There’s a theory that Humphrey Bogart owes his superstar status to George Raft, because Raft kept turning down key roles that propelled Bogie from second string to Icon.
If you’ve been on the tour, you know that I touch on the subject — The Maltese Falcon from 1941 is a landmark moment.
And if you want to read a more thorough survey of the choices and roles, film-by-film, hop over to the Almost Holmes website and knock yourself out. I emphasize some details differently on the walk, and of course don’t mention as many films — I’ve only got four hours to walk the walk and get people from start to finish. You could yak about this subject for weeks, even the rest of your life. I know I do.
(The Almost Holmes site usually concentrates on Sherlock, of course, but with a strong emphasis on Solar Pons — Pons is the pastiche version of Holmes done by August Derleth, a main subject of the book A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos by my pal John D. Haefele. The book that took me by surprise by becoming an Amazon bestseller — in the horror litcrit category, at least. Coming up on a month in the Top Ten. I’ve seen it drop as low as no.8, but usually it seems to muscle its way to no.3 or no.4. Just did a quick check: back to no.2! A brutal little tank of a book. . . .)
