Instead of finishing school, Humphrey, like many young Americans during the Great War, promptly enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Unfortunately for his adventurous spirit, the War ended just as he was assigned to sea duty. It was during his service that he acquired the scarred lip that would later become a trademark characteristic in his movie career. Some accounts hold that the scar came from a bit of shrapnel that nicked Boatswains's Mate Bogart as his ship, the Leviathan, was shelled. Another story maintains that the scar came curtesey of a prisoner who tried to escape Bogie's custody while on SP duty; apparently, Bogie then plugged the guy with his .45--certainly the more exciting of the two stories.
During this time (1926), Bogie met and married his first wife, Helen Menken, a stage actress of much wider repute than his own. Bogie entered into the marraige with much trepidation, more worried about the health of his career than about strengthening thier shakily grounded relationship, so it was a surprise to no one when they divorced within the year. Bogie's next wife, Mary Philips (1928), was also an actress of some renoun on the NY stage. Conciquently, when Bogie got the chance to move to Hollywood to break into the new medium of "talkies," she was exceedingly reluctant to give up her own career. Having thus far been the secodary bread winner, Bogie wanted nothing more than to have his wife with him now that he was able to support her financially, but she continued to resist.
Warner Bros. Studioes was eager to make the successful play into an equally successful movie, and so approached Sherwood about it (1936). He readily agreed, and Leslie Howard, the production's star, was slated to head the movie's cast as well. The studio had one of its own contract players lined up to play Duke Mantee, however, so Bogie contacted Howard about it. Howard had promised the role to his stage costar, and so told Warner Bros. that he was unwilling to recreate his role onscreen if Bogie wasn't given the Mantee part. The Studio natrually caved in, and Bogie was once again off to Hollywood. He never looked back.
The first was something of a transitional character in the thriller "High Sierra," with a script written by future friend John Huston Bogie played Roy Earle, a con man fresh out of jail and getting ready to pull another heist job. It is soon apparent, however, that Roy is a gangster with a heart, paying the bill for a young girl's surgery to correct a club foot. Roy also manages to backhandedly fall in love with a girl, played by Ida Lupino, who is just as down on her luck as he is. As was expected in those days, Roy (the "bad" guy) must eventually die in an arid shoot out in the California mountains. But there is no doubt who everyone is cheering for in the end.
Bogie's second break care of Raft came in the form of the "Maltese Falcon," the third and only successful attempt to cinemize Dashiell Hammett's famous detective thriller and John Huston's directorial debut. Bogie played Sam Spade, a no-nonsense private eye whose partner is mudered. In other words, Sherlock Holmes with sex appeal. Spade must untangle an international web of intrigue revolving around the greedy search for a black enamle statue of a falcon; of course, underneath the paint, the bird is solid gold and jewel encrusted. Everybody, including Fat Man Sydney Greenstreet, shifty eyed Peter Lorre, and the all-too-innocent Mary Astor. Once Spade finally gets to the bottom of the conspiracy, it is she, his partner's murderer, whom he insists on "taking the fall."
Suddenly Bogie had sex appeal--or at least, Warner Bros. finally felt this fact smacking them in the face. Thus, he played in a series of films in which he was at least allowed to get the girl. It was not until the advent of "Casablanca," however, that Bogie really came into his own. Originally envisioned as just another war picture to be pushed through the Warner Bros. assembly line, no one could have predicted the enduring acclaim that this picture ultimately earned. Both Bogie and his co-stars Ingred Bergman, Claude Raines, and Paul Henried were frustrated by the frantic day-to-day writing of the shooting script, not even sure which characters would eventually end up together. The love story of Rick and Ilsa played out flawlessly, however, and it was ultimately Rick's sacrifice of that love for something greater that brought the tale its poignient ending. "It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't ammount to a hill of beans in this crazy world," Rick pointed out in the end. After "Casablanca," there was no stopping Bogie's stardom.
