Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart
Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart by Stefan Kanfer
published 2011, by Knopf Publishers, pages, $26.95, hardcover
ISBN 978-0-307-27100-6
In the more than 50 years since his passing, what can be said about movie star Humphrey Bogart that hasn’t already been said, written, or discussed? For Hollywood biographer Stefan Kanter, the answer is quite a bit. Known for his work as a Time magazine film critic and author of biographical books on Groucho Marx and Lucille Ball, Kanter has focused his investigative lens on Bogie and the results will be profound and satisfying to his followers.
When most opinion polls ask who was or still is the most popular, influential, and iconic movie star of all time, Bogart is always at or near the top. But Kanfer’s book is hardly a fanzine fanzine piece; it’s far too well researched and gives us the best and worst of Bogart. And while he covers Bogie from birth to death, through multiple marriages, mischievous behavior, smoking, and more drinking, the author notes that Bogart remains the gold standard by which current and future male actors must abide. He is just as popular now, Kanfer says, as he was during the glory days of his most powerful roles in such legendary films as High Sierra, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The African Queen and The Cain’s mutiny
Some new actors are hailed as the “next Brando” or the “next James Dean,” but none, then or now, breaks out as the “next Bogart.” As one director in the book says, not without kindness: “When we want a tough guy for an American movie today, we go to Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman or Colin Farrell.” This sounds petty, but who compares to Bogart today? Not Jason Statham or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson” or even Bruce Willis or Harrison Ford (he gets bonus points for the fedora in all four Raiders movies, though) in his action days. Tom Hanks is a true legend of American cinema, but he’s never compared to Bogart. Johnny Depp is admittedly eclectic, but he sounds more than a little French when he dresses for it. Brad Pitt is half way too cute, so maybe that just leaves George Clooney, But putting him in Bogart’s shoes seems forced.-Putting a square peg of handsome into a round hole of hard.
Bogart was a bit short, didn’t have the build of the stockier males of his day (no John Wayne swagger or Errol Flynn swashbuckler), had a slight lisp, had a scar on his face, and his thinning hair was far from of wavy. However, he was a veteran of the Broadway stage long before he went to Hollywood to act (and occasionally star) in a series of over thirty now-forgettable B-movie roles where he died a thousand times over. Like other overnight successes in Hollywood, Bogart paid his dues for years before the best roles caught up with him and his talent.
He decided early on that the world in general, and the world of acting in particular, could be divided into two groups: professionals or vagabonds. Back in New York and in some of his early gangster movies, where he played mostly unsatisfying versions of the same roles, he would occasionally appear hungover or listless or both. But the combination of better scripts, bigger roles, and directors who demanded more of him flipped a switch personally and professionally, and his work ethic never wavered again.
He liked his drink ready by the time the cameras stopped rolling for the day. She was rarely without a cigarette on and off screen. As one film critic wrote, near the end of Bogart’s life, when his health began to fail, we saw a man commit suicide right in front of us. And while alcohol was as much a coping tool as it was a social prop in public (tough guys drink and party, the image says), Bogart’s use of a cigarette was as much a movie prop as it was to draw attention. attention. (How many other actors have made a verb out of their method of taking a cigarette and taking a deep drag, like in “Bogarting”?)
The women in Bogart’s life were as big a vice as his other addictions. He went through three angry, alcohol-soaked and depressing marriages to actresses Helen Menken, Mary Philips and Mayo Methot, before marrying his soul mate, Lauren Bacall, at age 46. And while she and he may have been together until the very end, the 25-year age gap made Bogart feel like he always had something to prove to others that he was worthy of his screen idol tag.
To see Bogart and Bacall in their first film and their first film together, Howard Hawks’ To Have and Have Not, is to see a love story become an almost sexual experience on screen. Bacall might have had limited acting range: she correctly played a vampire or was hopelessly miscast as someone else; however, the camera loved her face.
Kanfer clearly loves his subject matter and the depth of research for his book is grounded in the truth about Hollywood hype. Bogart was born to achievement-oriented, hard-working, and strident parents in New York and was well cared for and well educated as a child. When his parents’ marriage fell apart and his interest in school ended, Bogart joined the Navy in an impulsive move to get out of New York and see the world. He had an undistinguished naval career (the service and agreed that he had better not continue, due to his disdain for authority and rules). He found his way to the Broadway stage as an extra actor, and in a bit of a regression, he went back to being a stage manager.
His move to Hollywood came as silent films faded away and many of the handsome but squeaky-voiced male leads were unable to make the transition to talkies. Bogart could play the heavyweight who dies big, since cop and gangster movies were popular in the transition between the two world wars and during the Depression.
While we may have “Jersey Shore” or “American Idol” or “Survivor” as a way to give nobodys a chance to become instant household names (while that lasts), in Bogart’s day, the best way to catching lighting in a bottle long enough to be lit by it came with the rare combination of a well-crafted script, a firm but liberating director, and a great supporting cast around him. Bogart’s breakout role came as mobster Duke Manatee in Petrified Forest, as well as having performed on the New York stage.
Kanfer’s best writing arrives where you might expect it, when he draws on his experiences as a lover of big movies and as a longtime film critic. He dissects Bogart’s classic films with a look at why the actor and the stories live on, as well as plenty of behind-the-scenes gossip. Kanfer provides the historical and political backdrop of Casablanca, Bogart’s utter satisfaction in filming Dash Hammet’s great novel The Maltese Falcon and its near-word-for-word translation into John Huston’s shooting script, and the creative spark between Bogart and Hepburn who made The African Queen as much fun to shoot as fun to watch.
Bogart was in his prime when his directors pushed him hard enough to give it his all and listened to his ideas on how to improve both of them. His best work happened when storylines and roles challenged him, and he and his co-stars were on-screen colleagues and friends (and often drinking partners) off-set.
Kanfer’s description of Bogart in his last days of suffering, dying from the post-surgical effects of esophageal cancer, weighing up to 80 pounds and unable to eat, is the cause-and-effect conclusion of a life of Scotch and Chesterfield without stall.
Bogart’s legacy was his portrayal, on and off camera, of the tough guy who also knew how, why and when to do the honorable thing. He had two fists, but for all the right reasons. He never forgot to be a professional, even when he played the drifter (he notes his portrayal of the crazed and dastardly prospector in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). He loved women on screen, but always at a distance.
There are people (usually under the age of 30) who dismiss Bogart’s movie performances and those of his generational peers as overacting at its finest. The sets were simple and unadorned, the special effects not too special, and the storylines predictable. While we may have “transformed” sets and effects today to overwhelm the viewer, it’s still a joy to watch a classic Bogart movie while channel surfing at much less entertainment fare.