SIROCCO (1951)

Humphrey Bogart never quite left the bad guy roles behind; the killers, thugs and mob guys that established him in support of Warner Bros. A-listers in the ‘30s, before hitting star status playing compromised heros in the early ‘40s.  But he chose to play the two darkest roles of his career at Columbia Pictures in the early ‘50s under his own Santana production banner.  A masterpiece a year before this in Nicholas Ray’s uniquely unsettling IN A LONELY PLACE/’50, and this near-miss directed by Curtis Bernhardt.  But a particularly interesting miss as it twists so many elements/equivalents from CASABLANCA/’42 into an entirely different shape; all romanticizing filters off, almost everyone, Bogart included, a nasty piece of work.  It's 1925 Damascus, Syria: religious fanatics may be losing the war against their French 'protectors', but they’re taking a heavy toll in terrorist attacks.  Bogart, profit-minded and politically neutral, happy to sell them weapons & ammo at the right price while careful to curry favor from the current French authorities.  With an Ingrid Bergman lookalike on the side (Märta Torén), she’s mistress to Lee J. Cobb, he’s the French Chief of Security, and she may just be using both men to get to Cairo.  Cobb, the least tainted character in here, is trying to get both sides to some kind of peace agreement, an idea opposed by his superior, Everett Sloane, determined to round up all the usual suspects and put them against the wall.  Unlike CASABLANCA, there’s no uplifting jaunty tone, even the walls seem to be closing in under director Curtis Bernhardt, much helped by exceptional lensing from Burnett Guffey.  Not exactly realistic, more like sweaty German Expressionism, the art direction impressively fierce and moody as Bogart tries to rein in his own cynicism on life, love, politics and the bottom line.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, IN A LONELY PLACE/’50.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/07/in-lonely-place-1950.html   

ATENTION MUST BE PAID: If our four leads offer brutal variations on those CASABLANCA players, Zero Mostel plays clean-up with bits and pieces of three or four of that film’s famous supporting cast.  While Zero’s infamous comb-over also puts an unfortunate spotlight on the unconvincing hair pieces sported by Bogart and Cobb.