For the many fans of Humphrey Bogart, September on Turner Classic Movies will be the stuff that dreams are made of.
The legendary actor is the channel’s next “Star of the Month,” with marathons of his films stretching from Thursday nights into the next day. They’re grouped by theme, starting Sept. 1 with “Bogie and Huston” and “Bogie and Bacall,” showcases for multiple attractions in which Bogart worked with director John Huston and/or wife Lauren Bacall.
Though he died young — at age 57, in 1957 — Bogart accomplished a lot in his career, adding several iconic roles to screen history (including the one that earned him an Oscar, the steamboat captain in the Huston-guided “The African Queen”). And on the personal front, he was part of one of Hollywood’s most legendary marriages, to his fourth spouse Bacall.
Here’s a look at some highlights of TCM’s Bogart festival.
“The African Queen” (1951; Thursday, Sept. 1): Bogart is ideal as the cranky boat captain, partnered with a missionary (Katharine Hepburn) on a dangerous journey.
“The Maltese Falcon” (1941; Sept. 1): Bogart is private detective Sam Spade, pursuing “the stuff that dreams are made of” — the jewel-encrusted title statue — while also probing his partner’s murder in Huston’s great adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel.
“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948; Friday. Sept. 2): Huston steered himself and his actor father Walter to Oscar wins for this classic gold-seeker drama.
“Key Largo” (1948; Sept. 2): Bogart leads an impressive cast for Huston in Maxwell Anderson’s play about hostages taken by a mobster (Edward G. Robinson) at a Florida hotel as a hurricane approaches.
“To Have and Have Not” (1944; Sept. 2): Their first on-screen teaming resulted in off-screen romance for Bogart and Bacall, playing a fisherman and the drifter who enters his life in this Ernest Hemingway story.
“The Big Sleep” (1946; Sept. 2): Bogart played another classic literary detective, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, in this complex mystery.
“High Sierra” (1941; Sept. 9): As an ex-convict out to pull his last job, Bogart is on the wrong side of the law in director Raoul Walsh’s tough melodrama.
“The Caine Mutiny” (1954; Sept. 15): Bogart is chilling as Captain Queeg, whose questionable actions aboard his Navy vessel lead to the court martial that two of his officers (Van Johnson, Robert Francis) face.
“Sabrina” (1954; Sept. 22): Bogart and William Holden play wealthy brothers vying for the daughter (Audrey Hepburn) of the family chauffeur.
“Casablanca” (1942; Sept. 22): Well, of course. In one of the most classic of movies, cafe owner Rick (Bogart) is torn between his usual modus operandi of minding his own business and helping an ex-love and her husband (Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid).
