As I mentioned a couple posts back, for me The Maltese Falcon killed two birds with one stone: it introduced me to both Humphrey Bogart as well as Film Noir. Not too bad.

This is easily one of my favorite films right from the go. It's a fast-paced film with lightening quick dialogue and if you get up to get more popcorn you'll likely miss some important nuggets of intel.

This movie for me does what I want all movies to do but many don't - it builds to an ending that I look forward to seeing each and every viewing. Few movies do that for me but The Maltese Falcon does it in spades (no pun intended) and it does it with pure dialogue; no action, no explosions, no CGI. Just Bogie and Mary Astor doing their thing.

​"I hope they don't hang you precious by that sweet neck".

Here's another ball point pen drawing of Bogie from John Huston's The African Queen, which went on to score Humphrey Bogart an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1952.

This was a different type of character for Bogart - certainly not Film Noir and certainly not a gangster flick, this was more comedic with much more romance, which took me by surprise. I've only seen this one once and while I'm a fan of Bogart I'm not sure this one really blew me away. It could of course just be the style of film it is. I love Film Noir and I love crime, suspense, and mysteries however this one struck me as something of a romantic adventure story, which I guess personally is a harder sell. Though, in all honesty I have only seen it the one time and I've been meaning to go back and check it out again to test my initial impressions, which could have been thrown off by the non-noir elements that initially drew me to so many Bogart movies.

I will say the settings were excellent, the acting was great and opening scene with a bearded Bogart and his growling stomach is truly entertaining stuff. I'll keep an open mind, give it another go and let you know what I think.

- D

Here's a sketch of Bogie from the great movie, The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse from 1938. This was still in his gangster days as he plays Rocks Valentine (nice name, no?), the leader of a gang of jewel thieves.

As much as I love Humphrey the real star of this film is it's lead, Edward G. Robinson - a psychologist who wants to know what makes the mind of criminals tick. So he joins Rocks' gang of miscreants and studies them as his unknowing guinea pigs.

Not all is innocent with Clitterhouse though as he walks the fine line between science and immorality, often times moving casually into the latter.

The ending of this movie takes a turn I didn't see coming. It has to be one of my favorites, and especially for a movie of this era, but you'll have to check it out yourself.

- D

Continuing onward with my short series of Bogart sketches here's one from the 1936 film The Petrified Forest. This is considered Bogie's breakout role where he plays a fugitive killer who takes hostage a cast of customers and staff at a worn-out ramshackle of a diner in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Humphrey does his stuff and portrays a killer with depth, and so do the rest of the characters. Bette Davis plays a waitress with talent and dreams and Leslie Howard perfectly plays a vagabond writer wondering from town to town, country to country.

I loved the commentary Leslie Howard's character makes about being a writer, an intellectual and the inner anxiety and self-doubt he's experienced because of it. The movie is a great stew of colorful characters - a prideful American business owner, a cynical would-be patron, a grandfather who may or may not be a money hoarder while his son's diner is struggling. All this backdropped against a hostage scenario.

This one should spring some debate about the decisions of certain characters in the end and whether their intentions are truly as they wished them to be interpreted. Give it a watch.

- D

Here's another drawing of Humphrey Bogart. This shot is from the movie that moved Bogie from gangster films to Film Noir and really began the career he's most remembered by, HIGH SIERRA.

This is a great, great movie with a complex performance by Bogart. I may be wrong about it but I think this is the last movie he didn't receive top billing for. That went to Ida Lupino, his co-star who also delivers a great performance as a tough, but tender femme-fatale.

This sketch was done with a Bic "Soft Feel" ball point pen. These are probably my favorite pens of this kind. They're surprisingly versatile for drawing or sketching. You can sketch as light as a feather while still getting some deep, dark blacks. There's no erasing but on a positive note.. there's no erasing. They force you to pay attention and there's something nice about knowing once a mark is on the page it ain't coming off. Go pick some up and give them a chance.

- D

I thought I'd start the year off by sharing some sketches done of one of my favorite leading actors - Humphrey Bogart.
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I've been a big Bogie fan since I came across The Maltese Falcon a few years back, which for me opened up the doors to the genre of Film Noir. Prior to Bogie, or that rare falcon so many died for, the subject matter of Noir was introduced to me in the form of comics through Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' excellent series, CRIMINAL. In the back of each issue they'd chew the fat, digesting the great films from the 40s and 50s via articles and interviews (worth the price of admission alone) and I remember The Maltese Falcon being one of them - so I gave it a go. I was hooked immediately. This exposed me to Bogie and Film Noir, both of which I've been eating up with delight ever since.

The drawing here is in fact not from The Maltese Falcon but a film that came out a year later called ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. It's a good movie, and funny. Check it out.

Happy 2018 everyone!
​Doug