Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog - Posts Tagged "bogart"
Bogart Films, Casablanca and Civil War Journal
This Week
Bogart Films
Battle of Manassas
The Goring Collection (excerpt)
Writers Notebook: Conflict
Bogart: Part 2
Humphrey Bogart's resume shows seventy five films, however I lop off the top ten that were made before The Petrified Forest. He was miscast in those films the same as he had been on Broadway where he played the genial and easygoing man about town, which was exactly opposite to what Bogart could deliver.
His eleventh film The Petrified Forest broke him out of that mold. The problem was that Warner Brothers, for the most part, kept him in gangster roles for the next thirty films. In picture number forty Bogart finally got a script called High Sierra that challenged his talent.
That isn't to say there weren't some good films in that run of thirty, there were a few, but they were shooting so many films back to back that he had no time to find the character and wrap his talent around the role. Bogie once said, 'I use to have to look at the newspapers to find out what I'd been in the week before.'
Bogart did a couple of westerns during that period where he just looked out of place. Dark Victory was not a bad film but it was all Betty Davis.
But even as Bogart pretended to hate most of the films he did during that period the public was beginning to take note and even with bad scripts Bogart was attracting an audience as well as the Hollywood press.
The High Sierra, which we talked about last week, was one of those breakout moments when Bogart really connected with the character.
The second film after High Sierra both luck and chemistry came together and made Hollywood history – it was called The Maltese Falcon. John Houston took the Dashiell Hammett novel and wrote a screenplay that gave us Sam Spade, the hard-boiled private-eye, prototype for many of the detectives stories to follow.
John Huston was faithful to the novel, using most of Hammett’s original dialogue.
The casting also fell into line with Bogart as Sam Spade; Mary Astor as Brigid 0′Shaughnessy; Sydney Greenstreet as Caspar Gutman; Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo; and Elisha Cook, Jr., as the little gunsel, Wilma.
John Houston used a precise directorial style that brought out the full viciousness of the characters. The film was a hit when it came out in 1941 and through the years has become a classic. Something else about the film, it never grows old and is not dated. Even after seeing the film multiple times one can still feel that same cutting dialog that remains amazingly fresh and vibrant.
A classic if there ever was one.
The Bogart film that probably stands up best with the general public, from generation to generation, is Casablanca. In December 1941 a manuscript of the stage play 'Everybody comes to Ricks' written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison arrived at Warner Brothers. A reader by the name Stephen Karnot read the play, did a short synopsis and turned it into his boss.
It didn't get immediate acceptance, but when it did it was given to Howard Koch to adapt, and he was eventually joined by the brothers writing team Julius and Philip Epstein.
The production was a few cuts above the gangster product Warner Brothers was known for but nothing special.
During the first half of the film production went off in good order, then it slowed down for lack of an acceptable script. There was bickering in the front office and the writers were running into unforeseen story problems.
The director Michael Curtiz and the cast headed by Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and backed up by Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Conrad Veidt and S.Z. Sakall sat around and fretted.
Bergman said she didn't know how to play the part – she had no idea who she was to go off with in the end.
She was told to play it cool, which she did. And obviously cool worked.
One major problem, at the end of the film, Julius and Philip had to figure a way to get Bogie (Rick) out of a jam after he shot Major Strasser.
They worked on several scenarios that didn't work and according to Julius it suddenly came to them. When the police arrived on the scene, they had Claude Rains (Captain Renault) say 'Round up the usual suspects.' That worked, making the tag scene between Rick and Captain Renault easy to write.
Once the final cut was made, it became obvious that it was worth the chaos experienced during production.
Jack Warner had seen the film and also looked on as a local preview audience watched a screening. The audience was spontaneous with its reaction as the film played out and the preview cards corresponded with their enthusiasm for the film.
At that point the studio executives began to see Bogart in another light. He apparently had sex appeal and that meant only one thing to them, good box-office.
Jack Warner wanted to test it further so he made arrangements to be at the opening of Casablanca at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. That audience would be the largest cross section of American film goers to see the film. Good or bad, that large audience would provide Warner with what he needed to market the film.
The Radio City Music Hall:
The Rockettes with their vibrant energy, stage presence, trademark kick line and sex appeal were the big draw, the movie came second – most of the time.
