Bogart

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

For someone named the top movie star of all time in polls, a surprising number of Humphrey Bogart's movies remain unavailable on DVD. Fox recently licensed "The Left Hand of God'' to the Twilight Time label, but we still await "Deadline U.S.A.'' and the bulk of his Warner Bros. B pictures from the late '30.


The TCM Vault Collection has helpfully filled in a couple of gaps in his filmography with the DVD recent premieres of the obscure "Love Affair''(1932) and Nicholas Ray's "Knock on Any Door'' (1949) as part of "The Humphrey Bogart Columbia Pictures Collection,'' which includes five of the eight movies Bogie made for Columbia Pictures (excluded are the high-profile "The Caine Mutiny,'' recently released on Blu-ray, as well as Ray's "In a Loney Place'' and Zoltan Korda's "Sahara,'' which I'd make an educated guess are planned for high-definition upgrades in the near future).

Unrelated to the Oscar-nominated, long-trapped-in-PD-hell 1939 Leo McCarey classic of the same name, "Love Affair'' is one of three Bogart films released in 1932 after the end of his unhappy stint as a juvenile lead at Fox. It comes right before his first two Warner credits, "Big City Blues'' (not on DVD) and "Three on a Match'' (on DVD), which predate his long-term contract with that studio by four years.

In "Love Affair' Bogart is billed second to Dorothy Mackaill, a British-born former Ziefeld Girl fresh off the notorious pre-code melodrama "Safe in Hell'' (1931), which concluded her own Warner contract (it was recently released by the Warner Archive Collection, which has a couple of her pre-code comedies on tap for next week). She plays an heiress who takes up with a peniless flyer -- that'd be a charming Bogart -- in this sexually frank romantic drama with slight pre-screwball tendencies. This would pretty much be Bogie's last romantic lead until "Casablanca'' a full decade later.

The transfer for "Love Affair'' is astonishingly clean for a scarcely known 79-year-old movie, and "Knock on Any Door'' also looks razor-sharp and bright. Bogart is very good as an idealistic attorney defending a young man (John Derek, best known today as the director husband of Bo Derek and Ursula Andress) accused of murder.
Bogie exudes a weary authority, especially in his long summation speech, which he reportedly thought was a rehearsal but was captured by Ray in a single take (with reaction shots edited in). A recent Ray biography says that Willard Motley was disappointed with this watered-down version of his acclaimed novel, which goes rather overboard in painting Derek as a victim of society.

"Knock on Any Door'' (1949) was the first film produced by Bogie's post-Warner production company, Santana, named after his beloved yacht. It wasn't a box office success, and he and his producing partner, Robert Lord, didn't have much more luck with their more commercially-oriented second film, Stuart Heisler's "Tokyo Joe,'' also released in 1949.

There are more than faint echoes of "Casablanca'' in Bogart's role as a Tokyo nightclub owner who returns to the Japanese capitol (some second-unit stuff was shot there in the first Hollywood activity during the occupation). after military service during World War II. He tangles with Sessue Hayakawa (in his Hollywood comeback) and Alexander Knox, who has married Bogie's ex-wife (Florence Marly).

"In a Lonely Place,'' which was popular mainly with critics, was followed by Santana's even more blatant "Casablanca'' homage, "Sirocco'' (1951), set in 1925 Damascus. Bogie's a World War I veteran who vies with a French occupation commander (Lee J. Cobb) for the affections of lovely Marta Torten. Curtis Bernardt, a visual stylist and German refugee who had guided Bogart though "Conflict'' (1945) back at Warners, directs a formidable cast that includes Everett Sloan and soon-to-be-blacklisted Zero Mostel in one of five films he made that year.

The financially ruinous Santana and its films were sold to Columbia for $1 million after "Sirocco,'' but Bogie returned to the studio for "The Caine Mutiny'' as well as his final film, Mark Robson's hard-hitting "The Harder They Fall'' (1956). Released a year before he died of lung cancer at age 57 -- takes were reportedly interrupted by his wracking coughs -- Bogart looks tired as a washed-up sports reporter hired by a crooked promoter (Rod Steiger) to act as press agent for a boxer with dubious talents (loosely based by original author Budd Schulberg on Primo Carnera). Bogie's still in good enough form to make this a satisfying finale to his cut-shot but iconic career.

The transfers of the three later films appear to be older, possibly the same ones used for earlier, out-of-print standalone DVD editions. "The Harder They Fall,'' a bit darker than the others, is a first-rate film that deserves a high-def facelift from Sony in the future.

The main special features are excellent on-camera introductions by TCM weekend host Ben Mankiewicz, his first for this series.

The TCM's Vault Collection recent hookup with Sony has also yielded the four-title "Jean Arthur Columbia Comedy Collection'' comprised of four lesser-known titles with the delightful actress that have never even been available on VHS as far as researchers can tell.

Signed by Columbia as a dramatic actress in 1934, her comic chops are evident even in a trifling B movie like Erle C. Kenton's "The Public Menace'' (1935). She sparkles as a manicurist forced into an immigration marriage to a wisecracking reporter (the less than scintillating George Murphy during his brief pre-MGM stint on Gower Street) who she helps corral the title character, a Mafioso played by Douglas Dumbrille.

Arthur enjoys top billing in Edward Ludwig's nonsensical but fun "Adventure in Manhattan'' (1936), but it's really a vehicle for freelancer Joel McCrea. He and Arthur had played the juvenile leads in the 1930 RKO Pathe adventure "The Silver Horde'' (newly available on a Roan Group DVD that I taped an introduction to years ago) and would be famously reteamed in one of her biggest hits, "The More the Merrier'' (1944). In this earlier effort, McCrea plays another reporter, a specialist in criminals tracking down a wily art thief (Reginald Owen). Arthur, who has great chemistry with McCrea, is cast an actress who helps with the hunt in one of the era's many imitations of "The Thin Man,'' including "The Ex-Mrs. Bradford,'' which Arthur made opposite William Powell on loan to
RKO just before this one.

Also in 1936, Arthur -- whose career in films went back to 1923 -- finally shot to stardom in Frank Capra's "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.'' She finished that year with Alfred E. Green's moderately amusing "More Than a Secretary,'' wearing glasses and trying to seduce boss George Brent, who runs a health magazine. Arthur is joined in the comic heavy lifting by Lionel Stander and Ruth Donnelly, as well as a very funny supporting actress named Dorothea Kent.

The final film in this set was made eight years later, in 1944, and was Columbia's attempt to recapture the magic of "The More the Merrier'' without the participation of McCrea or director George Stevens. Charles Coburn, who had won an Oscar for "Merrier,'' is back as Arthur's father for "The Impatient Years'' (1944). But playing the GI husband awkwardly reuniting with Arthur after an 18-month separation following a whirlwind World War II courtship is the stiff, pencil-moustached Lee Bowman, who failed to achieve stardom at RKO, MGM or Columbia. The film has its moments, thanks to Arthur and Coburn, but journeyman director Irving Cummings was no George Stevens, and the film flopped.

The TCM Vault Collection, which was launched in 2008 with manufacture-on-demand discs of five long-unavailable RKO titles that fell out of the library inherited by Turner Entertainment, has mostly drawn from a partnership with Universal Studios Home Entertainment that began the following year. Like the Sony titles, these are pressed (rather than burned) discs, at least for the initial runs, which are available exclusively at TCM's website and that of its former e-tailing partner, Movies Unlimited.

The most recent of these releases consists of the very different 1941 and 1961 films derived from Fanny Hurst's novel "Back Street.'' The earlier and more notable of the two, set around the turn of the 20th century, stars the great Margaret Sullivan and Charles Boyer. Nobody suffered quite like Sullivan (whose voice was as distinctive as Arthur's) and this weepie has her carrying on a longtime convert affair with married banker Boyer under the able direction of the underrated Robert Stevenson (the 1944
"Jane Eyre'' and 'Mary Poppins'').
David Miller's Cinemascope remake, produced in slightly garish Eastmancolor by Ross Hunter, updates the action to the Korean War. This one stars Susan Hayward as a fashion designer and John Gavin of "Psycho'' fame, Universal's second-string Rock Hudson, as the married lover. Both versions have scores by the studio's insanely prolific house composer, Frank Skinner. Sadly, this release does not include the first screen version of "Back Street,'' directed in 1932 by the estimable John M. Stahl with Irene Dunne and John Boles. I've never seen it.

The Warner Archive collection has just released the long-promised first Andy Hardy Collection as its second box set of new titles (after October's Jean Harlow opus). Boxed in separate Amaray cases are six titles, beginning with the first official series entry, "You're Only Young Twice'' (1937, spun off from the one-shot "A Family Affair'' which had Lionel Barrymore and Spring Byington as Mickey Rooney's parents instead of series regulars Lewis Stone and Fay Holden). The set skips to the fourth series entry, "Out West With the Hardys'' (1938) and then proceeds chronologically from the seventh episode: "Judge Hardy and Son'' (1939) with Maria Ouspenskaya; "Andy Hardy Meets Debutante'' (1940) featuring Judy Garland; "Andy Hardy's Private Secretary'' (1940) with
Kathryn Grayson; and "Life Begins WIth Andy Hardy'' (1941), Garland's final appearance in the series. There are no extras. Four hundred copies signed by the 91-year-old Rooney quickly sold out when they went on sale Friday; they're going for as much as $150 on eBay.

Also new at the WAC website are a pair of titles available previously only as exclusives from Critics Choice Video: Anthony Mann's "Serenade'' (1956) with Mario Lanza, Joan Fontaine and Vincent Price in an adaptation of a James M. Cain novel; and Victor Saville's "Green Dolphin Street'' (1946) a lavish, black-and-white period adventure starring Lana Turner, Donna Reed, the unfortunate Richard Hart and a big New Zealand earthquake. The previously announced eight-title "Robert Montgomery Collection'' is also formally available for sale today.

Sony's MOD initiative, Screen Classics by Request, continues to mine the Columbia Pictures library seemingly at random with its Jan. 3 releases, including "Carolina Blues'' (1944) a musical with bandleader Kay Kyser and Ann Miller; "There's Something About a Soldier'' (1943) with Evelyn Keyes and Tom Neal; "Paradise Lagoon'' (1957), the U.S. title for this British adaptation of "The Admirable Chrichton'' with Kenneth More; and Anthony Mann's French Revolution noir "The Black Book'' (1949) starring Robert Cummings and Richard Basehart. The latter was previously released by VCI under its original title, "Reign of Terror.''

Kino continues its ambitious schedule of Blu-ray upgrades on Feb 7 with William Wellman's "A Star is Born'' (1937), sourced from a nitrate Technicolor print (Warner, which apparently owns the negatives for this longtime P.D. classic, has contemplated a possible release that never happened). On Feb. 28, Kino will bow Blu-ray editions for a pair of Fritz Lang classics: "Scarlet Street'' (1945) with Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett; and the 1919 silent "Spies.''

And finally, Paramount has announced the Blu-ray debut of Arthur Hiller and Erich Segal's immortal "Love Story'' (1970) starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw on Feb. 7, just in time for Valentine's Day. Features, including Hiller's commentary track, carry over from the previous DVD release. Pity Paramount didn't license the fascinating "Oprah'' episode devoted to the film's 40 anniversary in 2010, which reunited the two stars.