CASABLANCA III – Humphrey Bogart
Now, contrast Henreid’s Victor with Bogart’s Rick. Rick is rather one-dimensional despite the character’s early evocations of depth. His attraction to Ilsa seems quite superficial; after all, in the flashback scenes in Paris and even those in Casablanca, does he ever speak of higher purpose? No, Rick is wholly selfish, through and through. Bogart’s Rick is also a far showier role than Henreid’s Laszlo. But does Bogart do anything more with it?
Despite some wittier lines and the nice scene where Rick lets a Romanian refugee couple win at roulette to pay for their visas out of Casablanca, is Rick Blaine sufficiently different from the Sam Spade Bogart essayed in The Maltese Falcon, or any of the rather stolid thugs he played throughout the 1930s? No. There is the same reliance on trite body mannerisms that, while they define the Bogart ’star persona’ (as did John Wayne’s personal foibles define his), they add nothing to the film’s character. In short, Rick Blaine is the generic Bogart character from past films, little different from the above mentioned ‘John Wayne’ characters in dozens of Westerns, or even Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp.
Now, don’t take my word for it. Ask fans of Casablanca, for they will almost always refer to the character Bogart plays in the film as ‘Bogey’ or ‘Bogart,’ not ‘Rick’ or ‘Blaine.’ They’ll rhapsodize on and on when Bogey does this or that, not when Rick does this or that precisely because the lead character in Casablanca is not ‘Rick Blaine,’ but ‘Bogey.’
Why?
Bogart simply was not that good of an actor, and could not differentiate his characters, unlike, say Jimmy Cagney (compare his roles in White Heat and Yankee Doodle Dandy), or Gary Cooper (compare his roles in Sergeant York, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and High Noon), Jimmy Stewart (compare his roles in It’s a Wonderful Life, Rope and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), or the latter-day Robert De Niro (contrast his roles in Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, and The King of Comedy).
This is not to say that Casablanca does not take advantage of Bogart’s limitations as an actor; it certainly does, especially in the last fifteen minutes. Even then, however, Bogart (or Rick) only slightly breaks the pellicle of his star persona to ‘realize,’ a bit, a character of some depth. And that’s a symptom of the film’s problem.
Since all the characters are archetypes, they need to be fully realized in order for claims of greatness to be made. Yet, as with Rick, while some characters are almost fully realized, others are not, and even those who almost get there display a lack of character development that prevents Casablanca from reaching true greatness. Now, compare scenes where Bogart tries to act with his eyes the way Henreid does, and one notices Bogart’s utter limitations — he could do cynicism well, and pain ok (aided by a drink in hand), but that’s about it. This is not because Rick is limited and constricted emotionally the way Victor is. The limits are Bogart’s, not Rick’s, and these limits provide the parameters for objectively measuring Bogart’s success at transcending his star persona and breaking into a new level of characterization. To his credit, Bogart does break a few bonds, as mentioned. He is not an early-and-forever typecast version of the characters someone like Joe Pesci plays from film to film. That said, Bogart’s performance is not in a league with Henreid’s, much less on the same level as some of the truly great performances in film history.
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Tags: Casablanca, Classic Movies, Film Reviews, Humphrey Bogart
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