Humphrey Bogart-The Harder They Fall

Humphrey Bogart, more than probably any other motion picture actor of the twentieth century, can be said to have transcended his career as an actor and become known more today as a pop cultural icon.

In spite of his downtrodden, lower class persona in later films, Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City around the turn of the century to a mother who was a highly paid commercial illustrator and a father who was a successful surgical specialist. They were quite rich.

Bogart’s mother famously utilized a sketch of her baby for an ad campaign for a then-popular baby food but she was not particularly affectionate according to most sources. Still, it was through her that young Humphrey (who is said to have hated that name) developed his well-known “attraction to strong-willed women.”

From his father he inherited a love of sailing which led to his joining the Navy at age 18 after shaming his family by being expelled from college. After his Naval stint, he broke from his family in many ways and went into show business, first working behind the scenes but finally scoring a one line part as a Japanese butler in a 1921 stage play.

Over the next few years, in contrast again to his later film roles, Humphrey Bogart played juvenile roles in a number of plays and has been widely reported to have been the very first person to have used the now clichéd line, “Tennis, anyone?” Most biographies indicate that he hated this type of role, which may well have led to his starting to drink quite a bit during this period in spite of Prohibition.

By 1930, Hollywood was looking for stage actors with experience in talking as silent films were on their last legs. Bogart was one of many stage-trained actors who hopefully made the trek. He appeared in a few shorts and became great friends (and drinking buddies) with another newly arrived actor named Spencer Tracy. Tracy is generally believed to have been the first person to call his friend “Bogie.”

Still, the early thirties consisted of lots of drinking, more than one bad marriage and a considerable amount of alcohol. Bogart headed back to the East Coast mid-decade where he surprised everyone—including the producers—with his chilling performance as cold-blooded but charismatic lisping, scar-faced gangster “Duke” Mantee in THE PETRIFIED FOREST, a role similar to the real-life and then just recently killed John Dillinger.

The play’s star was English actor Leslie Howard who insisted that Bogie be brought into the film version with him against the wishes of the studio. It was a shrewd move on Howard’s part as the two played off each other beautifully and the film became Bogie’s biggest hit to date, leading to a slew of gangster roles at Warner Brothers in films opposite the likes of James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and the Dead End Kids.

After another few years of memorable secondary roles in pictures like THE ROARING TWENTIES and ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, the public had grown accustomed to Bogart. Finally, his friend John Huston wrote a film turned down by actor George Raft, HIGH SIERRA. It was a thinking man’s gangster picture with an A level script. Bogart was brought in when Raft balked and won accolades from fans and critics alike.

This opened the door for Bogart to be the natural person considered when Raft later walked out on yet another picture, in this case the third version (in twelve years) of Dashiell Hammett’s novel, THE MALTESE FALCON. THE MALTESE FALCON was John Huston’s debut as a director and it is generally considered by most film buffs to be one of the most perfect films ever made with lines, scenes, casting and performances all being amazingly memorable.

After that there was no question that Bogart was a star. Soon afterwards, he added an unexpected layer of romance to his cynical loner persona with CASABLANCA, yet another quotable masterpiece often listed among the top five best films ever made. Bogart lost the Oscar for Best Actor but the film deservedly won for best picture of 1942.

In real life during this period, his notoriously combative third marriage was following in the footsteps of his first two but onscreen it seemed he could do no wrong. He met young Lauren Bacall on the set of 1944’s TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT and they would be a couple for the rest of the actor’s life. By mid-decade, Bogart was reportedly the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

KEY LARGO, THE BIG SLEEP, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, THE CAINE MUTINY, SABRINA, THE DESPERATE HOURS—it seemed like every few films, Bogie would pull out yet another iconic role. He married Bacall. He sailed a lot. He supported liberal causes in Hollywood. He was finally on top of the world.

Then Humphrey Bogart made THE HARDER THEY FALL.

