Bogart and Bacall

  

 

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are among the most celebrated couples in movie history both on-screen and off. They first met on the set of To Have and Have Not in 1944. Bogart, age 44, was a star and Bacall a 19-year-old newcomer recruited by film director Howard Hawks after a brief New York modeling career. They immediately clicked. The four films in which they appeared are among my favorites. Here are brief notices.

 

To Have and Have Not.  Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall co-star in this 1944 wartime drama loosely based on an Ernest Hemingway story. It seems obvious that the filmmakers attempted to cash in on the success of Casablanca, the very popular 1942 war time drama that established Bogart as a huge star.

Both films are set after the fall of France in colonies under the control of the French Vichy government, a puppet of the German conquerors. Casablanca is in Morocco, and To Have and Have Not takes place in the French Caribbean colony of Martinique. 

As in Casablanca Bogart plays a tough, jaded American who just wants to go about his business without any involvement in the war or politics. In Casablanca he ran a popular night club but in To Have and Have Not Bogart is a charter fishing boat captain barely eking out a living. Still, much of the action takes place in a saloon/night club which even has its own likeable piano player, this time played by Hoagy Carmichael.

I suppose the greatest difference in the two films is the female lead. In To Have and Have Not the nineteen-year-old Bacall made a spectacular film debut. Instead of the sophisticated Ingrid Bergman of Casablanca fame, Bacall is a sexy and sassy young woman just passing through. The on-screen chemistry between her and Bogart makes this film a joy to watch.

The dialogue between them, written by Jules Furthman and William Faulkner, the renowned novelist, pushes the envelope of Hollywood’s Production Code. Although condemned by modern critics, the Code forced writers to be really creative in expressing sexuality without becoming offensive to their 1940s audiences. The scene in which Bacall teaches Bogart how to whistle is the highlight of the film. 100 minutes. CC.

The Big Sleep.  The successful pairing of Bogart and Bacall led to three other films in very short order. They next starred in a 1946 adaptation of famed crime novelist Raymond Chandler’s novel, The Big Sleep.  Bogart plays Chandler’s legendary private eye, Philip Marlowe, on the trail of killers, pornographers, gamblers, and a bevy of beautiful young women. In this film and in the earlier Maltese Falcon Bogart created the private eye. No one else ever came close. 

Despite a convoluted plot, once again director Howard Hawks brought out the chemistry between the now famous couple who had actually fallen in love on the set of To Have and Have Not, and married soon after. This time Bacall plays a wealthy sophisticated woman but the dialogue, especially between the two stars is discreetly sexually charged. 

Interestingly, there is an added feature on my DVD that sheds light on the creative process in Hollywood in those days. Before the film’s release Bacall’s agent saw a preview and thought it would destroy his client’s budding career. He wrote a long letter to the studio head asking that some scenes be re-shot to improve Bacall’s role. The studio agreed and the result is a classic film noir. 114 minutes. CC.

Dark Passage. Bogart and Bacall star in this 1947 film about a man who breaks out of prison after being falsely convicted of murdering his wife. Based on a novel by crime writer David Goodis, Bogart plays the escaped con, and Bacall plays another sophisticated woman who, for reasons of her own, provides a hideout for him in her lavish apartment.  

Nevertheless, to escape the law, he takes the advice of a friendly cabbie who in the middle of the night arranges an appointment for him with an outlaw plastic surgeon who claims he can make him look like anything, even a monkey, in 90 minutes, no more no less. Sure enough, the doctor, played hilariously by character actor Houseley Stevenson, turns him into Humphrey Bogart once the bandages are removed.

Next to the scene with the plastic surgeon, my favorite part of this film is the ending with the couple meeting to the tune of “You’re Just Too Marvelous.” 106 minutes. CC. 

Key Largo. John Huston directed this 1948 drama that would be the last film in which the famous couple appear together, but their roles are strangely subdued. Bacall plays a war widow who runs a small hotel in the Florida Keys with her wheelchair bound father, played by Lionel Barrymore. Bogart's character had served with her husband during the war, and though he survived, the war has had its effect on him.  He is not the tough self-assured guy of the earlier films.  

Bogart’s character wants to meet his deceased friend’s family, but arrives at the hotel in the midst of a hurricane warning only to find that there is danger within. Edward G. Robinson practically steals the show playing an over the hill gangster on the lam from police. His gang has taken over the hotel until they can find passage to Cuba.  Claire Trevor won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress playing the gangster’s mistress, an ex-nightclub singer turned alcoholic. 101 minutes. CC.

I prefer to watch on DVD with no annoying commercials. In addition, the DVDs sometimes include informative features.

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Finish the Job, Sir

 

                                           

 

Although the attack on Iran has been an unqualified military success, commentators wonder about the so-called endgame.  What will happen in future weeks and months? Does anyone know? 

