'BOGIE'!!!!

Once again here on the 'ol blog-a-wog-a-rang-thang, I'm sharing my love and admiration for something (or--- in THIS case, someone!!) that I really didn't discover until young adulthood!!

Oh I had caught glimpses of this actor's work as a kid growing up... seen his image around!! After all, 'ol 'Bogie's image / likeness has been used in SO much advertising, his voice imitated SO much over the nearly 6 decades since his death (including in a number of my ALSO beloved 'Looney Tunes' shorts!!), it would be pretty much impossible for the young Loydster NOT to at least have SOME idea that this 'Bogart guy'--- this guy with the unique first name (Humphrey?? Quick, can ANYONE reading this right now think of ANYBODY with a first name like that???), just MAY have been some kind of famous actor, a long time ago!!!

But, it wasn't until my 19th year on this earth, that I actually SAW my first 'Bogart movie'!!! And.... MAN-ALIVE, what a movie!!!! It was shown on the 'late movie',on WGN, channel 9 (one of the first 'cable super-stations'). Here's the trailer for the CLASSIC film that blew the soon-to-be-out-of-his-teens young Loydster's mind!!!----

Now, this 'mind-expanding' experience of seeing 'The Maltese Falcon' (that 'machine-gun-fast' dialogue, that plot, Bogie's character--Sam Spade, and his 'take-no-guff-from-NOBODY' attitude!!) happened back before even VCRs were readily available and in nearly EVERY household!!! So, it would take me a number of years to be able to see several of this TRULY unique actor's other classic films!! The following would eventually not ONLY be seen by me  over the years.... they would also become treasured favorites in 'the Loydster movie-library'!!!---

And---- here's the trailers for three more of the above classics!!! Holly-weird not ONLY  doesn't make'em like these movies any more, it doesn't do trailers like these any more either!! I kinda wish they would, don't you???!!??-----

So----- just WHAT was it / is it, about Bogie and his movies that have become SO loved and treasured by me over the years??? Bogie was NOT the stereotype of a 'leading man'!!! He wasn't very handsome (not that it would matter much to me!!), he wasn't big & broad-shouldered, like one of my other favorites, John Wayne!! In fact he was kind of a little, 'wiry-built'-type of guy!!

Oh, much like the Duke, during his life time, Bogie wasn't appreciated much as an actor!! He wouldn't take home an Oscar, until his performance in 'The African Queen' in 1951--- just 6 years before his death!! His role in 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' should've earned him a trophy-- by the end of THAT movie, Bogie's performance is down right SCARY!! A lot of 'leading man ', 'matinee idol'-types would have NEVER had the GUTS to even come near a role like the one Bogie pulls off in that film!!!

I think, it's that very thing.... that he was NOT  a glamorous-looking leading-man-type, that helps me hold on to, and treasure 'ol Bogie in my mind!!! All these years, since first being SO blown away by his portrayal of the tough private-eye, Sam Spade--- I still root for the 'little guy' that pushed on through and fought against the odds!! In real life, as well as on film---Mr. Humphrey Bogart!!



                                       ------See you NEXT time, gang!!!-----