Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart

Becoming Attractions: The Film of Humphrey Bogart (1997)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This short-lived Turner Classic Movies series shows how studios showed off their stars back in the day. The previous entry looked at Judy Garland but this one here shows off the marketing plan behind the career of Humphrey Bogart. THE PETRIFIED FORREST and BALLOTS AND BULLETS are the first two trailers up and both highlight the stars of the movie while pumping up Bogart as being a scumbag. The funniest thing in these first two trailers is how Robinson is described as being back as "Little Caesar". THE RETURN OF DR. X is up next and it's easy to see why Bogart was so upset about the film. If the material made him mad then I'm sure this trailer pushed him over the edge because even though his part is very small the trailer makes it appear as if he's in the entire thing. HIGH SIERRA follows and it's clear the studio was wanting to push his bad side since they twice compare him to Dillinger. Bogart the lead is up next in THE MALTESE FALCON and ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. Clearly the publicity department was wanting to push the actor as a tough guy and this is something that would continue. The ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT trailer is interesting because it has Bogart answering questions from the media and he tells them about his character. ACROSS THE PACIFIC and CASABLANCA round out the trailers. This feature is going to mainly attract fans of trailers or those who just want to see how Bogart was marketed back in the day. Most people will probably just want to check out the films.

This is found on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of The Maltese Falcon, and contains and analyzes the trailer of it, as well as for The Petrified Forest (1936), Bullets or Ballots (1936), The Return of Doctor X (1939), High Sierra (1941), All Through the Night (1941), Across the Pacific (1942), Casablanca (1942), Passage to Marseille (1944), To Have and Have Not (1944), Dark Passage (1947), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). This shows how Bogie was publicized and Robert Osborne, the host, talks about the stars image, how it changed over time, and what the PR crew did to ensure that their next film with him would have an audience(at times claiming that it was just like one they already watched and liked). Yes, they were at least as manipulative back then as they are today, if less high-paced and favoring text(in fonts, and with words, that are cheesy by today's standards) over narration. Also, do note that there are spoilers in several of them. This appears to be an episode of a series, but I can only find one other entry, the one that goes over Judy Garland. Maybe it wasn't as lasting a concept as they thought. Perhaps the silly pun for a title killed it. Anyway, this is good if you want to see the advertisements for many of Humphrey's pictures, as this doesn't chop them up, and if you want to hear about them. The running time is 45 minutes. There is disturbing content in this. I recommend this to fans of the iconic leading man. 7/10