Humphrey Bogart stars in "In A Lonely Place" (1950)

It's remarkable thinking that In a Lonely Place is 71-years-old this year. The older I get, the older classic Hollywood gets, and yet, many of their films never truly seems to age. They remain timeless, which, unfortunately, is more than can be said of many of our current day films that just sort of swirl down the drain and vanish into the sewers.

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

Bogart plays Dixon Steele, a screenplay writer in Hollywood, but one with a bit of a mad temper on him, and a propensity to loathe any of the books that directors want to hire him to adapt for the silver screen. One late night, he actually takes a cute little cloakroom girl named Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart) home for no other reason than she has read the book that he's been hired to adapt and he has no interest in reading it. So he brings her home so she can simply give him a rough synopsis of the story. She, of course, is suspicious of him at first, but then settles in eagerly to her storytelling. She finishes and he sends her home, or rather, around the corner to catch a cab, and he goes to bed, after making eye contact with his lovely neighbor across the way, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame).

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Award Winners for a REASON: The African Queen (1951)

The African Queen (1951)

starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn

I'm back! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I last posted on this blog. Taking a break from certain things proved to be necessary for my emotional survival this last year. We're had a lot of upheaval at work and just overall stress and the last thing I needed was the additional weight of trying to write movie reviews on a regular basis. But I'm back and willing to give it my best shot.

The basics haven't changed. I'll still be watching and discussing classic film and actors.

However, I've also decided to incorporate modern movies set in the era of old Hollywood. Those can be loads of fun. Like, right now, I'm rewatching Zodiac, which is of course about the Zodiac Killer and takes place in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Not a classic movie, but set in the right era. It'll be a fun expansion since I really do love movies set in the era of classic Hollywood, period.

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Movie Review: The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)

The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)

starring Humphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck

supporting cast: Alexis Smith and Nigel Bruce

Why in the world are movies like Gaslight, Dial M for Murder, and Midnight Lace so insanely popular? I guess audiences just love to see men plotting to kill their wives, either out of some crazed need for control or simply because they are crazy.

In that vein, the plot for The Two Mrs. Carrolls is really nothing new.

Humphrey Bogart plays a starving artist type of character named Geoffrey Carroll whose wife always serves as his muse. At least until he tires of her, bumps her off kindly with poison, and marries the next in line. Talk about a vicious cycle, and who should get caught up in it but Barbara Stanwyck as the next wife in line, one Sally Morton Carroll. A charming, naive young woman, Sally adores her new husband and his little 10-year-old daughter. She supports Geoffrey in all he does, and things go along cheerfully for awhile in what is known as the honeymoon stage. That is until his inspiration starts to fade, his irritation peaks, and the gal down the street, Cecily Latham (played by Alexis Smith) insists he paint her portrait. Now Geoffrey has his eye on the next Mrs. Carroll and its time to bring out that old bottle of poison again. The bumbling town doctor played by none other than Nigel Bruce (wow, did he lose some weight!) thinks Sally's illness is just an attack of nerves, but pieces start to fall into place and Sally begins to see her beloved husband in a new, and far more suspicious, light. The question is, can she gain back her strength and energy before it's too late? Perhaps not ever her ex-fiance Charles Pennington (Patrick O'Moore), who she calls Penny, can get to her in time.

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1940s Week: The Human Condition in Casablanca (1942)

Written for 1940s Week hosted by An Old Fashioned Girl. ❤

For at least 15 years I held off on watching Casablanca. It's one of my parents' favorite movies, my dad's especially, but I never really appreciated or even liked Humphrey Bogart until just a couple of years ago and even then I limited myself to his films with Lauren Bacall. Casablanca just was not on my radar, at least, not until a few weeks ago when my folks talked me into watching it with them.

It utterly enthralled me.

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

Some movies you watch once and that's more than enough, or you may watch it again, but only because it's entertaining or fun for one reason or another. Casablanca is both of these and yet neither. It is . . . eternal, overflowing with dilemmas and heartaches that are relevant no matter the era. If a film could ever be called timeless, it is Casablanca.

I was hardly 1/2 an hour into watching it before ideas and thoughts started jumping around in my head regarding the ramifications of the moral choices made by these characters. Oh my goodness, it can be so HARD to do the right thing! I know that I've felt it and I'm sure all of you have felt that pull towards the "dark side," sometimes giving in and sometimes resisting poor moral choices. It's a part of the human condition brought on by sin.

So you have Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick Blaine. He's embittered by past disappointments and runs an Americana nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco in an attempt to what? Forget. Maybe, but it can be any one of a number of different reasons why he's gone so far away from what most Americans would consider a normal life. He’s running from his past, not because he was a criminal or anything like that, but because of memories.

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Movie Review: The Meaning of Self-Worth in Sabrina (1954)

A friend of mine mentioned the other day how she's giving up self-criticism for Lent since the season just started. And it got me thinking about the importance of self-worth, which kind of goes hand-in-hand with the concept of self-criticism.

Oh my gosh, when I think of all the hours I've spent doubting my own self-worth, I'm tempted to cringe a little bit. But I don't think I really had a clear vision of what lacking self-worth looks like until I rewatched Sabrina from 1954. If you watch classic movies then you've probably seen it, especially if you love Audrey Hepburn like I do.

But I'll be honest, the film never sat really well with me. Apart from the total miscasting of Humphrey Bogart (who I also love) and William Holden (meh) as Sabrina's love interests, the story itself always gave me a resulting sense of melancholia.

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The Sizzle in Key Largo

Part of the Lauren Bacall Blogathan hosted by In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood

My first movie with Humphrey Bogart was The African Queen and I distinctly remember disliking him. Of course, I was only about 13 at the time, and he seemed like a rough and tumble bully. Fortunately for me, I decided to rewatch The African Queen several years later and liked it so much better the 2nd time around. If I hadn't tried it again, there's a good chance I would never have given Bogart another look, which means I would have never watched Key Largo, and never met Lauren Bacall.

Ahh, Key Largo. The name alone is synonymous with all the best that film noir had to offer its audience. Intense plot, dramatic lighting and shadows, and stunning characters of every description, from the hero Frank McCloud (Bogart) to the villain of Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson). And of course, Nora Temple, played by the estimable Lauren Bacall. A war widow, her character watches over her father-in-law, James Temple, handicapped and the owner of the Largo Hotel in the Florida Keys. When Frank McCloud pays them a mercy visit to tell them stories about the bravery and heroics of Nora's deceased husband, he never imagined for one single moment that he would be walking into one of the most hellish nights of his life, and that's saying a lot considering he's a soldier.

I'm confessing right now that my knowledge of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart as people is nill. I go out of my way to avoid knowing about the personal lives of actors that I like, mostly because I don't want to let any negative behaviors on their part influence my opinion of them. I've never looked at Errol Flynn the same way since I discovered what a louse and a cad he was in Hollywood, and so I don't want the same thing to happen with Bacall and Bogart. So I can only say what I observe, and that is how much I love in Key Largo.

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