A good adpation of a fun novel
Added 11/5/2009
It's been a quite a few years since I saw this film, but it held up quite well. I first read the novel when it was published. I read it a few times, then the film came and went a few years later. I missed it in it's original release, but caught it later on at a revival house. Being that the original author Andrew J. Fenney produced this film and wrote the screenplay it stayed very faithful to the novel. Fenney who worked on the John Wayne "HOndo" and produced the TV series version of it is a movie buff and the novel and film are both filled with movie trivia.
When the film opens our main character has just had plastic surgery to make himself look like Humphrey Bogart (p[layed by Bogart lookalike Robert Sacchi) He assumes the name of Sam Marlow, and hires a blond secretary who by his discription, "Looks like Marilyn Monroe and makes as much sence as Gracie Allen", she's played by Missy Rowe, who once played Marilyn in a film. He then gets too cases, one his hired by his landlady to find her missing boyfriend, the other mystery is sort of on the order of the Maltese Falcon. After being hired by Elsa (Olivia Hussey) Borcht to protect her father Horst (Helmet Dantine) Borscht, Horst Borscht is killed. The he finds out it has to do with some missing blue Diamonds called The Eyes Of Alexander that many people want to aquire. The suspects include Mr. Zebra (Herbert Lom), who's very much a Joel Cairo type as played by Peter Lorre in "The Maltese Falcon". Then there is pretty Gina Anastis, who loos like Gene Tierney and is played by Michelle Phillips. She brings him to her father (Victor Buono) who is very much in the Sidney Greenstreet vain. You also have Akim (Franco Nero) in the Zachery Scot vain. Plus a delightful cameo by George Rafet as Pete Cain who in the novel is described as a George Raft type. Raft even comments that he's delt with guys who looked like Marlow before. This film is film with great old character actors and an interesting mystery.
Even though I've seen it before and read the book, my recent viewing kept me at the edge of my seat. I reccomend this film for any great old movie or mystery lover.
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Sam Marlow in "The Eyes of Alexander"
Added 6/15/2008
All Bogie fans, in fact ALL lovers of classics should see THE MAN WITH BOGART'S FACE. It stars Robert Sacchi, who is an uncanny double for Mr. B. in size, face, hair, mannerisms and voice. Watching him in this movie is like seeing Bogie alive again.
The story opens at a plastic surgeon's office. The gauze wrappings are removed from our hero's face; he sits in front of a TV that's showing the last scene of THE MALTESE FALCON. As the surgically-created Bogart examines his visage in the mirror with a characteristic twitch, we hear Bogie's famous "you're going over/because you're partners" soliloquy coming from the nearby television.
"Bogart's Face" is packed with references to classic cinema, both spoken and visually. The climactic house of mirrors shootout in Orson Welles' THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is reenacted at Hollywood's famous Wax Museum. Sacchi's character, hard-boiled detective Sam Marlow, talks incessantly about old films. He'll do something, like throw a sword into the ceiling, and then remark: "Tyrone Power did that in THE MARK OF ZORRO.
Michelle Phillips is the woman private eye Marlow is obsessed with. He thinks of her as Gene Tierney in LAURA, in fact, he even calls her Laura one time by mistake. Marlow drives an early 40s sedan and lives in a trench coat (naturally).
Actors in the film represent those from Bogart classics, such as Victor Buono playing Sidney Greenstreet and Herbert Lom as Peter Lorre. Additionally there are old-time stars sprinkled throughout in cameos: George Raft, Yvonne DeCarlo, Mike Mazurki and Henry Wilcoxon.
In one scene, Sacchi is a stunning Bogie in his sparkling white dinner jacket. Experiencing this film is like seeing the Bogart movie that never was. I highly recommend it!
For another modern take on Humphrey Bogart, check out Woody Allen's PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM-- the 1972 adaptation of Allen's Broadway show. In this one, the Bogart impressionist is Jerry Lacy.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Michelle Phillips PLUS Sybil Danning!!!
Added 7/4/2005
I first saw this movie in an almost empty cinema back in 1980 when I was 20. My how Time flies!!! The cinema next door was packed with yuppies of dubious and questionable sexuality who were watching The Village People in "Can't Stop The Music". Robert Sacchi does a very good impersonation of Humphey Bogart and Michelle Phillips is equally impressive as Gene Tierney. As per usual Sybil Danning takes off her clothes(Thank God).Now it is 25 years later and I STILL am not embarrassed to tell anybody which movie I saw that day unlike the guys who were in the cinema next to me!!!
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They found Bogie's double, why couldn't they find a script?
Added 1/4/2005
Bogart is cloned, but so what? It could have been great. In addition to finding Bogart's exact double, they managed some pretty impressive cameos such as Mike Mazurky who just five years before, played a Moose Malloy that would have made Chandler proud. But the script abuses EVERY CLICHE and not ONE joke hits its mark. Worse, the script is bloated with endless movie references. Some that appear to be put there without even the slightest bit of cause given that they aren't even films noir.
I haven't liked any of the recent parodies of noir on film. Especially since they all seem to rely on the similiar plot devices. "The Singing Detective" and "Girl a Car and a Blonde" rely on the identical device that escaping into a noir world helps the protagonist escape a painful medical condition.
Thankfully, "Man with Bogart's Face" does not fall into this trap, but that doesn't improve it much. For better or worse, we must be given Sam Marlow's motivation for assuming his role as a Bogie clone, and we are not.
