By Jim Lundstrom

If Humphrey Bogart were still with us, he would celebrate his 110^th birthday on Christmas Day.

He died in 1957 at the age of 57, but Bogart is still with us in his films.

“I think definitely, yes, the films of Humphrey Bogart are going to continue to be relevant,” said Caryn Murphy, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she teaches, among other things, a film history class.

“In an interesting coincidence, this semester we talked about Humphrey Bogart quite a bit when we discussed the Hollywood studio system,” she said. “I showed them Casablanca as a screening. The reason it makes a good screening for the studio system, it’s an example of a film where everybody who worked on it was working under contract and they had to. It wasn’t their desire to make one of the most beautiful Hollywood films ever. It was just another movie, just another Warner Bros. film. The Epstein brothers who wrote it were under contract. Humphrey Bogart wanted to do it because he had been typecast as a gangster and he wanted to be a leading man.”

Casablanca was never planned to be the iconic romance that it has become. It was simply one of those happy accidents when all the stars – not just in Hollywood but in the firmament – were aligned.

“It became the perfect movie at the perfect moment, coinciding with America’s entry into World War II,” Murphy said. “It was the theme of rejecting isolationism in order to embrace helping other people, sticking your neck out for someone.”

Murphy said her students enjoyed and responded well to Casablanca.

“For a student who’s never seen Casablanca before, I think it’s impossible to watch it and not get a sense that this is a magnetic guy, a magnetic character. He’s introduced to you as somebody who’s anti-social, rough and dangerous, but he’s impossible not to like. And you pull for him.”

If students in the 21^st century get Bogie, well, that’s saying a lot about his power because this is a generation that equates black & white with woefully outdated.

“There is a pervasive attitude that black and white movies are really old. ‘Why would we watch something in black and white?’” Murphy said. “But there are star characteristics that translate across decades and time.”

Bogart’s star qualities came up in another Murphy class that was exploring the work of onetime Neenah resident Howard Hawks, who directed Bogart in the classic The Big Sleep and the less classic To Have and Have Not, which still does have its moments, including the screen debut of Bogart’s fourth and final wife, Lauren Bacall.

“In my media criticism class we talked a lot of about Howard Hawks,” Murphy said. “The Big Sleep is one of my favorites. I showed my students a documentary discussion of To Have and Have Not, which I don’t really like, and The Big Sleep, and the conversation Hawks had about what he liked about Humphrey Bogart. It’s not that he’s a handsome guy. There’s something about him you just have to watch. When you see him on screen, he’s just interesting. He’s got the star quality. You have to pay attention to what he’s doing. One of my favorite scenes in The Big Sleep is when he ducks into the bookstore and decides to kill a little time. There’s not a real place for this scene in the overall story, but it illustrates his charm as a character and this fascinating quality, There’s something about the way he looks on film, even his smallest gestures, smallest mannerisms seems important.”

Many people have commented on Bogart’s strange charisma, and it often went like this: He’s a funny looking little guy you wouldn’t notice on the street, but the camera loves him.

Of course any time the subject of film noir comes up – which is often the case in film history classes – Humphrey Bogart is sure to follow.

“I talk about The Maltese Falcon as the film that started the trend of American film noir that became so big in the late 1940s,” Murphy said. “It’s the perfect representation of corrupt character. Everybody has their agenda. They’re chasing their American dream, and the American dream turns out to be a fake. The jeweled falcon they’re all hoping is there is not there. Film noir is definitely part of cinema history, and Humphrey Bogart is a major part of that, from Maltese Falcon (1941) through Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place (1950), which is another beautiful film noir movie.”

Nicholas Ray, in fact, believed Bogart was more than an actor. He had become an existential symbol whose “face was a living reproach.”

Bogart fans and those who wish to be can catch up when Turner Classic Movie channel presents a monthlong tribute to Bogart on the occasion of the 110^th anniversary of his birth (Dec. 25, 1899).

“Turner Classic Movies in so many ways is the best in television options, commercial free and uncut, and they make a real effort to offer some context and introduce every show, talk a little bit about its significance and position and Hollywood history,” Murphy said.

One of the great purposes TCM serves is by championing early 20^th century film, which mainstream culture tramples in its rush to see the next noisy, pointless blockbuster.

“Every time we have a critical survey, among the top 10, the older films predominate. Citizen Kane and Casablanca are usually in the top five,” Murphy said. “It may become difficult over time to generate interest in older movies among younger people, but I think younger people that come to them and get interested want to see more and know more.”