1956’s THE HARDER THEY FALL was a realistic “message” picture along the lines of (and compared to in ads) ON THE WATERFRONT. In this case, the film was an indictment of boxing and the behind the scenes corruption.

Based on a novel by leftist author Budd Schulberg, himself the former boxing correspondent for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, the story is a hard-hitting, stinging expose about a talentless, simple-minded South American boxer who rises to fame through a series of fixed fights and then gets pummeled by the Champ in a title bout.

Bogart plays a writer (based on Schulberg?) who is a former reporter and now press agent for “Toro.” He’s in it for the money and goes along every step of the way with the deceptions and unethical moves of the promoters. The problem is, he has a conscience and little by little as he sells more and more of his soul, it begins to eat at him. He loses his wife, alienates his friends, and finds himself lying to those who trust him. In the end, after Toro is nearly killed, Bogie’s character’s conscience wins out and he turns it all around and vows to use his writing to eliminate the influence of racketeers in boxing.

Although it plays like a B-list picture, THE HARDER THEY FALL had an A-list cast with Rod Stieger—here at an early career peak—playing the fast-talking bad guy. Then popular leading lady Jan Sterling seems too young (in spite of real life love Bacall being so young by comparison )and mousy for Bogie’s character’s wife who leaves him and then takes him back when he reforms. That said, she definitely makes her presence felt. Torro, the clueless boxer, is played “Lenny-like” by Mike Lane, reportedly a wrestler up until then but at the beginning of a long career as a character actor that included his role as the Frankenstein doppelganger in TV’s seventies kids’ show, THE MONSTER SQUAD.

Others in the cast included the always familiar and welcome character actors Nehemiah Persoff, Harold J. Stone, Edward Andrews, Jack Albertson and even legendary cartoon voice actor (and the original voice of Disney’s HAUNTED MANSION), Paul Frees. Real-life boxers (and rivals) Pat Comiskey and Max Baer (father of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES’ Jethro) lend as sense of reality to the sometimes vicious boxing scenes and Jersey Joe Walcott appears in Torro’s corner.

THE HARDER THEY FALL was directed matter-of-factly by Mark Robson, better-known for more elaborate films including THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI, PEYTON PLACE, VON RYAN’S EXPRESS, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and EARTHQUAKE. It received one Oscar nomination (for Best Black and White Cinematography) and was recognized at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Bogart had, in the year or so prior to making THE HARDER THEY FALL, been dealing with various health issues, ultimately including throat cancer. Nonetheless, the tired way he plays his final role lends an appropriate world-weariness to the character and the fedora and cigarette that had become his trademarks were present throughout.

The film opened to acclaim in mid-1956 but afterwards, Humphrey Bogart’s health continued in decline and he passed away in January of the following year. At the time of his death, it was said that he weighed only 80 pounds.

Then something curious happened. The cult of Bogart appeared. One of its first manifestations was in France where just three years later director Jean-Luc Godard’s film BREATHLESS featured Jean-Paul Belmondo as a thief who worships the image of Bogie.

BREATHLESS was an international hit and film buffs the world over started discovering and/or reevaluating the career of Humphrey Bogart. Posters of Bogie with hat and cigarette began turning up on college campuses. Books came out, the classic Bogart films were re-released on the revival circuit. As the early seventies nostalgia boom arrived, Bogart was arguably bigger than ever. Woody Allen even based one of his most popular plays, PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM around Bogie’s ghost. A few years later another film appeared entitled THE MAN WITH BOGART’S FACE.

By the time we reached the new century, it was hard to think of Bogie as just an actor. He was too good. His mere presence in a film elicited detailed coverage on some of the cable movie channels and his life and career continued to be celebrated by writers, filmmakers, nostalgia buffs and fans everywhere, even as continued television film festivals assured that Humphrey Bogart will be re-discovered for a long time to come. Unlike the title of his last picture, which just begged for negative reviews that never really came, Bogie has yet to find out about how hard they fall…because he has just never fallen.