The Rockettes' finished their routine and made their exit as the lights dimmed. A large map of North Africa and a narrator sets the scene as the word Casablanca splashed across the large screen.
The audience was hooked within the first five minutes of the picture and responded enthusiastically throughout the film.
Then as the last scene played out and screen credits began to crawl audience applause built from mild to thunder, then shouts, cheers and bravos came from every side of the theater.
A wide grin crossed Jack Warner's face and he almost ran to a phone booth in the lobby, dialed the studio number and announced – 'We've got a hit on our hands.'
(To be continued) Betty Bacall, Bogie's three other wives and The African Queen next.
Civil War Journal: 99 Days from Fort Sumter.
Saturday, July 20, 1861
Manassas Junction was shaping up to be the first major battle of the American Civil War.
Union forces are presently concentrating to the north, the Confederates from the west and south. By Saturday noon Joseph E. Johnston's fighting force is in place. Three brigades have arrived Thomas J. Jackson, Barnard Bee and Francis Bartow. The only missing infantry is Kirby Smith delayed at Piedmont with train trouble.
'The Goring Collection' (excerpt)
Flashback to the Battle of Manassas:
Sam Brannan was fully aware that he was being followed.
As Sam walked among the monuments he thought about that warm July morning back in 1861. Union and Confederate Armies had been moving into the area for days and when word reached the Capital that the first major battle of the war was imminent, the Washington gentry packed their picnic baskets, hitched their teams, and drove to a hill overlooking Bull Run. Then after finding a spot, well out of harms way, they spread their lunches and settled in to watch the Union and Confederate Armies begin the fight that could resolve the, long festering, differences between the North and South.
Sam was familiar with the top generals involved, their battle strategies, and how it played out. He visualized the early probing attacks by the Union Divisions of Heintzelman, Porter, Burnside and Sherman as they moved their blue forces into position to confront Confederates Bartow, Bee and Evans. The dawn brought on an eerie silence while the two armies trooped to colors and companies moved into battle formation. But at a precipitous moment an eight-pound Parrot shot ripped across the Stone Bridge shattering the morning silence. The pageantry was startling as the men slowly moved up to point blank range and orders are given to fire at will. The scathing rattle of muskets begins and soldiers aim, fire and reload in a desperate effort to – kill or be killed. But as the battle wore on skirmish lines began to move with the ebb and flow of a restless wind while bodies piled up like cordwood and the pungent odor of gunpowder hung just above the fray.
Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson shades his eyes from the blinding sun, and observes the gray lines outnumbered two to one begin to waver. The general thrust his arm into the air and points as he urged Little Sorrel forward, leading his brigade out of the tall pines, and down Henry Hill. When Jackson and his men arrive the Confederate lines stiffen, and halt the Union avalanche. Then with bayonet and bravado the gray men turn the tide and chase the Union forces from the field.
And by the time picnickers packed their baskets and returned to Washington, the Confederates had won the battle. Stonewall Jackson was proclaimed the hero of Manassas and a legend was born.
Sam Brannan stood silently beside fallen General Bee’s Memorial and after a long moment of reflection removed Jacob’s twig from his pocket, eased around the Monument and wedged the microfilm into a crevice. Then as he turned away, and strolled up the path he mused over the cat and mouse game he was playing with his shadows. Sam chuckled when he recalled a spy operation dubbed “The Pumpkin Papers.” It became a defining moment in the Whitaker Chambers and Alger Hiss spy scandal, a subject that still gets a rise out of the lefties when it comes up at Washington cocktail parties.
Sam continued up the path, casually walked out of the park, got into the Lexus, and drove back to Washington.
Writers Notebook:
Picture the scene as you write and write what you see. (Subconscious) But when you need to be a bit more demonstrative, you might try Barbara Dawson Smith’s method.
“Help readers visualize each scene by using specific details of action, the five senses and dialogue. Rather than tell readers ‘she was angry.’ Show the characters emotion by having her throw a plate at the wall or by arguing with someone.”
