Year:
1942
Rating: 6.5In the film before this one, Bogart had finally
gotten out of the deep freeze that Warner Brothers had stuck him in for a
decade playing one gangster after another who almost inevitably gets killed
in the final reel. No one but Bogart and first time director John Huston
had expected much with their film. George Raft had turned it down, but The
Maltese Falcon became a big hit and suddenly Warners had a star on their
hands and had no idea what to do with him. But they had a B film in the works.
Raft had again turned it down as he also had High Sierra that brought Bogart
and the assistant director Huston together. Bogart jokingly credited Raft
for his help in his career. Then their next choice Walter Winchell (the great
narrative voice of The Untouchables TV show) had to drop out. With Bogart's
recent stardom, the producer said it was suddenly an A film with twice the
budget of The Maltese Falcon.
It is still really a B film, but a highly
entertaining one with a great cast of Warner character actors. It is also
a nicely done anti-Nazi propaganda film that jumps back and forth between
dry wit and action. It never slows down with the entire narrative taking
place in one day. The film studios had stayed away from anti German films
with only a few exceptions, but now began an onslaught of propaganda films.
Few as funny as this one is. The first scene sets the humor in motion. Around
a table are three future comic legends arguing - William Demarest, Phil Silvers
and the newly signed Jackie Gleason. Bogart said of Gleason, "You look like
the guy who came to dinner and ate the guests". Frank McHugh soon joins them.
They all work for Gloves Donahue (Bogart)
who is a Damon Runyon big time gambler with a heart of gold. His one vice
is cheesecake but only from Miller's bakery. When Miller is murdered, Gloves's
mother who lives upstairs demands that he find the killer and she gets him
started by tracking down the beautiful mysterious woman who showed up and
then quickly vanished. Mom is played by the great Jane Darwell. The mystery
woman is played by Kaaren Verne who had escaped the Nazis in Germany in 1938.
In fact there are a few escapees from Germany in the film - all playing Nazis
of course. The great Conrad Veidt is the Nazi head, Lorre his number two,
Martin Kosleck is the Nazi running the meeting and Ludwig Stössel plays
Miller. A few with Bogart were to reunite the following year in Casablanca.
Bogart finds himself in the middle of a
Nazi conspiracy to blow up a battleship and mine NY harbor. Initially, he
just sees the Nazis as another gang - he hasn't followed the news - "Dachau,
what is that?". By the end of course he does his patriotic duty. Gives a
little speech to another gang run by Barton MacLane to help him beat up the
Nazis. In fact, Jewish gangsters regularly broke up Nazi meetings. Also a
Nazi is the cold faced Judith Anderson, Mrs Danvers in Rebecca. A bit of
gossip. Verne was to marry Lorre in 1945. Lorre as usual is wonderful in
this as the sadistic underling and delivers lines like "Very belligerent
personality" in describing Gloves with menace dripping out. The film was
a hit and Bogart went on to make another B film, Casablanca.
