Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection, Vol. 1 [6 Discs]

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 6
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Stereo
• Features:
  • Featurettes for 4 titles
  • Separate Casablanca commentaries by Roger Ebert and by film historian Rudy Behlmer
  • Bacall on Bogart documentary
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre commentary by Eric Lax
  • Profiles of Bogart and Joh Huston
  • Vintage vault treasures and radio shows
  • Hours more!

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Director - 1948 (John Huston)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1948 (Walter Huston)
•     Won Best Director - 1943 (Michael Curtiz)
•     Won Best Picture - 1943
•     Won Best Screenplay - 1943 (Julius J. Epstein, Howard W. Koch, Philip G. Epstein)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1948
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1948 (John Huston)
•     Nominated Best Actor - 1943 (Humphrey Bogart)
•     Nominated Best Black and White Cinematography - 1943 (Arthur Edeson)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 1943 (Owen Marks)
•     Nominated Best Score - Drama or Comedy - 1943 (Max Steiner)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 1943 (Claude Rains)
•     Nominated Best Two-Reel Short - 1938

• American Film Institute

•     Won 100 Greatest American Movies - 1998

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Nominated Best Film - Any Source - 1949 (John Huston)

• Film Daily

•     Won 10 Best Films - 1948
•     Won 10 Best Films - 1942

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Director - 1948 (John Huston)
•     Won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 1948 (Walter Huston)
•     Won Best Picture - 1948

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1989
•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1988

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Actor - 1948 (Walter Huston)
•     Won Best Screenplay - 1948 (John Huston)
•     Won Best Acting - 1941 (Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1948
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1943
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1941

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Director - 1948 (John Ford)
•     Won Best Picture - 1948

• New York Times

•     Won 10 Best Films - 1948
•     Won 10 Best Films - 1942

• Sundance Film Festival

•     Won Filmmaker's Trophy: Documentary - 1988 (Frank Martin)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Humphrey Bogart - Rick Blaine
       Humphrey Bogart - Fred C. Dobbs
       Humphrey Bogart - Roy Earle
       Paul Newman
       George Raft - Joe Fabrini
       Lauren Bacall
       Ingrid Bergman - Ilsa
       Walter Huston - Howard
       Ida Lupino - Marie Garson
       Ann Sheridan - Cassie Hartley
       Humphrey Bogart - Paul Fabrini
       Paul Henreid - Victor Laszlo
       Tim Holt - Curtin
       Arthur Kennedy - Red Hattery
       Evelyn Keyes
       Bruce Bennett - Cody
       Joan Leslie - Velma
       Ida Lupino - Lana Carisen
       Arthur Miller
       Claude Rains - Capt. Louis Renault
       Michael Caine
       Alan Curtis - Babe Kozak
       Barton MacLane - McCormick
       Gale Page - Pearl Fabtini
       Conrad Veidt - Maj. Heinrich Strasser
       Peter Lorre - Ugarte

• Director:

  Richard L. Bare, Scott Benson, Michael Curtiz, John Huston, Chuck Jones, Frank Martin, Robert McKimson, Raoul Walsh

• Producer:

  Henry Blanke, Hal B. Wallis

• Book Author:

  A.I. Bezzerides, W.R. Burnett, B. Traven

• Play Author:

  Joan Alison, Murray Burnett

• Screenwriter:

  W.R. Burnett, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, John Huston, Howard Koch, Richard Macaulay, Jerry Wald

• Cinematographer:

  Arthur Edeson, Tony Gaudio, Ted D. McCord

• Composer (Music Score):

  Adolph Deutsch, Hugo W. Friedhofer, Steve Goldstein, Carl Stalling, Max Steiner

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Adolph Deutsch, Leo F. Forbstein

• Songwriter:

  Herman Hupfeld, M. K. Jerome, Jack Scholl

• Editor:

  Oliver S. Garretson, Jack Killifer, Owen Marks, Tom Richards, Robert Sinise

• Production Designer:

  Thomas A. Walsh

• Art Director:

  John Hughes, Ted Smith, Carl Jules Weyl

• Associate Producer:

  Mark Hellinger

REVIEWS:

