozes scumbag badness.  Loved it.