Actually, the overwhelming destruction of Iran’s military capabilities means that we are now in the endgame. Let’s consider the condition of the 90 million people in Iran, a country twice the size of Texas. Although USA and Israeli bombing has so far been pin-pointing military targets with remarkable accuracy, the impact on the civilian population could be catastrophic.

Food supplies must be scarce. There must be widespread hunger, even starvation in some areas.

Their water supply system must have been severely impacted. Drinking water availability and quality must have been compromised. Waste removal and sewage systems may not be functioning.

Electricity must be out in many parts of the country with not only loss of light but also heat. Communications networks must be impaired if working at all. 

Needed medical services for the sick, injured, and elderly must be almost non-existent.

Just imagine your own neighborhood without food, water, light, heat and phone communication during a winter storm. Inevitably, we can expect crime and looting as people struggle to survive.

We have won the war, but we will find ourselves responsible for avoiding a human tragedy of enormous dimensions. Look what Israel had to do after the war in Gaza. Iran will require a much greater humanitarian response. What can we do?

This Monday, March 9, President Trump provided a relatively short report on the status of the war, and on its potential aftermath. Anyone who dislikes the President for the things he says should take the time to view the 30-minute report as well as the questions he handled afterwards.

He claimed that the attack on Iran had been an unqualified success, and that our military had achieved in three days what planners had thought would take weeks, even months to achieve. 

He did spend much time on what might come next. He did not sound like a belligerent conqueror out to impose his will on the Iranian people, or even the remnants of the current regime.

The President indicated that he does not intend to repeat the mistakes of the war in Iraq. He intends that Iran’s oil be used to finance the rebuilding of the country and not fall into the hands of terrorists. He also believes that when the supporters of the regime in Iraq lost their jobs, they joined ISIS. He hopes that the policy of accommodation working in Venezuela can work in Iran.

He also stated that shipping lanes in the area will be protected so that the flow of oil will continue to the rest of the world. He pointed out that using our naval resources to keep the Straits of Hormuz open is not for our benefit since we are now energy independent. In particular, this policy will especially benefit China, a country largely dependent on oil imports. Wisely, he does not intend to use success in Iran to drive the Chinese back to the wall. 

He then took questions from the assembled reporters. It is amazing that Trump haters cannot credit Trump’s willingness to take questions. He seems to be out there every day taking questions. Have his opponents forgotten that President Biden rarely held a press conference, and that former President Obama always used a teleprompter?

Anyway, he took about 18 questions from the assembled reporters, and I don’t believe there was one that asked about the astonishing military success we achieved. Today’s media seems no longer interested in reporting what has actually happened, but they focus on what they fear will happen in the future especially with President Trump in command.

Despite the success of the mission, most of the questions were designed to find fault. The extraordinary precision of our bombing in striking only military targets in contrast to most modern war, or the terrorist tactics of the Iranian regime and its proxies went unmentioned. 

Questioners tried to drive a wedge between the President and Vice-President Vance and even suggested that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was unfit to conduct negotiations with Cuba. 

The last question was especially telling. The reporter asked how many casualties President Trump was willing to accept in this war.  In three days, we had destroyed Iran’s Russia and China supplied air defense system, neutralized its 1000 plus ballistic missile arsenal, sunk its entire navy, and decapitated its leadership, and we had taken only eight casualties. 

The question was insulting but the President, as usual, handled it well. He mentioned that he had already met with the families of the eight soldiers, and that despite their grief, they urged him to “Finish the job, Sir, finish the job.”

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War in Iran

  

                                           

 

Since first hearing the news of the joint US and Israeli bombing of military targets in Iran, I have been seeking out news of what is actually happening. It has not been easy. News sites that I watch or read provide very little information of what is going on.

Talking heads on cable stations usually focus on what they think or fear will happen and not what has actually happened. Often their opinions are accompanied by continually repeated videos of sites being blown to bits but with no indication of what sites are being destroyed. 

 

Here are some bits and pieces of what I have discovered so far. 

 

President Trump has declared that the attack on Iran has four objectives. He claims that the success of the initial attacks, especially the destruction of the Iranian high command, have put us far ahead of achieving these goals.

Ensure that Iran will never have a nuclear bomb. Iran’s refusal to accept this demand led to the breakdown of the most recent diplomatic efforts.*

Destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capability. The response to our attack showed how extensive the Iranian missile and drone system was. Even though most were intercepted, some did get through and cause death and destruction. Many seemed to have been aimed at non-military targets in nearby Arab states. 

Destroy the Iranian navy and its threat to shipping lanes in the Gulf of Hormuz. So far, it appears that we have sunk 17 Iranian naval vessels in the Gulf of Oman.

Ensure that the Iranian regime will no longer be able to arm terrorist proxies in the area. 

