James Rogers wrote:
> Come to think of it, wasn't "The Petrified Forest" a
stage play before
> making Bogie a star in the movies?
Well, it didn't really make Bogart a star. It made him a
supporting player, usually as a heavy. He made around a dozen
movies before "The Petrified Forest," but his career wasn't
going anywhere, so he went back to Broadway, where he played
Duke Mantee on stage opposite Leslie Howard. When it came
time to make the movie, Howard was tapped for the lead, but
the studio didn't want Bogart. Howard told them if they
didn't take Bogart, they wouldn't get him. Bogart
subsequently named his first child Leslie in gratitude for
the gesture that put him back in the movies. This was 1936.
Bogart continued to play mostly villains and second leads
until 1941, when another actor, George Raft, gave him a real
career boost by turning down two roles that then fell to
Bogart. The first was the part of Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle in
Raoul Walsh's "High Sierra." Raft refused the role because he
was sick of playing gangsters and didn't want to die on
screen. The screenplay was by John Huston, who would soon
become even more important to Bogart's career, and for the
first time Bogart got to play a sympathetic lead, a signature
role, the romantic, existential bad guy that so entranced
Belmondo in "Breathless." That same year, Raft turned down
the part of Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon" because he
didn't want to work with novice director John Huston, and the
role went to Bogart. The rest, as they say, is history.
Bogart became a star and George Raft became a footnote.
BobT
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