Bogart The Untold Story (TV) (VHS) [2007]

Bogart: The Untold Story (1996) (TV)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1538465/

Stephen Bogart, the son of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, narrates Bogart: The Untold Story, a 1996 documentary that tells the story of his father's life. Stephen was just eight years old when Humphrey Bogart died in 1957. And since he was so young, Stephen has only vague memories of him. As Stephen explains, his father was a distant figure and his only physical memories of him are on screen. Bogart: The Untold Story is an attempt by Stephen to get to know the man behind the star, to learn who his father really was and to answer those questions every child has about their parents.

The documentary gives a thorough account of Bogie's life beginning with his privileged New York roots. Humphrey Bogart's father was a doctor and his mother a world famous illustrator. After being kicked out of prep school, Bogart joined the Navy where he spent long spells in the brig. Acting seemed to give the young Bogart a focus at last. He began to get small roles on the New York stage in the early 1920s. He also met and married his first two wives, actresses Helen Menken and Mary Philips.

Bogart began taking small film roles by the early 30s. But his big Hollywood break wouldn't come until 1936 with the screen adaptation of The Petrified Forest. Bogart had performed the play on Broadway, opposite star Leslie Howard. And when the film adaptation was to be made, Howard insisted Bogart repeat his stage role of Duke Mantee. It was enough to earn Bogart a contract with Warner Bros. From 1936 - 1939, Bogart turned out 25 movies. Though, as Stephen points out in Bogart: The Untold Story his father was basically fourth in line on Warner's "murders' row" behind bad guys James Cagney, George Raft and Edward G. Robinson. He also apparently hated the roles he was assigned and complained frequently to Jack Warner.

That would all soon change with The Maltese Falcon (1941). Edward G. Robinson was offered the part but turned it down, claiming he didn't want to work with a novice director - John Huston. For Bogart it would be the opportunity he'd been waiting for. A chance to play a character with depth, a character who was more than a gun-toting gangster. It would also be the first of six Huston-Bogart collaborations. As Huston, who is interviewed in Bogart: The Untold Story says, The Maltese Falcon was "a whole new career for Bogie."

And certainly, if The Maltese Falcon gave him star clout, Bogart's next film made him a legend. The film, of course, was Casablanca (1942). From that point, there was no looking back for Bogart. His career was forever changed and soon his personal life would change as well. In 1944, on the set of To Have and Have Not (1944), Bogart met and fell in love with newcomer Lauren Bacall. Three more films (The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo, 1948) and their marriage in 1945 would follow.

Stephen Bogart was born in 1949 and his sister Leslie in 1952 (Stephen was named for Bogart's character Steve in To Have and Have Not and Leslie for Leslie Howard). Bogart: The Untold Story includes photos of Bogart with the children. It also features home movies of Bacall and Bogart on vacation in Venice, in their new home circa 1949 and of Bogart's other true love, his yacht Santana. And the documentary shows footage of the Bogarts' trip to Washington D.C. to speak before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Some of Bogart's later films are touched on, particularly The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and The African Queen (1951). Though Bogart loathed The African Queen's remote location (and basically drank his way through it), he was finally rewarded with an Oscar® for his work. But the happy times weren't to last. Humphrey Bogart was diagnosed with cancer in 1956 - though as Stephen recalls, he never stopped drinking or smoking or entertaining. Bogart died January 14, 1957 at the age of 57. The documentary includes footage of the funeral. Lauren Bacall is also interviewed and recalls the happy times with Bogart, as well as her difficulty in coping with his death.