Conflict demands attention.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels Tungee's Gold, The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Facebook and Twitter
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Bogart Films
Battle of Manassas
The Goring Collection (excerpt)
Writers Notebook: Conflict
Bogart: Part 2
Humphrey Bogart's resume shows seventy five films, however I lop off the top ten that were made before The Petrified Forest. He was miscast in those films the same as he had been on Broadway where he played the genial and easygoing man about town, which was exactly opposite to what Bogart could deliver.
His eleventh film The Petrified Forest broke him out of that mold. The problem was that Warner Brothers, for the most part, kept him in gangster roles for the next thirty films. In picture number forty Bogart finally got a script called High Sierra that challenged his talent.
That isn't to say there weren't some good films in that run of thirty, there were a few, but they were shooting so many films back to back that he had no time to find the character and wrap his talent around the role. Bogie once said, 'I use to have to look at the newspapers to find out what I'd been in the week before.'
Bogart did a couple of westerns during that period where he just looked out of place. Dark Victory was not a bad film but it was all Betty Davis.
But even as Bogart pretended to hate most of the films he did during that period the public was beginning to take note and even with bad scripts Bogart was attracting an audience as well as the Hollywood press.
The High Sierra, which we talked about last week, was one of those breakout moments when Bogart really connected with the character.
The second film after High Sierra both luck and chemistry came together and made Hollywood history – it was called The Maltese Falcon. John Houston took the Dashiell Hammett novel and wrote a screenplay that gave us Sam Spade, the hard-boiled private-eye, prototype for many of the detectives stories to follow.
John Huston was faithful to the novel, using most of Hammett’s original dialogue.
The casting also fell into line with Bogart as Sam Spade; Mary Astor as Brigid 0′Shaughnessy; Sydney Greenstreet as Caspar Gutman; Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo; and Elisha Cook, Jr., as the little gunsel, Wilma.
John Houston used a precise directorial style that brought out the full viciousness of the characters. The film was a hit when it came out in 1941 and through the years has become a classic. Something else about the film, it never grows old and is not dated. Even after seeing the film multiple times one can still feel that same cutting dialog that remains amazingly fresh and vibrant.
A classic if there ever was one.
The Bogart film that probably stands up best with the general public, from generation to generation, is Casablanca. In December 1941 a manuscript of the stage play 'Everybody comes to Ricks' written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison arrived at Warner Brothers. A reader by the name Stephen Karnot read the play, did a short synopsis and turned it into his boss.
It didn't get immediate acceptance, but when it did it was given to Howard Koch to adapt, and he was eventually joined by the brothers writing team Julius and Philip Epstein.
The production was a few cuts above the gangster product Warner Brothers was known for but nothing special.
During the first half of the film production went off in good order, then it slowed down for lack of an acceptable script. There was bickering in the front office and the writers were running into unforeseen story problems.
The director Michael Curtiz and the cast headed by Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and backed up by Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Conrad Veidt and S.Z. Sakall sat around and fretted.
Bergman said she didn't know how to play the part – she had no idea who she was to go off with in the end.
She was told to play it cool, which she did. And obviously cool worked.
One major problem, at the end of the film, Julius and Philip had to figure a way to get Bogie (Rick) out of a jam after he shot Major Strasser.
They worked on several scenarios that didn't work and according to Julius it suddenly came to them. When the police arrived on the scene, they had Claude Rains (Captain Renault) say 'Round up the usual suspects.' That worked, making the tag scene between Rick and Captain Renault easy to write.
Once the final cut was made, it became obvious that it was worth the chaos experienced during production.
Jack Warner had seen the film and also looked on as a local preview audience watched a screening. The audience was spontaneous with its reaction as the film played out and the preview cards corresponded with their enthusiasm for the film.
At that point the studio executives began to see Bogart in another light. He apparently had sex appeal and that meant only one thing to them, good box-office.
Jack Warner wanted to test it further so he made arrangements to be at the opening of Casablanca at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. That audience would be the largest cross section of American film goers to see the film. Good or bad, that large audience would provide Warner with what he needed to market the film.
The Radio City Music Hall:
The Rockettes with their vibrant energy, stage presence, trademark kick line and sex appeal were the big draw, the movie came second – most of the time.
The Rockettes' finished their routine and made their exit as the lights dimmed. A large map of North Africa and a narrator sets the scene as the word Casablanca splashed across the large screen.
The audience was hooked within the first five minutes of the picture and responded enthusiastically throughout the film.
Then as the last scene played out and screen credits began to crawl audience applause built from mild to thunder, then shouts, cheers and bravos came from every side of the theater.
A wide grin crossed Jack Warner's face and he almost ran to a phone booth in the lobby, dialed the studio number and announced – 'We've got a hit on our hands.'
(To be continued) Betty Bacall, Bogie's three other wives and The African Queen next.
Civil War Journal: 99 Days from Fort Sumter.
Saturday, July 20, 1861
Manassas Junction was shaping up to be the first major battle of the American Civil War.
Union forces are presently concentrating to the north, the Confederates from the west and south. By Saturday noon Joseph E. Johnston's fighting force is in place. Three brigades have arrived Thomas J. Jackson, Barnard Bee and Francis Bartow. The only missing infantry is Kirby Smith delayed at Piedmont with train trouble.
'The Goring Collection' (excerpt)
Flashback to the Battle of Manassas:
Sam Brannan was fully aware that he was being followed.
As Sam walked among the monuments he thought about that warm July morning back in 1861. Union and Confederate Armies had been moving into the area for days and when word reached the Capital that the first major battle of the war was imminent, the Washington gentry packed their picnic baskets, hitched their teams, and drove to a hill overlooking Bull Run. Then after finding a spot, well out of harms way, they spread their lunches and settled in to watch the Union and Confederate Armies begin the fight that could resolve the, long festering, differences between the North and South.
Sam was familiar with the top generals involved, their battle strategies, and how it played out. He visualized the early probing attacks by the Union Divisions of Heintzelman, Porter, Burnside and Sherman as they moved their blue forces into position to confront Confederates Bartow, Bee and Evans. The dawn brought on an eerie silence while the two armies trooped to colors and companies moved into battle formation. But at a precipitous moment an eight-pound Parrot shot ripped across the Stone Bridge shattering the morning silence. The pageantry was startling as the men slowly moved up to point blank range and orders are given to fire at will. The scathing rattle of muskets begins and soldiers aim, fire and reload in a desperate effort to – kill or be killed. But as the battle wore on skirmish lines began to move with the ebb and flow of a restless wind while bodies piled up like cordwood and the pungent odor of gunpowder hung just above the fray.
Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson shades his eyes from the blinding sun, and observes the gray lines outnumbered two to one begin to waver. The general thrust his arm into the air and points as he urged Little Sorrel forward, leading his brigade out of the tall pines, and down Henry Hill. When Jackson and his men arrive the Confederate lines stiffen, and halt the Union avalanche. Then with bayonet and bravado the gray men turn the tide and chase the Union forces from the field.
And by the time picnickers packed their baskets and returned to Washington, the Confederates had won the battle. Stonewall Jackson was proclaimed the hero of Manassas and a legend was born.
Sam Brannan stood silently beside fallen General Bee’s Memorial and after a long moment of reflection removed Jacob’s twig from his pocket, eased around the Monument and wedged the microfilm into a crevice. Then as he turned away, and strolled up the path he mused over the cat and mouse game he was playing with his shadows. Sam chuckled when he recalled a spy operation dubbed “The Pumpkin Papers.” It became a defining moment in the Whitaker Chambers and Alger Hiss spy scandal, a subject that still gets a rise out of the lefties when it comes up at Washington cocktail parties.
Sam continued up the path, casually walked out of the park, got into the Lexus, and drove back to Washington.
Writers Notebook:
Picture the scene as you write and write what you see. (Subconscious) But when you need to be a bit more demonstrative, you might try Barbara Dawson Smith’s method.
“Help readers visualize each scene by using specific details of action, the five senses and dialogue. Rather than tell readers ‘she was angry.’ Show the characters emotion by having her throw a plate at the wall or by arguing with someone.”
Conflict demands attention.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels Tungee's Gold, The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Facebook and Twitter
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog
I do a variety blog and post every Wednesday. I am an actor, writer and hurricane hunter and my subjects are generally written about those fields. During Hurricane Season I do at least one story every
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