by Bob Vince

Created on: December 05, 2011   Last Updated: December 07, 2011

Humphrey Bogart had many great scenes in his twenty-eight years in Hollywood, but only a few movies stand out in his career. When people mention Bogart, or “Bogie” for short, the first film that pops into peoples mind is the 1941 Maltese Falcon where he portrayed Sam Spade private detective, with an illustrious cast of co-stars including, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Ward Bond and Sydney Greenstreet. This murder mystery full of twists and turns that kept the audience guessing until the end would have given Bogart an Oscar, but that honor went to Gary Cooper for Sgt. York.

Bogart would have to wait ten years to get his Oscar for the African Queen co-starring Katharine Hepburn. This action drama takes place in Africa after war breaks out between Germany and Britain in 1914. Hepburn plays a missionary along with her minister brother, who dies after the Germans burn down the mission. This leaves Hepburn to enlist the help of the only transport available to her; a boat called the African Queen, captained by Charlie Allnut. What transpires between these two unlikely heroes’ is what makes this movie so captivating. The drama between the different personalities to dealing with not only the Germans, but leeches and mosquitoes, brings these two together in the end, not only sink an elusive German warship, but to fall in love as well.

With his rugged good looks and often bullish manner, one would think that a romantic lead would be out of his reach as an actor, but you’d be wrong. In Casablanca (1942) co-starring with Ingrid Bergman, Bogie was both a rough hold no bard saloon owner and a romantic lead to Bergman’s character. Casablanca takes place in Morocco during WWII at a café owned by an American former freedom fighter Rick Blaine. Blaine’s life was content running his bar and dealing with the local magistrate played by Claude Rains; that is until Ilsa walked back into his life. Ilsa and Rick had a whirlwind affair back in Paris and fell madly in love until one night she left him with no explanation and he went on to Casablanca to never see her again.  Now she’s back with her husband Victor Laslo, a Czech underground leader in search of what Rick has in his possession, two letters of transit (free pass to travel during wartime). The chemistry between Rick and Ilsa explodes again and at the end of the movie you wonder where Ilsa will go, with Rick or Laslo. Here is where one of the most recognized lines in movie history

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