I am what might be known as a sucker for black and white films, especially film noir. There’s something about the emphasis on darkness and shadows, the heavy thick clouds of cigarette smoke hovering in the air as the characters rattle off the machine gun-speed dialogue in-between shots of whiskey that I can’t get enough of.
So it was to my pleasant surprise when I discovered Parkplace Cinema is featuring four of Humphrey Bogart’s films, Casablanca, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and African Queen, with Casablanca showing this evening.
The owners, Jeff Cole and Chris MacKenzie, decided to feature Bogie’s after a successful showing of Hitchcock’s films in October. Their hope is to eventually feature other classic films, whether they’re based on a specific genre (horror/western/sci-fi) or the director, like Stanley Kubrick.
If you have not seen any of Bogie’s films, I highly recommend you take advantage of the opportunity. It’s not just a chance to see classic films in a movie theater on a big screen, the way God intended, but because they’re films Hollywood won’t be making anytime soon.
In light of the recent Academy Awards ceremony, which suffered its lowest ratings in six years, I think it is an appropriate time to reflect on the type of films Bogie was born to make that still manage to draw modern audiences.
Such films are often difficult to describe, but unmistakably distinct in their style and quality. There’s an air of blatant cynicism and pessimism in many of them. The stories portray people as they are without the garnish, the morally dubious along with the naive and foolish, played by great actors like Peter Lorre and Lauren Bacall.
The main draw, however, is Bogie.
Though they varied in their motives, his characters always possessed the same solitariness, unapologetic masculinity, sardonic sense of humor, lovable border-line misanthropic mindset and penchant for the bottle. Some of them, like Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, could be less-than admirable in certain aspects, but they were always likable, and there’s a reason. Despite fouling up and making the occasional blunder, he’s always in control and assertive. He tells off liars, manipulators, cops, district attorneys and the requisite Nazis in a way most people can only dream.
And then there’s the women. His dialogue with his female counterparts alone is worth the price of admission. It’s hard to beat a scene in “The Maltese Falcon” where he tells a lover “I’ll have some rotten nights after I’ve sent you over, but that will pass.” What makes the delivery so effective is that it isn’t said in sarcasm or jest, but matter-of-factly, in resignation. Love is cruel, life is tough. It is what it is, and a man’s gotta do what a man has got to do.
Pure Bogie.
It’s problematic for me to recommend one film out of the four to see, but if you’re pressed for time, I’d go with Casablanca. My only caveat is that watching it for the first time is guaranteed to be an eerie experience, a theatrical déjà vu. You may not have ever seen the film, but you know the lines (here’s looking at you, kid) and the story, because they’ve been used a million times in inferior films. By the end, however, you’ll realize you’re watching a cinematic gem that, like the other three films, is often imitated but never bettered.
TJ Martinell is a reporter for the Kirkland Reporter.
