"She guided him in his activism": Film shows how Lauren Bacall made Humphrey Bogart a Democrat

“With a name like Humphrey DeForest Bogart, you’ve got to be tough,” intones Bogie in director Kathryn Ferguson’s insightful and entertaining documentary, “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes,” now in theaters. Using the rugged screen legend’s words (voiced by Kerry Shale), as well as film clips, archive footage and interviews with friends – including director John Huston and actress Louise Brooks – Ferguson recounts Bogart's career from his early days on the Broadway stage to his initial efforts in Hollywood to finally his unqualified success.

Ferguson frames Bogart’s personal life through the women in his life, his indomitable mother Maud, an illustrator and suffragette who supported the family, as well as his wives Helen Menken, Mary Philip, Mayo Methot and of course, Lauren Bacall, all of whom contributed to his career. Bacall’s memories about their relationship on-screen and off are the most poignant in the film. She recalls Howard Hawks discouraging their relationship, as well as her decisions about working and raising her two children with Bogart. 

Ferguson focuses mainly on Bogart’s life off-screen. He was a heavy drinker and loved sailing. His fights with his third wife, Mayo Methot — they were known as “The Battling Bogarts” — were oddly charming. As her career was on the downslope during their union (in the late 1930s through the mid 1940’s), he was not quite a leading man yet, and after they met, and as the film explains, “She set fire to him, and blew the lid off all his inhibitions — forever.”

“Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” emphasizes how the iconic star cemented his screen image by playing a heavy in “The Petrified Forest” in 1936. After a series of gangster roles, he shifted to starring in detective films, most notably as Sam Spade in “The Maltese Falcon” and as Philip Marlowe in “The Big Sleep.” He also delivered Oscar-nominated performances in the classic “Casablanca” and as Queeg in “The Caine Mutiny,” winning the Academy Award for best actor for “The African Queen.” 

“Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” also features interviews with Bogart and Bacall’s son, Stephen Bogart, an executive producer of the film, who spoke with Salon about Bogie, Bacall and this new documentary.

This is the first authorized doc about Bogart. What initiated this project, and, as manager of his estate, what was it about this film that appealed to you?

Kathryn came to me, and I spoke to my sister and my partner about it. Initially I was going to say if this would be another cookie-cutter documentary on the man and his movies, I wasn’t interested in that. That’s been done before, many times. When Kathryn told me the perspective that she wanted to take on this, I was all in. It was totally different from anything I saw or different from a documentary on a movie star that I’ve seen. The movies are secondary to the man, and that was what brought it home to me. 

What can you say about the selection of clips, interviews, and archival footage used to tell Bogart’s story in the film?

We didn’t pick and choose anything. We opened our archives and let her run with it. I saw her documentary on Sinead O’Connor, I was gratified. I didn’t have any input on what clips or audio was used — that was all Kathryn’s production team. I didn’t want to have any input because that’s not my bailiwick. I didn’t want to get in the way of someone who knows what they are doing. It was an incredible amount of research. It took a year and half to make. Some stuff they found I had never seen before. 

Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Graeme on the set of "In a Lonely Place" (Freestyle Digital Media)

The film defines Bogart’s life and career through the women in his life, his mother and wives. Did you ever meet your father’s ex-wives? If so, what were your impressions of them?

No, I never met them. My father died when I was 8; he was sick when I was 7. My mother and I never talked about them, especially about Mayo. I was never spoken to about these women. I only looked at them in the periphery. I found out more about them because I really didn’t know anything. It was interesting how they each did contribute, even unknowingly, to his career. His mother didn’t know what he was going to become. Helen [Menken] didn’t know what he would become.

I will say my father did have an eye. His wives were very good-looking. He really loved Mary [Philips], but she didn’t want to stay in LA. She wanted to be on Broadway, so she went back to New York. And Mayo [Methot] was the one who influenced his stratospheric rise to stardom more than anyone else in how she guided him and the movies he made before “Casablanca.” And then my mother [Lauren Bacall] came along, and it was more my father making my mother’s career, but she guided him in his activism. He was an activist when he refused to do a film without Lena Horne because she was Black. But he was one of the first stars to start his own production company and fight against the studio system. 

When you talk about Mayo, I think of “A Star Is Born” with one on the way up and one on the way down .  . .

