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1950 Humphrey Bogart film in which he stars as a screenwriter asked to read a book to adapt the book into a screenplay. While at a restaurant, he finds an attractive coatcheck girl who has read the book, so he asks her back to his place so that she will tell him about the story, which allows him not to read the book. She cancels a date. Bogart typically plays his cards close to his vest, so we do not know if he intended to sleep with her, but he does not try very hard to accomplish that task.She leaves shortly after arriving. He calls her a cab. At 5:00 a.m., he is awakened by a police officer who informs him that the girl has been found on the side of a road, strangled and thrown from a moving vehicle. Bogart is taken into the station. He tells the chief how the murder occurred, and who committed the murder. Bogart tells the chief it is because he has written the murder before, the chief believes it is because Bogart committed foul play.
Bogart's story is supported by a neighbor who saw him peering into his window that night. Soon, they are in a relationship, eventually leading to a marriage proposal. Along the course of their relationship, she sees his violent side, and begins to have second thoughts not only about their relationship, but also about his involvement in the girl's murder.
This film will inevitably be compared with Bogart's other works of the 1940's and 1950's. While those films are great, I thought this one is "merely" very good. Those films were more plot driven, this more character driven. Because we saw the events, we know Bogart did not commit the murder. Therefore, the witnesses doubt never really transfers to the viewer. I felt that I was watching an event play out the way I thought it would. What I do appreciate about those older films is the apparent lack of need to bring in numerous characters that have no service to the plot.
The director of Wonder Boys adds commentary on the D.V.D., and does a good job of discussing the intricancies of the Bogart character, and the importance of the film.
There is also a good segment on the restoration of the film. The company involved in the restoration and Sony talk about all the films that have been destroyed through time, and for those films that remain, about all the scratches, pops, ticks, and deterioration of the film. It certainly made me appreciate what they went through to restore this print. And they did a good job.
This role is something of a departure for Bogart. While he was certainly tortured in his earlier films, this is the first one where I found him to be downright unlikeable. Which may explain why his production company produced the film. Very good film, recommended particularly for those who like Bogart.
Follow Ups:
I find this film much more interesting than you do.As you said, it is a character-driven film, and because of that, it is primarly about the relationship between the two main characters, not the murder. And the relationship is quite fascinating, I think, very complicated, and the script deftly touches upon several interpersonal issues, including trust, desire, depression, and alcoholism.
It helps that Bogart and Grahame (the most underrated Hollywood actress ever, IMHO) give extraordinarily nuanced performances. Just watch their faces. On a big screen in a theater, the impact is unforgettable.
How could you not like Bogart's character? :)! Seems like everyone in the film feels sorry for him, and I do, too.
Jeffery
For the first half of the film, I thought that Bogart's character was similar to his other roles: A basically good, but flawed, human. The man whose life runs very close to the legal/illegal line, but when a good deed must be done, he does it, willing to sacrifice himself. In this film, he was a flawed man, but his flaws were not harmful only to himself. Rather, his violent temper harmed and scared those around him. Ironic, that in this film, he has close friends who think much of him, even though he willing to harm them, whereas in his other work, he has very few people who are close to him.I did not mean to imply that I did not like his character, only that his character was not likeable. I must say that Bogart is probably my favorite actor of all time, and I doubt that I could not like like any of his characters.
When he is walking down the walkway alone at the end of the film, I did not feel sorry for him, because I felt that his loneliness was earned by his actions, despite him apparently not being able to control them. I certainly pitied him. But those feelings are not the same.
I did find the film interesting. My only caveat was that it should not be compared with Casablanca or the Maltese Falcon, to use two examples. Those are great films by any measure. If compared to those, then I think it falls a little short, which really is not a critism, because most films, even very good ones, which this is, fall short of those by comparison. Standing on it's own, it IS very good, and very recommended.
Good write up. Makes me want to see it, especially since it's neen restored.
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