Benefit
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2002
- Messages
- 5,193
I'll be the first one to say I don't care much for Humphrey Bogart's acting. I've always thought he was overrated in Casablanca and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. But the part of Sam Spade, the morally obtuse world-weary opportunistic anti-hero, was tailor made for Bogart.
His lack of range as an actor is exactly what is needed for the part. All he has to do is stand there cracking one-liners like a statue, and he does that so well. John Huston's groundbreaking film (which most people credit with inventing noir filmmaking) is carried along by a series of unending plot twists. And each time the narrative takes a turn, Spade is unfazed. He remains coolly confident, cloaked in moral ambiguity, and you never know which side he is on. No matter what happens, no matter how desperate or crazy, Spade is in control. You never for a moment doubt that he will come out on top and kick a lot of ass in the process. This archetype of the hardboiled anti-hero, created by Huston and animated by Bogart, has been re-used in more films than you could possibly watch in one lifetime.
I think it's a shame that John Huston is never mentioned in the same breath as Hitchcock. Huston did a lot of the same things Hitchcock did (his visual motifs and scene compositions are arguably more nuanced and superior), but the stories he told in his films were actually worth telling, and they were told well. As opposed to a 2 hour film about a guy with vertigo, for instance.
The obese British actor playing Gutman turns in a fine performance as well. These days we are so used to Black Urban Vernacular that the cutting street language of the 1940s seems alien and remote... but I think it stills kicks ass, as does this movie.
His lack of range as an actor is exactly what is needed for the part. All he has to do is stand there cracking one-liners like a statue, and he does that so well. John Huston's groundbreaking film (which most people credit with inventing noir filmmaking) is carried along by a series of unending plot twists. And each time the narrative takes a turn, Spade is unfazed. He remains coolly confident, cloaked in moral ambiguity, and you never know which side he is on. No matter what happens, no matter how desperate or crazy, Spade is in control. You never for a moment doubt that he will come out on top and kick a lot of ass in the process. This archetype of the hardboiled anti-hero, created by Huston and animated by Bogart, has been re-used in more films than you could possibly watch in one lifetime.
I think it's a shame that John Huston is never mentioned in the same breath as Hitchcock. Huston did a lot of the same things Hitchcock did (his visual motifs and scene compositions are arguably more nuanced and superior), but the stories he told in his films were actually worth telling, and they were told well. As opposed to a 2 hour film about a guy with vertigo, for instance.
The obese British actor playing Gutman turns in a fine performance as well. These days we are so used to Black Urban Vernacular that the cutting street language of the 1940s seems alien and remote... but I think it stills kicks ass, as does this movie.
