VIDEO Bogart

Rip It Up, Issue 79, 1 February 1984, Page 24

VIDEO Bogart

More than a quarter-century after his death Humphrey Bogart remains a cult movie idol, not just in Britain and the U.S. but here too. Last year a city cinema screened Casablanca, initially as a four-day fill-in. Despite the print looking like blown up 16-mill and being full of jumps and scratches, this 40-year-old monochrome movie ran to good houses for over four weeks. If you were silly enough to miss it then or simply want to play it again', the good news is that it's released on hirevideo. And not just Casablanca, but a selection of Bogart's v other major movies too.

Although he actually made 80 films in his career the Bogart legend is built very largely on a mere handful of roles: four films with director John Huston, two for Howard Hawkes, and of course Michael Curtiz' Casablanca. Four of these seven are currently distributed on videotape in this country by Warner Video. The Maltese Falcon (1941) is a brilliant adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's pulp thriller and the character of private eye Sam

Spade (a role originally refused by George Raft) gave Bogart the prototype of his famous screen persona: tough but honourable, wise-cracking but wary, cynical : but brave, the idealist who mocked establishment compromise and corruption, the loner who belonged only to himself. Such a persona could, and did, tip easily into self parody as shown in the shoddy Dead Reckoning televised here last . month but it didn't happen with Huston. Besides, Bogart was quite willing to step outside this character on occasion, often with brilliant results. See for yourself on the video of Huston's Treasure Of The Sierra Mad re (1948). Here Bogart plays a petty drifter corrupted by gold fever. : Nonetheless Huston quickly brought Bogart back to his established role in Key Largo (1948). Here, apart from Bogart's offscreen partner Lauren Bacall, the main sparks fly from the' clash with another great acting stylist, Edward G Robinson who plays a ■ megalomaniac mobster holed up in - a dilapidated hotel during'a hurricane. And then of course, well always have Casablanca. By rights it should have been a disaster; the script was being written as it went along and even the director didn't know who eventually got the girl'. It is, however, a masterpiece of casting, not just in the lead roles but right down to the smallest parts. Casablanca now seems to have gone beyond being a mere movie and achieved the status of cultural icon. The reason has nothing to do with it- being profound it’s not nor is it simply a matter of nostalgia for a. time when, ethical choices were less complex. It's something to do with that rarely visited quality, the magic of movies. OK, OK. Now for the bad news. It's extremely likely that none of your local video-hire stores stock any of the abovementioned goodies. The reason is that the proprietors claim that no one wants to see old black-and-white movies anymore. ( African Queen is in colour.) What people want. I'm told, is ultra-violence, porn and car chases. So the remedy to this dear consumer, lies in your own hands. Demand Humphrey Bogart today. Peter Thomson