 

Rather than shooting from the hip, the President seems to have been very careful in making his decision. One former aide described the President’s decision-making process in some detail. He claimed that Trump listens to and encourage different opinions before coming to a significant decision. Contrary to popular opinion, he does not shoot from the hip in matters of such importance.

Nevertheless, the President took an incredible risk in this venture. Anything can go wrong in war, and one misstep could wreck his Presidency. So far, even military commentators on left-leaning cable shows have had to admit that the military operation has been extraordinarily well planned and executed. 

He also took a great political risk. Democrats who want the President to fail on anything he does were quick to distance themselves from the Iranian operation. Very striking were the remarks of Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority leader, who opined that the military attack would fail. How could he know that at this point? What he really meant was that he hoped it would fail. 

My own representatives here in Connecticut are apparently of the same mind. Both Senators Murphy and Blumenthal, as well as Representative Himes, have decried the Iran attack, and argued that Congress should have been consulted. Commentators have pointed out that when President Obama bombed Libya for 7 months, Congressional Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi did not insist on Congressional approval. 

It does appear that the President has acted within his authority, and early this week high ranking members of the Administration appeared before Congress in closed session, and answered questions for two hours. Even so, the Democrats could not offer any support. 

It used to be the custom of the party in Opposition to support the President when it came to foreign policy, especially when it came to war. But no more. When American service men and women are in harm’s way, no politician should dare to hope that they might fail.

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*Note: Steve Witcoff, the President's chief Iran negotiator claimed that the  Iranian negotiators were intransigent, and bragged that they would soon have enough processed uranium to make 11 nuclear bombs. Is it too much to speculate that they might have been more reasonable if they felt that the USA was united behind President Trump in these negotiations? 

State of the Union 2026

I stayed up late last night to watch President Trump's State of the Union Speech. In curiosity, I even stayed tuned for the rebuttal by Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger of Virginia. I would have to say that rather than giving a speech, Trump put on a performance, a performance that unlike most State of the Union addresses was hard not to watch despite its length. 

Thinking about it this morning, I looked back on old Weekly Bystander posts and found that I had forgotten that Trump had given a spectacular performance in his first State of the Union address back in 2017. Then, even liberal opponents had to give him credit. I wrote,

Donald Trump and his political advisors put together a brilliant speech Tuesday night in his address to the Congress. David Brooks on PBS gave him an “A”, and even liberal commentator Mark Shields had to grudgingly give him a  “C+”. Trump touched all the high points of his familiar message but did it in such a fashion as to make even liberal commentators say that he appeared “Presidential.” 

He also used with great effect the touching stories of some ordinary Americans who had been invited to attend, a practice used by many previous Presidents in State of the Union messages. Their stories were heart-warming and even heart wrenching.

 If anything, the stories in 2026 were even more heart wrenching. Who will ever forget the Marine standing at attention despite his wounded legs, and receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in leading the Maduro raid.

Today, I do worry, just as I did in 2017, that Trump’s promises may have set the bar too high. If he can deliver on his promises and fulfill his lofty vision for America, he will be one of the greatest Presidents in history. I know it is good to set goals and aim high but now President Trump will have to deliver. I do not think it will be an easy task given the state of the Union today.

There will be vicious battles in many of our states as the mid-term elections approach. Governor Spanberger's speech was practically a declaration of war. We have a fleet prepared to attack Iran if negotiations fail, but it seems that the Democratic opposition rather than supporting the President's foreign policies  would like them to fail. 

I think my conclusion in 2017 is still appropriate today. I wrote,

I have to admit that when I hear a brilliant speech delivered by a real pro like Trump, I have mixed feelings. It was hard not to be inspired by his message but at the same time, I had to wonder. Could Trump just be, as some suspect, a con man? I don’t think so. It is more likely that he could be a con man who has been converted by his own message or cause in the manner of film characters such as  Professor Harold Hill in “The Music Man," or Gary Cooper in Frank Capra’s masterpiece, “Meet John Doe." However, both these fictional characters were down and out drifters before they rose to prominence. Trump was a billionaire businessman as well as a celebrity already.

I like to think that Trump is more in the line of a wealthy Renaissance merchant who realizes that he must attain political power not only to preserve and protect what he and his family have gained over a lifetime, but also to preserve and protect the city or country that have done so much for him and his family.

The true test of the Trump administration will be on how much it can deliver. If President Trump can just deliver on a third of his promises, it will be a successful Presidency. Batting .333 is good in any league. I hope commentators will begin to focus on what the Trump administration is actually doing, and not on what they fear he will do.*

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*Note: I do think the President could have done a better job last night in his discussion of fraud in Minnesota. Instead of blaming the whole Somali community in Minneapolis, he could have explained that the fraudsters did not just defraud taxpayers, but they kept aid from reaching people in need. Money intended for hungry children, for education, and for those suffering from autism was diverted and often sent abroad. Their Governor, their Attorney General, their representatives in Congress all failed to protect the needy in Minnesota.