This movie has more in common with "Umney's Last Case," Stephen King's miserable failure at creating noir in his collection "Nightmare's and Dreamscapes" in that both King and Andrew J.Fenady (the screenwriter) think that if you can cram in enough references to the classics you will be given instant crediblity. This is not the case. My suggestion for alternative to renting this film is that you rent the real thing. Particularly "Maltese Falcon" and for an even better version of the cool funhouse scene in "Man with Bogart's Face," rent "The Lady from Shanghai.
Alas, as I'm a sucker for everything noir I will probably continue to seek out these types of films. Next on my list is "The Black Bird" which I hope is an abler spoof of The Maltese Falcon". That and "Radioactive Dreams"
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OK Evening's Entertainment
Added 5/5/2003
Fun to see Mike Mazurky, Henry Wilcoxon, and George Raft in bit parts. Fun to see Robert Saachi do a spot-on impersonation of Bogart. The best unplanned fun is viewing the cheesy 70s TV-movie values that add to the nostalgia of the film.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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A good adpation of a fun novel
Added 11/5/2009
It's been a quite a few years since I saw this film, but it held up quite well. I first read the novel when it was published. I read it a few times, then the film came and went a few years later. I missed it in it's original release, but caught it later on at a revival house. Being that the original author Andrew J. Fenney produced this film and wrote the screenplay it stayed very faithful to the novel. Fenney who worked on the John Wayne "HOndo" and produced the TV series version of it is a movie buff and the novel and film are both filled with movie trivia.
When the film opens our main character has just had plastic surgery to make himself look like Humphrey Bogart (p[layed by Bogart lookalike Robert Sacchi) He assumes the name of Sam Marlow, and hires a blond secretary who by his discription, "Looks like Marilyn Monroe and makes as much sence as Gracie Allen", she's played by Missy Rowe, who once played Marilyn in a film. He then gets too cases, one his hired by his landlady to find her missing boyfriend, the other mystery is sort of on the order of the Maltese Falcon. After being hired by Elsa (Olivia Hussey) Borcht to protect her father Horst (Helmet Dantine) Borscht, Horst Borscht is killed. The he finds out it has to do with some missing blue Diamonds called The Eyes Of Alexander that many people want to aquire. The suspects include Mr. Zebra (Herbert Lom), who's very much a Joel Cairo type as played by Peter Lorre in "The Maltese Falcon". Then there is pretty Gina Anastis, who loos like Gene Tierney and is played by Michelle Phillips. She brings him to her father (Victor Buono) who is very much in the Sidney Greenstreet vain. You also have Akim (Franco Nero) in the Zachery Scot vain. Plus a delightful cameo by George Rafet as Pete Cain who in the novel is described as a George Raft type. Raft even comments that he's delt with guys who looked like Marlow before. This film is film with great old character actors and an interesting mystery.
Even though I've seen it before and read the book, my recent viewing kept me at the edge of my seat. I reccomend this film for any great old movie or mystery lover.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Sam Marlow in "The Eyes of Alexander"
Added 6/15/2008
All Bogie fans, in fact ALL lovers of classics should see THE MAN WITH BOGART'S FACE. It stars Robert Sacchi, who is an uncanny double for Mr. B. in size, face, hair, mannerisms and voice. Watching him in this movie is like seeing Bogie alive again.
The story opens at a plastic surgeon's office. The gauze wrappings are removed from our hero's face; he sits in front of a TV that's showing the last scene of THE MALTESE FALCON. As the surgically-created Bogart examines his visage in the mirror with a characteristic twitch, we hear Bogie's famous "you're going over/because you're partners" soliloquy coming from the nearby television.
"Bogart's Face" is packed with references to classic cinema, both spoken and visually. The climactic house of mirrors shootout in Orson Welles' THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is reenacted at Hollywood's famous Wax Museum. Sacchi's character, hard-boiled detective Sam Marlow, talks incessantly about old films. He'll do something, like throw a sword into the ceiling, and then remark: "Tyrone Power did that in THE MARK OF ZORRO.
Michelle Phillips is the woman private eye Marlow is obsessed with. He thinks of her as Gene Tierney in LAURA, in fact, he even calls her Laura one time by mistake. Marlow drives an early 40s sedan and lives in a trench coat (naturally).
Actors in the film represent those from Bogart classics, such as Victor Buono playing Sidney Greenstreet and Herbert Lom as Peter Lorre. Additionally there are old-time stars sprinkled throughout in cameos: George Raft, Yvonne DeCarlo, Mike Mazurki and Henry Wilcoxon.
In one scene, Sacchi is a stunning Bogie in his sparkling white dinner jacket. Experiencing this film is like seeing the Bogart movie that never was. I highly recommend it!
For another modern take on Humphrey Bogart, check out Woody Allen's PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM-- the 1972 adaptation of Allen's Broadway show. In this one, the Bogart impressionist is Jerry Lacy.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Michelle Phillips PLUS Sybil Danning!!!
Added 7/4/2005
I first saw this movie in an almost empty cinema back in 1980 when I was 20. My how Time flies!!! The cinema next door was packed with yuppies of dubious and questionable sexuality who were watching The Village People in "Can't Stop The Music". Robert Sacchi does a very good impersonation of Humphey Bogart and Michelle Phillips is equally impressive as Gene Tierney. As per usual Sybil Danning takes off her clothes(Thank God).Now it is 25 years later and I STILL am not embarrassed to tell anybody which movie I saw that day unlike the guys who were in the cinema next to me!!!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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