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Loading... Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey…by Stefan Kanfer
None. more a litany of people, plays, movies and events than the poetic prose I like in bio's but still interesting to learn about the man behind the movies that I have loved. (  ) lindap69 | Apr 5, 2013 |  Kafner's interesting and engaging biography of my favorite actor is admiring, respectful and often affectionate, but I would have liked more backstory on Bogie's most important films and more detail on his personal life once he became an A-list star with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. This is a fine look at the actor's life and work but anyone wanting a more insightful and in-depth study should look elsewhere. (  ) Sullywriter | Apr 3, 2013 | Murphy-Jacobs | Mar 30, 2013 | Kanfer provides two major insights on Bogey: - Bogart worked extensively in theater before cinema, and in scores of movies before headlining. That's two of my favourite Golden Age actors who spent time onstage, the other being Ingrid Bergman. - His celebrity was relatively brief, though it's not clear he would have continued his star turn had he not died of lung cancer in his 50s. Kanfer's writing is not impressive, and he appears not to have had access to Bogey's personal documents or his family, nor conducted any original research. His accomplishment is to collect readily available information in one place. Often I'm skeptical of his conclusions: how would he know Bogart's viewpoint without having asked him or verifying it in a personal diary or statement? For example he writes of Bogart losing confidence at one point in his career [128] and later "seeking himself" [145], characterizations which are mere speculation without a personal conversation or explicit evidence. The last section seems an attempt to assess Bogey's legacy, both in film and in pop culture generally. Not particularly persuasive but it was interesting to read of conscious reference to the Bogey character in the French New Wave. // Tough Without A Gun prompted re-screening my favourites, and initial viewings of several other films: In A Lonely Place, To Have and Have Not, African Queen, High Sierra, Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Still up: Caine Mutiny and Beat the Devil. Bogart's nickname is spelled either Bogie or Bogey by various writers and friends. Wonder if he had a preference. ( ) elenchus | Sep 13, 2011 | An easy to read biography not only of the man but the times in which his films were made. Placing the films into the context of when they were first viewed makes me want to watch them again through new eyes. A great biography and a fun read full of both pop culture and real American history. Highly recomended. (  )1  Groovybaby | Jun 21, 2011 |
 "Having written durable biographies of Groucho Marx and Marlon Brando, the critic Stefan Kanfer seems to have wanted to add Bogart to his portfolio of American originals. He doesn’t really contribute anything significantly new to the record, recycling lots of well known, much recounted stories about the actor’s life and work, and his effort to frame those stories by looking at the Bogart legend and its enduring power feels a little contrived: by now, dissections of Bogie’s on-screen and off-screen personas and his almost mythic aura are highly familiar too. Still, for readers who simply can’t get enough of Bogart (or members of younger generations who have been dwelling in an Internet echo chamber somewhere), this is a perfectly engaging book. It does an evocative job of conveying Bogart’s uncommon and enduring mystique, and it gives the reader a palpable sense of the sadly truncated arc of his life. "  Mr. Kanfer briskly sketches in Bogart’s upper-class upbringing in New York, the son of a prominent physician, who became addicted to morphine, and a well-known illustrator, who was an ardent feminist. Young Humphrey, we’re reminded, was a rebellious, alienated adolescent — think a World War I-era Holden Caulfield — who bounced from one private school to another, eventually getting thrown out of Phillips Andover because, Mr. Kanfer writes, “his grades had fallen so precipitously,” not as Andover legend has it, because he “had thrown grapefruits through the headmaster’s window."
References to this work on external resources.
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Wikipedia in English (2)
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