Dark Passage: Bogart and Bacall

This evening, Tuesday, to celebrate Lauren Bacall's birthday, Turner Classic Movies is showing four films starring Bogie and Betty. The first, Dark Passage, starts at 8 pm EDT. It is folowed by To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, and Key Largo. They are all well worth watching. The Big Sleep is my favorite Bogart film. It's plot is so convoluted that you'll need to see it a few times to get it, but who does one of the murders is never revealed!

But, I really want to recommend Dark Passage. It doesn't get shown a lot, but is a very interesting film, filled with great character actors, like Tom D'Andrea, Houseley Stephenson, and Agnes Moorehead. It is filled with great lines, and strange scenes. For the first 40 minutes, you never see Bogart's face, but see everything through his eyes. Then, after he has plastic surgery, the bandages come off, to reveal Bogart. It's a real trip. Check it out if you can. Here is a link to TCM, with an article about it, and schedule details:
http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,,33814,00.html

Don't have the channel.

Me neither. After moving and going from satellite to basic cable, I miss TCM as much as I do all the football channels I had. Sucks ass.

Fortunately, I've seen all those (except maybe To Have and Have Not). Great stuff- Bogey is infinitely fun to watch. Everytime I watch one of his movies, I end up talking like him for a week.

And Lauren Becall... mmm..

When you listed the titles I was thinking that I hadn't seen Dark Passage. Then you described it, .... and I have seen that. I think that I have only seen it once though (or at least, only once all the way through). The others I have seen multiple times.

GKE, you really should check To Have and Have Not. As you may know, it is the source of the famous "Youknow how to whistle, don't ya Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." routine. I remember reading that that movie was the result of a bet between Hemingway and (?, director or producer) who bet EH that he could make a successful movie out of even Hemingway's worst novel. They both agreed that THaHN was the worst novel. Poorly cast, it could have really bad. However, with Bogart, Bacall, and Walter Brennan as the alcoholic sidekick it is great fun.

They are all well worth watching. The Big Sleep is my favorite Bogart film. It's plot is so convoluted that you'll need to see it a few times to get it, but who does one of the murders is never revealed!

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That's because it's faithful to the book, where Raymond Chandler made the plot so complicated, even he lost track and he forgot to solve one of the the murders

Great book, great movie. Bogie was the best Philip Marlowe by far.

I thought authors did outlines to avoid that kind of a problem.

Yes, you should see To Have and Have Not. It is the film where Betty and Bogie met, and fell in love. She was only 19, and it was her FIRST film. What a hollywood trip that must have been for her! I love Walter Brennan as the drunken Eddie, who is always getting Bogie into trouble. Eddie's great line is "Was you ever stung by a dead bee?"

It is a classic film, but as an adaptation of Hemingway, I am told it isn't very close to the book. The 1950 film The Breaking Point, starring John Garfield and Patricia Neal is said to be much closer. Directed by Michael Curtiz, it is a good film as well, but doesn't have the magic of Bogie and Bacall.

In Dark Passage, I think perhaps the freakiest scene is when Bogart is going under the sleazy plastic surgeon's knife. As Bogie begins to drift off in an hallucination from the anesthetic, The surgeon, who is a strange character, and has a strange face himself, says "I could make you look like a bulldog," and chuckles.

I thought authors did outlines to avoid that kind of a problem.

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They're supposed to have editors to pick up that kind of error, too The Big Sleep go so complicated it got away from the author and the editor