It helps to have influential friends—especially in Hollywood. If Humphrey Bogart wasn’t close friends with Leslie Howard, we might be wondering why Ronald Reagan played Rick in Casablanca and how George Raft got the part of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. And Bogey wouldn’t have become the “Bogey” that we all know and love.
Bogart a hit on Broadway as Duke Mantee
Bogart was a big hit playing gangster Duke Mantee on Broadway in Robert E. Sherwood’s philosophical drama, The Petrified Forest. Warner Brothers bought the screen rights to the play and signed Leslie Howard, who starred in Forest on Broadway, to reprise his role of Alan Squier in the film. Howard and Bogart had become friends during the 197-performance Broadway run of the play, and Howard wanted Bogie to play Mantee if Forest was made into a film.
When Warners cast the role of the gangster, however, they chose Edward G. Robinson and not Bogie. Howard was in Scotland at the time and Bogart sent him a cable telling him about the casting. Leslie Howard told the studio that he refused to do the film unless Bogart was to portray Mantee. Realizing Howard was serious, Warners signed Bogey to a contract and gave him the part of Duke Mantee.
How Bogart almost didn't get Duke Mantee role on Broadway
Humphrey Bogart almost did not get the role of Duke Mantee in the Broadway production. In 1934, producer Arthur Hopkins saw Bogart in the play, Invitation to a Murder, and sent for the actor to meet and discuss a role in The Petrified Forest. Bogart arrived at Hopkins’ office when playwright Robert E. Sherwood was there.
Bogart: "I couldn't picture myself playing a gangster"
Hopkins told Bogart, “I’ve got a good role for you. A gangster role.” Sherwood thought Hopkins was dead wrong. Bogey should be the football player, said the playwright. “They argued back and forth,” said Bogart at a later time, “and I thought Sherwood was right. I couldn’t picture myself playing a gangster. So what happened? I made a hit as the gangster.”
Bogart doesn't shave and wears old clothes to audition for Duke Mantee
In order to prepare for his audition for The Petrified Forest, Bogart didn't shave for several days and wore worn out old clothes to look the part. This role was quite different from the "pretty boy" roles he had been getting up to this point of his career. After getting the role, which was based on Public Enemy No. 1 John Dillinger, Bogart studied films of the real-life gangster in order to perfect his mannerisms.
Duke Mantee was the role of a lifetime for Bogart
According the the Official Humphrey Bogart Website, "It is well recorded that, when he walked onstage as the vicious Duke Mantee, there was a collective gasp from the audience. Bogart's icy stare, dangling hands, and stooped convict's shuffle had the audience convinced the actor was a killer--and he hadn't even spoken yet."
In the New York Times review of the film in 1936, only one sentence was devoted to Bogart, but it sums up the essence of his portrayal: "...and for Humphrey Bogart, another alumnus of the play, who can be a psychopathic gangster more like Dillinger than the outlaw himself..."
Sources
Nugent, Frank. "Movie Review. The Petrified Forest (1936). Heralding the Warner Brothers Film Version of 'The Petrified Forest,' at the Music Hall." The New York Times. February 7, 1936.
The Official Humphrey Bogart Website.
Humphrey Bogart biography.
Eric Brothers - Eric Brothers' forthcoming book,The Berlin Ghetto, will be published by The History Press in the U.K. in 2012.
