Intriga en Damasco

Bogie's role was not really unsympathetic unless you happen to be a Francophile. This can be looked at as a prequel to Casablanca. Harry is very much like a young Rick would have been in 1925. Problem is, Bogie is 10 years older and is basically playing Rick as he was in the 20's. The woman is,though, one of the most unsympathetic creatures ever in films. High maintenance, manipulative, out for everything she can get wherever she can get it. Damn sexy too. Not by any means a great picture but if you like Bogie and you like older films, it is worth a summer night.

There are films that have been made that are no go, the reasons for creation not Key Largo, to be honest and quite franka, this just isn't Casablanca, as a fan of the great man, this is a blow. Although he plays with all the usual charisma, but for reasons this is just silly miasma, Everett Sloane you can't applaud, he's just a shadow of our Claude, and poor old Marta, holds no candle, to fair Ilsa. When the end arrives relief is quite immense, but at least you have a little recompense, ticking from a quite long list, this is one more you haven't missed, you can park it now, and let it all condense.

I totally enjoyed this film. I wasn't expecting much from what I had previously read (on here) and if you can try and not think about some of Bogart's other triumphs, this is a quick moving, interesting enough film with underlining truths..

Basically Bogart has been presented with a choice of doing right or wrong in a war torn city in Syria, trying to mind his own business and continue to profit himself with supplying guns to rebel fighters, he is steered towards helping the French. Of course this would also help him get out of the city and onto better places..but the story unveils complications for him..

Bogart's role is similar to his other characters but not entirely, he's definitely got that "cynic on the outside, but heart pointing in the right direction on the inside" thing going on.

Also, the film does have other strong roles, in particular the very beautiful Märta Torén as Violette, she trys to resist Bogart's outlaw charm but in the end like the rest of us, cant get enough..she is also a good choice of casting, definitely an unusual beauty about her with a presence to match.

My only glitch about this film and I noticed it right away, was that the French / Foreign army officers and in particular Everett Sloane as Gen. LaSalle speak with American and British accents. Could they not even try and break out in a French accent? What was the director thinking (You will notice in the glorious 'Casablanca', every nationality was played with the utmost truth to where they had come from, even a line or two in their given language)? However, overlooking that, this is a great film and I can't see why any Bogie fan would not dig it.

~paul browne.

(Marta Toren to Bogie)....what a great line! I'm surprised it hasn't gone down in the lexicon of great movie quips...and it captures perfectly the paradoxical mystery of Bogie's eternal charm, as well as the mystery of how an essentially mediocre film can be redeemed by its own dry, sardonic charm (due largely to help from fine supporting players as much as from Bogie), some great B/W photography, and a persistently downbeat refusal to push any sort of patriotic agenda.(adding greatly to that charm quotient.) The postwar noir influence is in fine fettle here. So Bogie doesn't exactly have a great motivation for his final decision? He just changed his mind, that's all. Take it or leave it. "I've taken long chances before. Okay." What could be better than that? It's the way people act every day. Every good critical eye without a mote in it knows that this film is safely and securely within the universe of the best product Hollywood ever put out, a great, mordant, counterweight universe to the unwatchable sap they themselves were producing right alongside it. "Sirocco" is not even really that minor a star in that universe. Good, good, good.

This could have been a better film; but it was made to conform to the strict rules of the Hayes Commission. One of those strict rules was that any obvious acts of "immorality" (whatever that is) must result in the demise of the person committing such immoral acts. Bogart is not a good guy or bad guy in this film; he is just a guy playing both sides of the fence to make some money. If that is immoral, then 90% of American CEOs would be killed off in any film they were in. I did not buy Lee J Cobb as a French officer as well, although the female lead did a pretty good job. The end result is a pretty watchable film that could have been much better. And the conclusion of the film is not the least bit believable, nor satisfying.