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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Good Movies  |  Bogart triple session: "The Maltese Falcon", "The Enforcer" and "The Big Sleep". « previous next »
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Author Topic: Bogart triple session: "The Maltese Falcon", "The Enforcer" and "The Big Sleep".  (Read 3382 times)
Neville
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« on: July 08, 2020, 10:06:50 AM »

One of the reasons that keep from posting here more often is that in the last years I've switched my interest for B-movies into an interest for classic movies. I like their slow-buring nature, as opposed to a mainstream cinema that increasingly treats movie goers like children, and well, I feel there's more great movies to discover in this area than in the last zombie direct-to-stream releases.

Lately I've been having a sort of Bogart cycle at home, and I'd like to comment on two films that especially caught my attention.

The Enforcer (1951)



It's funny (or sad) to see how even in his late career Bogart was still starring in what you'd call "B-movies". I'd think he'd had more star power by then. Maybe it was because the "film noir starring Bogart" was still a profitable formula, or that Hollywood found him difficult to deal with. According to people who knew him, Bogart could very nice in person, but also a son of a b***h when he drank, and it seems that that happened way too often.

Anyway, this one has Bogart playing a DA trying to plug the many holes on a case the night before a trial. He's putting Mendoza on the stand, the alleged head of an assassin's outfit. His main witness is one of Mendoza's enforcers, and the man is a wreck, close to a nervous breakdown and changing his mind about testifying at the drop of a hat.

What I found really interesting about this one it's the way it presents the information to the viewer. We are first introduced to the main witness in his present state, and know very little about anything. It's later, through flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks), that we learn about the whole affair. Meanwhile, the direction is so taut that we can't help but being intrigued.

For instance, Bogart remembers that his first contact with the investigation was through a young man who came to the cops with an absurd story. He claimed two men forced him to kill his girlfriend (!). It's intriguing enough, but it's not since much later that we come to learn how the whole thing went and who were all the people implicated.

Other movie trivia: Bretaigne Windust was set to direct, but fell ill at the start of the shooting. Bogart then had frequent colaborator Raoul Walsh direct the rest of the film, although he goes uncredited. Also worthy of mention is seeing Zero Mostel in a dramatic role, as one of the members of the criminal outfit.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)



This wasn't my first viewing of the film, but perhaps the time I've enjoyed it the most. I've previously been of the opinion the film is overrated or just dull. I won't completely abandon those views yet. It is true that the film is VERY talky, and also that little of it has the mythical aura its opening crawl seems to aim for.

The plot? San Francisco detective Sam Spade is hired by a beautiful young woman to keep a man under surveillance. Before he even realises it, his partner -the one doing the surveillance- is dead, and he is surrounded by a crowd of individuals trying to find a rare historical artifact, and who won't stop at theft or murder in order to obtain it.

There are two keys to this film:

1) Bogart's character is no boy-scout here. Not longer after we learn of his partner's death, we also learn he is having an affaire with his wife. And most of his "investigating" consists in trying to make everybody feel as uncomfortable as he can. That is, when he is not pitching one character against the others, or plotting their downfall. Until the very end you won't be able to tell if he has any morals at all.

2) If you're lost in the plot, you're not the only one. So is Bogart / Spade. Most of the time he doesn't know -yet- who did what or what the hell is going on. He lies to the other characters as much as they lie to him, only to piece information. And we he learns something, he won't tell the audience either. So pay attention to his reactions when he talks to the other characters.

Speaking of which, Bogart's acting is a joy to watch here, and filled of golden nuggets. For instance, when he is about to punch Joel Cairo for the first time, watch his sneer. You'd think he's happy to have found a reason to pummel him, and you're probably right.



The supporting characters are also great to watch. From Peter Lorre's Hayes era protrait of an homosexual to Gutman's endless appetites for riches, or that secretary at Spade's office who under her façade seems to know Spade more than himself.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2020, 09:53:37 AM by Neville » Logged

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RCMerchant
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« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2020, 10:27:43 AM »

The MALTESE FALCON is one of my favorite movies of all time of any genre!  Thumbup

Check out how when Bogie gets p**sed as he is playing Gutmann for a fool...than after he leaves the office, when reaching for a doorknob, his hand is twitching so bad he has to actually hold it to steady himself.
Fantastic.
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Neville
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« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2020, 10:32:20 AM »

Or when he is so smug after his meeting with Gutman that he fails to notice Cairo walking in the opposite direction, which foreshadows their future alliance.

I also enjoyed when Bogart told his female client to stop acting like a school girl, "because if she is as naive as she looks she won't be of any use to him". That she is indeed "acting" doesn't diminish his coldness.
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Allhallowsday
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« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2020, 10:40:49 AM »

...The Enforcer (1951)


It's funny (or sad) to see how even in his late career Bogart was still starring in what you'd call "B-movies". I'd think he'd had more star power by then. Maybe it was because the "film noir starring Bogart" was still a profitable formula, or that Hollywood found him difficult to deal with. According to people who knew him, Bogart could very nice in person, but also a son of a b***h when he drank, and it seems that that happened way too often...


It's not a "B" picture, he stopped making "B" pictures in the '30s, and BOGART was at the height of his career in 1951.   Smile  (Think AFRICAN QUEEN.) 
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Neville
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« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2020, 10:42:45 AM »

Yep. And "Sabrina". And "The Caine Mutiny". Still, most reviews I've seen of "The Enforcer" call it a "B-movie".
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Allhallowsday
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« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2020, 10:50:24 AM »

Yep. And "Sabrina". And "The Caine Mutiny". Still, most reviews I've seen of "The Enforcer" call it a "B-movie".
"B" used to mean low budget and/or the 2nd billed film.  Maybe it was both.  I'm sure he was not paid a "B" salary for one thing.   Thumbup Wink
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« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2020, 02:04:06 PM »

Yep. And "Sabrina". And "The Caine Mutiny". Still, most reviews I've seen of "The Enforcer" call it a "B-movie".
"B" used to mean low budget and/or the 2nd billed film.  Maybe it was both.  I'm sure he was not paid a "B" salary for one thing.   Thumbup Wink

He might have still been under contract to Warner Bros at the time and paid to do a certain number of pictures per year, not per film. Since he was already paid, the studio could put stars into some lower budgeted B-movies to prop them up.
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Neville
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« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2020, 09:48:22 AM »

Bonus: The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)



Plot: At the request of the DA, private detective Philip Marlowe investigates the Sternwood family, who seems the target of a never-ending series of blackmails. The affair is more serious than expected, and Marlowe soon finds himself surrounded with dead bodies. But that's nothing compared to what he faces when he changes his focus to the dissapearance of Sean Reagan, a friend of the family.

Review: Truly a different animal than the previous two films. Hawks and the cast seem to have great fun with the dialogue, which is certainly packed with jokes and innuendos. The plot is VERY difficult to follow, a fault which seems to origin in the Raymond Chandler novel, which Chandler himself admitted has a few holes. The experience is said to have influenced Howard Hawks himself, who learnt to rely more in character development and snappy dialogues than plot in his following films.

Being a Marlowe film, it deals more with family secrets and blackmail more than with organised crime, although the character of Eddie Mars gains relevance in the second half of the film, and he definitely looks like a gangter, even if other characters refer to him as "a gambler". It's not clear either if he is threatening Vivian / Bacall to reveal the fate of Sean Reagan or if he is covering for her instead, which raises the question of what exactly is his relationship with Vivian / Bacall and wether if she is just switching horses when she becomes entangled with Marlowe.

But perhaps I'm splitting hairs here, because Hawks is not trying to make much sense of the plot. He just seems happy enough with the chemistry between bogart and Bacall, who were already involved in real life, and how well they deal with the dialogue. To make things worse, I read there are two different cuts of the film (three if you include the colorised version), and what makes sense in one does not necessarily add up in the other.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2020, 05:38:14 PM by Neville » Logged

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Allhallowsday
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« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2020, 01:36:24 PM »

Yep. And "Sabrina". And "The Caine Mutiny". Still, most reviews I've seen of "The Enforcer" call it a "B-movie".
"B" used to mean low budget and/or the 2nd billed film.  Maybe it was both.  I'm sure he was not paid a "B" salary for one thing.   Thumbup Wink
He might have still been under contract to Warner Bros at the time and paid to do a certain number of pictures per year, not per film. Since he was already paid, the studio could put stars into some lower budgeted B-movies to prop them up.
I think BOGIE was under new contract with Warner Bros, a contract he approved of...
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2020, 05:13:56 PM »

Yeah, now I remember. While I remember seeing both The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, I had forgotten I had seen The Enforcer, which is probably the least known of the three, and which I probably think is the reason for it being the most interesting of the three, because it is so comparatively little known, as compared to the other two.. Though, if you like to see a film told in flashback with flashbacks within flashbacks, then The Enforcer is the film to see.

Though, while it is a film I have not seen, another film, with Humphrey Bogart, told in flashback is Passage to Marseille or Message to Marseille, and that one is even rarer as it is one of the few films told by flashback within flashback within flashback. Another reason maybe to see it, is that it contains several actors, besides Bogart, who were in Casablanca.
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Neville
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« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2020, 05:45:28 PM »

I remember "Passage to Marseille" too. You're not wrong when you compare it to "Casablanca", because it looks like the studio wanted to recreate its success by hiring as many people involved on that film as possible.

What I remember the most about the film is how many genres they managed to cram within the same plot. I remember scenes that belonged to noir films, prison films and war films. Still very enjoyable, especially the air attack scene on the merchant. On the other hand, the constant allusions to the greatness of France can become annoying. After all, it was meant as a WWII propaganda piece.
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