Okay, I admit I was a little hard on Bogie and Casablanca. i just hate seeing it on Greatest Movies lists, much lest at the top. Greatest for its time, maybe. "We'll always have Paris", "Play the song, Sam" and "This could be the start of a beautiful friendship" made it into the language, but like a lot of athletes of the period, fiction writing, or beauty queens - the competition wasn't that stiff ( certainly not what it is now )

There is more good writing and good acting in one episode of Mad Men, The Shield, The Wire, Sopranos, Deadwood or any one of about 20 TV shows of the last 10 years as there were in all the movies from 1910 to 1965 ( if you exclude The Hustler <g> and French and Italian movies of the post-war period. )

And Bogart looked fine in a white dinner jacket. But his sneering Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon is just embarrassing. Would have loved to see Mitchum do that part. (albeit he was too young for the original <g> )

Treasure of Sierra Madre is a great movie but Bogart really should have spent less time buying cigarettes and more time at the gym. <s>



>>>My 10 favorite movies
>>>
>>>It's a Wonderful Life
>>>Christmas Story
>>>White Christmas
>>>Casablanca
>>>To Kill a Mockingbird
>>>Blues Brothers
>>>League of Their Own
>>>Glory Road
>>>The Majestic
>>>Dogma
>>>
>>>Honorable mention: Animal House and the original M*A*S*H movie
>>
>>Okay, to play contrarian :
>>
>>I find Xmas Story, Wonderful Life, White Christmas and Mockingbird cloying krap. <s>
>>
>>Liked League of their Own and Dogma.
>>
>>Blues Brothers was genius.
>>
>>Casablanca always requires an asterisk for me as "compared to the other Hollywood dreck of its time" Never really bought Bogart as a tough guy. They should *never* have put him on camera in a wife-beater. (not Casablanca - maybe To have and to have not) Bacall on the other hand is hot in any time-frame ( whereas Marilyn Monroe today couldn't get a job in porn ) I just have trouble with pretty much the entire acting style that was predominant in studio movies prior to about 1967. Like 50s television it now just seems so dated I can't rewatch any of it.
>>
>>Wonderful Life has me throwing things at the TV throughout the holiday season ( kind of tradition <s> Every time I hit the TV an angel gets his wings !)
>
>I predominantly agree with you, although not about "Casablanca" or Bogie. A movie with that many great lines and scenes can't be dismissed. The one that is sometimes mentioned as an all time classic and makes me want to vomit is the one about the soldier who comes home wounded from the war. Please don't remind me of the title because I am happier not remembering it.
>
>What changed in the late 60s was a new generation of directors emerged who respected the audience. They effectively broke the studio system.
>
>The old ways have not completely died. I have read several reviews, all negative, of the new Disney release "Secretariat." It sounds completely phony and "uplifting." One of them mentioned there is a scene where Secretariat and a rival horse turn in the starting gates and glare at each other like boxers before the opening bell. Puh-leeze.
>
>If I want to be uplifted by Secretariat this is all I need.
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS4f6wiQJh4

cS4f6wiQJh4