Right, that was in the doc. That must have been difficult for Mayo. She could see him going up and her going down, and then the whole thing just disintegrated. Then he met my mother and that didn’t help things at all. It was interesting to learn about Mayo’s influence and that perspective. And it must have been devasting for Mayo when Bogie hooked up with this 19-year-old, my mother [Bacall].

I want to talk about your mother, if we can. She was an icon too. 

When my mother got the Kennedy Center Honor, she wanted Gregory Peck to introduce her. He was a longtime friend, but because Gregory Peck agreed to introduce Bob Dylan, she ended up with Sam Waterson, who my mother didn’t really know. I got to meet Bob Dylan, which was cool. Bob looked at me and said he was really nervous to meet the President, who was Clinton. I told him, “Bob, I think he’s more nervous to meet you!” 

There is also a line in the film that your father felt he wasn’t a good father, but I took this to mean he felt guilty that he wasn’t there for you as much as he felt he should be. Thoughts?

I don’t think that’s correct. I think he wasn’t a young kid kind of father. I don’t think he should have felt that way. Some parents, especially males, have trouble with 1- and 2-year-olds. I had a difficult time [as a father] with that as well. It is difficult for a male to relate to a 1- to 2-year-olds. That’s not true for all men. I think he had a difficult time because he was a father late in life. He was very rigid with scheduling — go to work, come home, have dinner with my mother without the kids, and go to the boat on the weekend. I didn’t go to the boat, and I wasn’t having dinner with him.  

What do you remember about your father?  What lessons did your father (or your mother) impart to you? 

He said, always tell the truth, and the Golden Rule: Do unto others as they would do unto you, which I’ve tried to live by. He was an honest guy and didn’t cotton fools. He was very principled. As Katharine Hepburn said in the movie, he was kind of puritanical, because those where the times back then. It was very closed. Especially sexual mores back then. He was very nice and polite. He was a different kind of guy. 

Bogart played characters who were insolent. He embodied toughness. He was “rugged” and the epitome of cool.  What do you think made him such an icon? Why do you think he has endured for decades? 

I don’t know. I have no idea how it happens. He was all those things you said he was. He was an activist. He worked for Adlai Stevenson and went to the House Un-American Activities Commission [hearings]. Why he has continued over so many other people – I think my mother and his relationship certainly had a lot to do with that. But he died early. He made great movies. He was a writer’s actor; he loved writers.

The film shows that Bogart, when he was starting out, had setbacks and successes. His early films made little impression until his gangster era and detective films got him noticed. Did he (or your mother) talk about his career, and how he felt he was perceived? 

My mother and I really didn’t talk about it. He says in the documentary he thought he was always going to play gangsters. He was electrocuted how many times, and shot how many times, and died how many times and all that. “High Sierra” was the tough guy [breakthrough]. When he got into the detective genre, with “The Maltese Falcon,” it was a whole new arc for him. He wondered: How am I going to be leading man? They want me to be a leading man in “Casablanca.” Are they out of their minds? Then he made another transition. It’s such an interesting arc of work. It’s very surprising. I think it would have been surprising to him. 

You mother, Lauren Bacall, says in the film that she based her career around him. She also wanted a son to remind her of Bogie. Can you talk about the dynamic of their relationship? 

Her influence was not his choice of films or his career, but personally — his change from Republican to Democrat, and his support of Adlai Stevenson. Instead of being as much of a loner, he was going out in public with my mother. He was going to Africa to make “The African Queen.” He was ornery and talked about how pissed off he was at John Huston the whole time.

John Huston was never nice, but he made some great films! . . .

No, but what a guy! Talk about a renaissance man. He was what, fighting in the Mexican American war, going elephant hunting and all this sort of stuff. I remember the line [about making “The African Queen”] in the film: “If it was something John thought was easy to get to, he would discard it to get to do something harder to make it more difficult.” Working with him and Kate Hepburn and bringing the whole Rat Pack — this was my mother’s influence on him. That and giving him a stable home life, saying we’re going to have some kids, and be married, and I’m going to follow you everywhere . . .

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What is your favorite film, performance, or scene featuring your father and why?

My favorite is “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” because of the story behind it. My father wasn’t going to do it. His agent said, “You really have to do it. John wants you to do it. Walter [Huston, John’s father] is going to be in it.” And Bogie goes, “I don’t want to die, I’m a star. I don’t want to play the second guy.” But he did it because they were such great friends, and it ended up being a spectacular movie that won Walter Huston an Oscar. 

“Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” is playing select theaters. It will be released on digital Dec.10.