The Caine Mutiny...

Yep, another Bogart movie from my collection, one that - as it was on at the same time as Action In The North Atlantic, hadn't been watched, despite being sat there for five and a half years.

Similar to North Atlantic, there isn't much Bogart - yet he's headlining the flick - and, indeed, the simple flippancy of marriage crops up again. It really is amazing how many movies from "back in the day" took marriage so care free. It is odd to think of people only saying that now marriage is taken lightly, but if marriage was taken as lightly back in the day as it was in the movies of the era, then there's no room to complain.

Indeed, divorce has shot up, so maybe it's a case of these days people are actually bothering to end their flippant marriages? Who knows, back to The Caine Mutiny, I did get quite into it - even though it's not got much in the way of action, and it does go on a bit ... however, the main interest is indeed Bogart (when he finally turns up on screen that is). How so? He's playing a mentally disturbed, pain-in-the-arse, rule-Nazi Captain of the lazily-staffed Caine.

Rather than playing the hero, here in his later career years, Bogart plays a fairly tragic figure. One who has most likely become shell-shocked by years of service, a paranoiac, a stickler for detail and harsh punishment. Interesting stuff indeed.

Action in the North Atlantic...

The Bogart obsession continues, this time with one of his World War II ship-based actioners (I'll be pimping my thoughts on The Caine Mutiny in due course, which I recorded off Channel 5 back in 2002 - at the same time as ...North Atlantic).

It's more like 'Action in the first and third acts of the North Atlantic, with characterisation shoved into act two' ... but that's not a catchy title in the slightest, but quite true of the film's structure. It does feel a bit pieced together, a bit ... average perhaps - at times anyway.

The first act is nothing short of thrilling, the action really does kick off with a sizeable bang. It's all rather fast paced and in your face, with some great stunt work and special effects. Then once that's done with, it's time for second act character building, which is where Bogart (mostly) goes on vacation from the set leaving you wondering if pimping the movie on his name alone is all that suitable.

Regardless, it's still an interesting watch - and yep, once again (as I've previously talked about), marriage is dealt with astonishingly flippantly ... in that "might as well get married, what the hell" sort of way. But no sooner is Bogie hitched, than he's off on another venture into the North Atlantic with a fleet of other ships taking supplies to the men on the ground.

But disaster lurks below, those pesky Germans from the first act are back and are intent on sinking our ships! Indeed, it's all rather good VS evil and quite propagandistic ... but who cares really, even Casablanca was used as propaganda to an extent (it only got the green light after Pearl Harbour happened, and indeed the script was read the day after the event).

Back to Action in the North Atlantic - basically, a bit hit & miss, but when it hits it really goes for the KO.

The African Queen...

Several years ago, back in my first year at University, we were shown The Maltese Falcon (on a restored print, fact fans) during the first semester's foundation unit, which covered the essentials of cinema. It was at this screening that I immediately became a Bogart fan, and therefore set about gathering up as many Bogart films as I could find - indeed, you might say I was Bogarting the Bogart, to coin the popular phrase that derives from his name.

Back when Virgin Megastore was still around (it's now Zavvi, after a take-over of the franchise), there was a 4 DVDs for £30 offer on, and one of the discs I picked up was The African Queen, Bogart's 1951 double-act with Katherine Hepburn, which one the former a long-awaited Oscar.

For some reason, however, I never got around to watching it. So for years (count five and a bit) the DVD has sat on my shelf, watched only once - by two of my uni mates when they'd ran out of stuff to watch in bed. But as previously blogged about, I'm in a major "gotta watch a bunch of films I've got but haven't seen yet" mindset, so I nabbed The African Queen off the shelf and shoved it into my computer and barged through it like a knife through butter.

I've no idea why it's taken me so long - partial laziness, partial waiting for the right mood to kick in, partial too busy to do so mentality - but spiffing it certainly is. It might not be Bogart's best performance, but it's strong and engaging nonetheless and rides completely over the somewhat oddball plot (take the boat down river through rapids and leech infested reed beds in order to ram into a German boat to blow it up ... with hand-made torpedoes).

Indeed, it's easy to chuckle at the story at times, but that's all forgettable as the two central performances are so engaging that it's just all about Charlie and Rosie's journey through Africa. A definite must-see for Bogart followers.

High Sierra...

As I've previously said no doubt at some point, I've been on a bit of a Bogart bender of late - heck, even an old school movie bender in itself. I'd not seen it before, and it is puzzling that the title-holding landscape barely factors into the movie, but as is par for Bogart's course (when his career was in its strongest waters), he's electric on screen. A must-see Bogart movie.

Mind you, what with all these old school movies I've been watching recently, I've noticed a trend - it's all to do with marriage.

I've heard it all too often of late, that marriage is entered into lightly and without much thought - and indeed I think it is. But if the movies of the 1930s and 40s are any reflection, they didn't think much about it back then either. The protagonist comes up against (not literally, you dirty buggers) his love interest and within a matter of days he's fitting her up for a diamond ring. I just found it rather funny, and it really began to stick out, glaringly so by the time I got round to popping in the tape of High Sierra.

Regardless, it's still a quality film ... and for those interested enough, I've now moved on to Murder Inc. - another Bogart classic - I think I've seen it before, it's ringing bells with me, but I can't be sure, so why not watch it again eh? Who knows, maybe I'll even get that African Queen DVD off the shelf that I got on a 4-for-£30 offer years ago and finally watch it!