• There are many people for whom Casablanca is the greatest Hollywood movie ever made, and, while that may be going a bit far, one would be hard-pressed to think of another film in which the pieces fell together with such serendipity. It's hard to imagine a movie in which the leads are better cast: Humphrey Bogart's tough, effortless cool gives Rick the ideal balance of honor and cynicism, Ingrid Bergman's luminous beauty makes it seem reasonable that men would fight for Ilsa's affections, and Paul Henreid's Victor is cold enough that you can imagine Ilsa's being tempted by her old flame. The supporting cast is superb down the line; Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Dooley Wilson, and S.Z. Sakall are all so memorable that one tends to forget that none is onscreen for very long. The screenplay often walks the border of cliché, but the story has just enough twists, and the dialogue so much snap, that it stays compelling throughout. And Michael Curtiz knew just when to turn on the schmaltz and when to cut it off. Casablanca blends romance, suspense, humor, and patriotic drama with such skill that one imagines it must have happened by accident, and the movie looks better with each passing year. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll cheer, and the good guys strike a blow against fascism -- what more could you want from a movie? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
• Humphrey Bogart has very little to do in They Drive by Night, except feeling sorry for himself. Instead, the film belongs squarely to George Raft, who, for once didn't turn down a great role. (He passed on, among others, The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca.) But what good fortune that both worked for Warner Bros., that most blue-collar oriented of all the Hollywood studios. More than anything, They Drive by Night is a working-class movie -- working-class chic, perhaps, what with Ann Sheridan in full Hollywood war paint despite playing a roadhouse waitress -- and embodies all the hopes and aspirations of what they used to call the "working stiff." Raft doesn't necessarily want to become a millionaire like his friend, Alan Hale, and certainly want nothing to do with the latter's grasping wife, never mind what she is willing to do for him. All he wishes for is a little business of his own, to punch his own time clock and do an honest day's work without answering to anyone. And when he finally achieves that goal -- through the circuitous road route the screenwriters have mapped out for him -- he is just what you knew he would be: the most democratic of bosses. Imagine what they would have done with such a plot and such a character over at posh, other-worldly MGM. Ida Lupino, meanwhile, overacts her hysteria in the climactic courtroom scene but the great Warner stock company is out in force to make sure that They Drive by Night is the slam-bang action-drama that its press book promised. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
• High Sierra is pretty hokey for a gangster flick, what with a dog playing a key role in the story. The down-on-their-luck farm family that befriends Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart) is also challenged in the acting department. For instance, watching Velma (Joan Leslie) attempting to cry on screen is the stuff of bad high school drama departments. The scenes with the family also require Bogart to smile more often than he should. Smiling is not Bogart's strongest suit, though speaking through his teeth is, and he also does plenty of that in High Sierra, playing the usual tough, unforgiving gangster. In this role he also possess a caring, sort of domestic side to his character, and he's a pushover, going so far as to bring a dog with him at Marie Garson's (Ida Lupino) request, during a robbery. Algernon (Willie Best) sticks out as a completely racist stereotype who thankfully only has a few scenes. Bogart, in this 1941 release, despite a screenplay that has moments of inspiration and scenes that just stink, carries the film on his back. Ida Lupino is good, too, as the desperate runaway who hangs onto Bogart much like the abandoned dog. But her role doesn't give her much to work with. High Sierra is another gangster film that would be mostly forgettable if it weren't for Bogart's stellar acting. Note: Avoid the colorized version which makes the landscape look fake and some of the actors look orange. ~ Adam Bregman, All Movie Guide
• Loosely based on the Biblical parable of the thieves and the "Pardoner's Tale" in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, John Huston's morality tale is one of the great cinematic proofs of the Biblical adage radix malorum est cupitidas, or, the root of evil is the love of money. The film is a clever study of the erosive effect that money can have on flawed men's characters. Shot entirely on location in Mexico, the film's dry and dusty atmosphere is clearly authentic. Humphrey Bogart's maniacal Fred Dobbs is one of moviedom's great characterizations, a conglomeration of cunning, greed and paranoia. As his wealth mounts, so does his distrust. While external threats abound, the real enemy lies within. The Treasure of the Sierre Madre examines the essential existential hopelessness and loneliness of the avaricious man, drawing an implicit parallel between the prospectors and man's contemporary pursuit of material wealth. A failure with audiences who apparently didn't want to see Bogie playing such a nefarious anti-hero, the movie is now recognized by most critics as an American classic: AFI voted it #30 on the list of 100 all time great American films, while for the first time ever, a father and son -- John (for directing and screenplay) and Walter Huston (for best supporting actor) -- won Oscars for their stellar work. ~ Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide

CUSTOMER REVIEWS: