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29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fine box set that does not obsolete the previous snap-case DVDs, November 30, 2006
The 1940s Hollywood power couple of Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) and Lauren Bacall (1924-) made four excellent films together:
(1) To have and have not (1944)--11/03 snap-case DVD UPC 012569584327, 7/06 keep-case DVD UPC 012569676862
(2) The big sleep (1946)--2/00 snap-case DVD UPC 012569502628, 7/06 keep-case DVD UPC 012569676817
(3) Dark passage (1947)--11/03 snap-case DVD UPC 012569584228, 7/06 keep-case DVD UPC 012569676824
(4) Key Largo (1948)--2/00 snap-case DVD UPC 012569501027, 7/06 keep-case DVD UPC 012569676848
The 1944 movie is a World-War-II film whereas the others are film-noir flicks. [Incidentally, Bacall played opposite Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe in How to marry a millionaire (1953). The film has an in-joke: the Bacall character says: "I've always liked older men. Look at Roosevelt, look at Churchill, look at that old fella what's his name in The African Queen. Absolutely crazy about him." Bacall is referring to her real-life husband, Humphrey Bogart.]
The box set "Bogie & Bacall: The signature collection" (DVD 7/06) collects the four Bogart-Bacall movies in a convenient slip case to house appropriately four plastic keep cases but awkwardly four cardboard snap cases. The four films in the box set come in plastic keep cases and are
also available separately. The previous releases were in cardboard snap cases but are still available. The exteriors of the respective snap and keep cases are virtually identical, those of The big sleep DVD varying the most, but only for the "special features" note. The earlier snap cases each have inside a chapter index and additional photo. The newer keep cases lack scene indices. I compared the four DVDs in the snap-case editions with the four DVDs in the keep-case editions. The DVDs for each movie are identical. It is important to note that the DVD for The big sleep is two-sided:
Side A (114 min) = 1946 theatrical-release version
Side B (116 min) = 1944 pre-release version with 18 minutes that were either reshot or deleted from the theatrical release
Side B of the keep-case DVD is not clearly labeled as such.
Warner was remiss in not issuing with the box set a brief booklet on Bogart and Bacall.
In conclusion, if you have the four snap-case editions, they are not outdated, and with reasonable care the cardboard snap cases wear well. However, if you are a Bogart collector lusting for the nice slip case for the quartet of films, get the box set with the plastic keep-case editions and give your snap-case editions to a friend or relative.
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You know how to whistle, don't you Steve?, April 6, 2006
This long overdue collection of the four films Bogie and Betty made together is an absolute must have for fans of both Forties flicks and of course the greatest romantic screen-team in Hollywood history. Starting with 'To Have and Have Not', which was Lauren Bacall's debut film, as has been said many times before one can literally watch the pair fall in love on-screen a la Garbo and Gilbert in 'Flesh and the Devil'. The story is pure Hemingway with wonderful support from Walter Brennan and Hoagy Carmichael among others.
Next came 'The Big Sleep', a wonderful (if not baffling!) film noir adapted from the popular novel by Raymond Chandler. Betty never looked more glamourous and sexy than she does in this one.
Their third film togather was the highly underrated 'Dark Passage', another noir gem expertly directed by the equally underrated Delmer Daves with superb support from Agnes Moorehead and Bruce Bennet. Bogie plays a framed innocent man just escaped from San Quentin who is aided and abetted by Bacall after winning her trust.
The fourth and unfortunately last film with the pair is 'Key Largo', more in the vein of 'To Have and Have Not' than the previous two. The best supporting cast of all four films includes Claire Trevor (who won Best Supporting Actress), Lionel Barrymore and Edward G. Robinson in one of his last tough-guy gangster roles. In her book, Bacall describes the experience of making this film as one of the happiest memories of her career with daily afternoon tea served in her dressing room!
The price of this set considering the high-quality of the prints and the marvellous and relevant extras included by Warner's makes this set excellent value for money. Don't think twice, get it!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If You Want Them, This Is It, June 15, 2007
"Bogie and Bacall -- The Signature Collection," brings us the four movies the near-legendary Hollywood stars, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, made together, from first, Howard Hawks's 1944 "To Have and Have Not," in which the couple, just meeting, literally fall in love on screen, through probably their best together, 1946's "The Big Sleep," again directed by Hawks; their strangest, 1947's "Dark Passage," written and directed by Delmar Daves; and their last, the 1948 "Key Largo," directed by John Huston.
All four films are made by Warner Brothers, in black and white; all but "Dark Passage" made entirely on studio back lots, despite the ostensible tropical settings of "To Have and Have Not," and "Key Largo." In most, Bogie plays a character that will be familiar to his fans from his previous work, particularly the great wartime hit "Casablanca" that directly preceded "To Have." We see some of the familiar Warner Brothers company of supporting players in these films, and some well-known, highly-esteemed actors, but the pictures belong to Bogie and Bacall, as they fire up the screen, as lovers and then newly-marrieds.
"To Have and Have Not," supposedly resulted from a bet between Hawks and Ernest Hemingway, famed American author of the book on which it's based. Hawks said he could get a good movie from Hemingway's worst book, which this was. Hawks did so, with a screenplay by another famed American novelist, William Faulkner, and Jules Furthman. The picture, however, is an effort to remake "Casablanca," without Ingrid Bergman, or the earlier movie's sterling supporting cast. Set on a French-speaking Caribbean island, with Vichy French and Free French at war. Almost-heroic Free French fighter, and his wife. Bogie as Henry (Steve) Morgan, hardboiled antihero who sticks his neck out for nobody. Hugely talented American singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael as Cricket, singing piano player. Despite his many beautiful compositions, he just doesn't hold the screen as did Dooley Wilson, playing Sam, singer of "As Time Goes By," in the earlier film. Walter Brennan thrown in playing his stellar drunk, Eddie, asking people "Was you ever stung by a dead bee?" He's treated with romanticizing kid gloves by all concerned. And the breathtaking 19-year old Bacall, as Marie (Slim) Browning, who's just landed on the island because she's run out of money. She's given a snazzy check suit, and some snappy dialogue. Remember "You know how to whistle, don't you?" She even sings; legend says she was dubbed by Andy Williams, but that's not necessarily true. They say her part was beefed up when the studio execs saw what was happening onscreen. Sid Hickox's noirish cinematography also contributes greatly to a sexy, old-fashioned, rather routinely plotted, World War II thriller, combining romance, faraway adventure, and a macho Hemingway hero.
"The Big Sleep," 1944, was the second film made by the golden trio, Bogart, Bacall and Hawks. The screenplay, again, was by novelist Faukner, based, this time, on a detective novel of the same name by the Californian author Raymond Chandler. This noir mystery thriller also casts a backwards eye at "Casablanca." Here, Bogie plays Philip Marlowe, Chandler's existential, street-smart, courageous private eye, called to investigate efforts to blackmail the aging, incapacitated, wealthy General Sternwood about one of his daughters. Both the General's daughters, the old man admits, are wild, and have the vices of their class, but Carmen, played by Martha Vickers, is most troublesome; Vivian, played by Bacall, gambles, and seems, carelessly enough, to have recently misplaced her husband, of whom the General was fond. Still, in this picture, Vivian has great rooms and clothes, and a nifty white coupe convertible. Supporting players include Dorothy Malone, Peggy Knudsen, Bob Steele, Lash Canino, and Elisha Cook. Max Steiner contributed the atmospheric score. The notoriously complicated, difficult to follow plot is frequently interrupted by girls admiring Bogie, and stopped dead so Bacall can sing. The screenplay cleans up its source material considerably, still, it was considered an unusually violent and amoral movie for its time. Treatment of Los Angeles is moody; night scenes are shadow and fog, daylight scenes slightly, menacingly overblown. Nobody played harried and world-weary better than Bogart.
1947's "Dark Passage," noir thriller, was written and directed by Delmar Daves, based on a novel by David Goodis, who wrote the novel on which "Shoot The Piano Player" is based. It's set in San Francisco of the 40's, and may be the best screen treatment of that city at that time. Once again, Sidney Hickox's noirish cinematography takes full advantage of its flavorful setting, hills, bay, staircase streets. The building in which Bacall's character, Irene Jansen, supposedly lives, and its glass elevator, and her duplex apartment, are masterpieces of the "moderne" style then highly popular. Bogart plays Vincent Parry, a doctor unjustly convicted of killing his wife; at the film's opening, he's just escaped from San Quentin, coming home to clear himself. For the first hour, we never see him, only see everything through his eyes, then a new filmic technique. The gimmick is, he has plastic surgery so as to no longer be recognizable; he then becomes the Bogart we know. Housely Stevenson plays the plastic surgeon Dr. Walter Coley: his scenes are treated in a most Frankensteinian way. The plot takes some truly odd turns: we're to believe that Agnes Moorhead, who is surely riveting, could give Bacall a run for her money in the Bogart stakes. As if. Bacall doesn't sing, but she looks sensational, and has, in addition to that apartment, some stylish clothes and jewelry -- note the Mexican opals. She's also got an eye-catching, memorable "woody" station wagon.
"Key Largo," 1948, directed by John Huston, was the last screen pairing of our two leads. It's based on a stage play by Maxwell Anderson, nominally set in the tropical Florida Keys. A wheelchair-bound Lionel Barrymore plays James Temple, owner of the island hotel; Bacall plays Nora, his widowed daughter in law. Bogart plays Frank Mc Cloud, who fought the Italian campaign alongside the Temple boy until he was killed. Mc Cloud goes to visit the Temples off-season, and discovers that a powerful hurricane's coming. And that they are being terrorized by Edward G. Robinson, one of the great movie villains, playing gangster Johnny Rocco. Clair Trevor, playing Gaye Downs, Rocco's moll, former nightclub entertainer, gets to sing this time. She does an acapella "Moanin' Low," a song popularized by Libby Holman in the early 30's, and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for it. Bogart plays an unusually quiet version of his "I stick my neck out for nobody character." But, such are the burdens of marriage, Bacall is uncharacteristically demure. She doesn't appear to be wearing makeup, her eyes are downcast, and her wardrobe seems to consist of one --dowdy-- outfit. She doesn't have those lines, either: Barrymore and Robinson get them this time.
These four films are the components of this collection. There will be no more by our two great leads, and they were certainly among the screen's most incendiary lovers. If you want them, this is it.
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