Humphrey Bogart magic of Bogart and Bergman was the result of two actors working at their best, not any real-life sparks, though Bogart's perennially jealous wife assumed otherwise. Off the set, the co-stars hardly spoke. Bergman, who had a reputation for affairs with her leading men, later said of Bogart, "I kissed him but I never knew him." Because Bergman was taller, Bogart had blocks attached to his shoes in certain scenes. "Casablanca" won the 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture. Bogart was nominated for an Academy Award Best Actor in a Leading Role, but lost to Paul Lukas for his performance
Humphrey Bogart of the play, "a peach ... a roaring Western melodrama ... Humphrey Bogart does the best work of his career as an actor." Bogart said that the play "marked my deliverance from the ranks of the sleek, sybaritic, stiff-shirted, swallow-tailed 'smoothies' to which I seemed condemned to life." This, however, did not yet mean felt secure. Warner Bros. bought the screen rights to "The Petrified Forest". The play seemed perfect for the studio, which was famous for its socially realistic, urban, low-budget action pictures, especially for a public entranced by real-life criminals like John Dillinger (whom Bogart resembled) and Dutch