Détective comme Bogart

Almost missed it. While visiting friends in Philadelphia sometime in the early 1980`s, I was channel surfing after everyone else went to bed. It wasn`t just Bogart he was obsessed with; but rather the entire era of those old flicks those of my age know so well. Add to that a plot liken to The Maltese Falcon - where so many different characters were interacting with Sacchi - and you have a piece of art as far as I`m concerned. About ten years later it appeared on TV and I taped it. >

I usually dislike detective films, I mean I don't particularely like gumshoe films, which I rarely undertsand, because of the too complex plots. But here, this is an exceptional piece of work, funny, totally crazy and a fantastic tribute to Humphrey Bogart and his legend. Again, as for any private eye film, don't bother the details of the story, it's not important at all. Just enjoy and pay attention to those old actors such as George Raft, Yvonne De Carlo, Victor Buono. Useless to say it is a light hearted film, nearly a comedy and it could never had been a novel; only a movie. And it was actually a book. I hardly believe it. The director Robert Day was a British film maker who gave us some TARZAN adventures in the sixties. Good little, very small tribute to Gene Tierney for LAURA about which we can hear a bit of David Raksin's music. Yvonne de Carlo has a too tiny role here, if only tou sneeze, you'll miss her. She appears in the party, no lines. She deserved better. Poor Yvonne.

We meet Sam Marlow (professional Bogart impersonator Robert Sacchi), a freshly-minted private eye, just as he's having the bandages removed from the plastic surgery he's undergone to make himself resemble his idol Bogie. No sooner has Marlow (yes, that's how he spells it, without the "-e") opened his p.i. office in Hollywood than he's up to his fedora in a search for rare sapphires with heiress and Gene Tierney manque Gena Anastas (Michelle Phillips in an engaging performance and a makeup job worthy of Kevyn Aucoin) and other classic movie star lookalikes. Andrew Fenady wrote the script based on his own delightful tongue-in-cheek mystery novel, but the movie's never more than a cute little time-passer (not that a cute little time-passer isn't welcome now and then, mind you!). They could've had fun with it and tried to capture the look and style of Bogart's classic movies, but this modestly-budgeted affair is for the most part shot and staged like a 1970s TV movie, complete with a cheesy soft-rock title song! Sacchi, though amiable enough, is a better impersonator than actor. True, he's got Bogart's mannerisms and appearance down, and he sports a wry streak at times, but he becomes disappointingly wooden in love scenes and other parts of the story that require him to show emotion. (No, being wooden in a love scene is not the same as having a woody in a love scene! :-) Having said all that, BOGART'S FACE is still pleasant light entertainment if you just want some good-natured mind candy to while away a rainy afternoon at home. The interestingly eclectic cast also includes Franco Nero as a Zachary Scott wannabe, Herbert Lom as a Joel Cairo type, Victor Buono as Phillips's Sydney Greenstreet-esque father, Misty Rowe as Marlow's ditsy blonde secretary ("...she looked like Marilyn Monroe and made as much sense as Gracie Allen..."), and Olivia Hussey and Sybil Danning as damsels in various forms of distress. And don't blink during the opening credits, or you'll miss venerable character actor Philip Baker Hall as Marlow's plastic surgeon!

Ex-cop turns private eye after he has plastic surgery to look like his movie hero. Send-up of 40's Bogart films will probably offend fans. Skewers familiar film noir scenes and characters, sometimes with subtlety. Similar to "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982) and "The Cheap Detective" (1978). (Rating: B+)

If you like Bogart, you will enjoy this film thoroughly. I only wish it was on video so I could buy it! Very nostalgic. Very Bogart...as he was in his Ace Private-Dick days as Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe.