THE MAN WHO TROUBLED REALITY

THE MAN WHO TROUBLED REALITY

The battling Bogart

Why a man who died 60 years ago is still the most iconic figure of male actors in Hollywood?

And by saying iconic in his case is more than literally. The ugly-handsome face, the cigarette in his

mouth, the glass of whiskey in his hand, the gabardine, the shadow of his hat upon his face.

We relate even more extreme icons to him. The rainy or foggy background, the packed small interior of a PE office, the intense lighting of the films of his time with the exceptional contrast between light and shadows, the deserted roads, and the water pools reflecting a murder.

Fat ugly villains, scared gangsters, rich and poor, sober and drunkards, honest and corrupted cops, and the half-mad, half-addicted, half-obsessed female partner.

All these seem to be more part of the scenery that surrounds him than a self-sufficient film reality.

We connect the most beautiful actresses of the 40s to him like a bee to honey.

In his first films, he usually played a small-time loser. But we remember him as the long-term winner of the film industry.

Both heart-breaker and heartbroken, but neither a babbler nor a preacher.

His almost clumsy talking, his low rough voice, the characteristic lisp, the hard spelled words, his "mysterious" upper lip scar, his big powerful fists.

A man who attracts all.

Is it necessary to mention his name?

When I google it, the first two letters were enough to lead me to the legendary actor. His era is mythical for all movie lovers. It is so full of names of great male and female stars. Many were actors of a long tradition in the theater who found cinema the right place to express their astonishing abilities.

But he stands out.

What fascinates us? His acting?... His entire existence, his persuasive presence as a professional?...His personal story?

Was he someone who you should go along with easily?

Not in the slightest.

Here is where that-ugly-duck actor Humphrey Bogart comes on the stage of the world and of acting.

He finds a place at the top and holds it for decades. Undoubtedly.

Pictures of a real man's life.

Was he really so honest or is it just our deep preference for clear-cut men?

Well, at one point, when America's frenzy against Communism took the inhuman scheme of McCarthyism, when many hid and few stood, he belonged to the few. And it's not that he had any sympathy for Communism. No, it was simply a clear affair where the victims, the unjustified, were pushed by the worst face of power. The film "tough guy," really proved what is the genuine quality of toughness.

Stand against the strong in favor of the weak. Case closed.

But was he really brave?

I bet he was. As far as it concerns an external behavior, like some kind of extreme sport or dangerous activity that proves the old-fashioned picture of virility: to sail with just the power of wind in a wooden boat of his times, (think about it; no GPS, no radar, no weather forecast, no radio), well, seems more than enough.

In various incidents of his life, he behaved similarly to the way we see him act.

He wasn't a poor and unlucky guy from birth. On the contrary. His father was a well-established surgeon, and his mother was a very successful painter for magazines and advertising.

Bogart as an infant was his mother's model for a very well-known baby food exactly at the beginning of the 20th century. He attended private schools, he could go to Yale but... but he attended another school, not because of his grades, but only because of family connections.

For less than a semester he excelled not in his grades but in smoking, and drinking (a habit that kept all his life.) The future seemed dark.

However, life has its own ways, to distinguish or crash someone.

He joined the Navy. With a past more of a troublemaker, than of a decent family child, his credentials were far from being reassuring. But...

Bogie was recorded as a model sailor when he served during WWI.

When he returned home, things had changed. His family's wealth was lost. Instead of being discouraged, he chose his own road to life... And to success.

Nothing was easy. Nothing was taken for granted to him. He was a real fighter.

It was more of a coincidence than of conscious choice he found his way to some small theater productions. That was around 1920 or '21. But he got stuck with it.

And it was these minor plays, in a slow but experience-rewarding way, that led him 20 years later to stardom.

Three marriages before Bacall, many small roles, always drinking, always second, or even third.

But his acting got constantly improved, and his presence became so persuasive that he often stole the audience's favor from already established stars.

And then came Huston.

A big guy, a larger-than-life man, a brilliant director. And like a talented painter that is careful with his material, John Huston chose him, his already close friend, for his directorial debut. The Maltese Falcon. The year was 1941. The rest is film history.

In a way, what counted more to Bogie's fate weren't connections in the film industry but real friendships. This is one of his strongest appeals to us, whether we know much or little about him.

And this is a genuine quality not just of an artist but of any human being. You don't persuade anyone by words. Never. It is the reality that projects on the whole of a human.

And he had it.

From that point on, one success followed another, films that can't be forgotten as long as people watch movies... as time goes by.

At the height of his stardom, during the Second World War, he tried to reenlist. Because of his age, he was rejected. Even then, he found his way to serve and protect his country.

He patrolled the California coastline with his yacht.

Sailing was his everlasting love... and drinking...and women up to Bacall... and life.

He was a real-life-lover.

The sensitive Bogart.

One of his pictures that I like most is where he tosses up his dog, laughing with all his heart. He always had many dogs in his life, of many breeds, especially boxers.

He became a father in his forties. His fourth marriage, with Lauren Bacall, was something of a tale.

Both were successful, famous, and rich.

It seems almost peculiar that their wedding was a success too. They were a family. A real one. Not just for the cameras.

During his career he was never late, he always knew his lines, and he made no complaints about working hours, technical problems, or other conditions. Perhaps he joked a little, but when he had to perform, his talent and his intense concentration were beyond any doubt.

He was trustworthy when he was a cub in acting during the 20s on Broadway, till the very end, when he was "The Star" in the fifties.

When his deteriorating health because of cancer took the vitality and strength out of his body, that didn't prevent Bogart, as actor Rod Steiger mentioned, from coming to the shootings at exactly 9 am and leaving at 6 pm. And all this under such pains that made his eyes watery.

In the words of his all-time pal John Huston: "Himself, he never took seriously, his work most seriously."

A legend or a lesson?

Isn't this something? Isn't this a strong life story? From the villain of those movies in the thirties, wherewith his own words: "I was shot in 12, electrocuted or hanged in 8, and was a jailbird in 9."

Not an insignificant apology.

In the same film, he was the loser and the winner. One time you watched him devastated and wounded, and the other standing at his feet against multitudes of bad guys or taking decisions when everybody else failed.

Vulnerable and safe, charming and repulsive, cynical and heart-giving, a

loner but never an outcast.

How many of these faces were real and how many were just film personas?

Today, 65 years after his painful death that seems insignificant.

Because an actor's job is to create a character, to grant us with emotions, to provide us not with illusions, but with glimpses of reality.

From reality, only small and inaccurate doses we can have.

This combination of the opposites, in the actor, the persona, and the man himself, is his bond with his audience.

He was and still is the definition of a star. At the same time, we feel him as our closest buddy.

The guy that everyone would love to have as a drinking companion.

Don't forget, he was one of the founding members of the Rat Pack. The honest guy. The always straightforward man who didn't hide his words or his likes and dislikes. The actor who was not afraid to express his opinion, to say when and what was wrong.

The guy that formed a very significant word and attitude. Be an "againster".

When I was a student in the '80s, there was a poster in my room.

The sad, lonely Rick Blaine in front of a half-empty bottle of whiskey. The words: "Play it again Sam", were almost visible.

Whispered but not heard.

That was in a small apartment somewhere in Athens.

I bet my life, that today, somewhere in the world, another student or a film aficionado has that same poster, knows that same line, feels his eyes watering when the sound of Marseillaise is heard and Rick (Bogie) with his friend-enemy Captain Renault (Claude Rains) leave in the foggy atmosphere of the Airport for a more just and free world.