Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor as the treacherous female foil. Bogart's sharp timing and facial expressions were praised by the cast and director as vital to the quick action and rapid-fire dialogue. The film was a huge hit in theaters and a major triumph for Huston. Bogart was unusually happy with it, remarking, "it is practically a masterpiece. I don't have many things I'm proud of ... but that's one". Bogart gained his first real romantic lead in 1942's "Casablanca", playing Rick Blaine, a hard-pressed expatriate nightclub owner hiding from a shady past while negotiating a fine line among Nazis, the French
Humphrey Bogart Bogart's protagonist, with the camera seeing what his character sees. After his plastic surgery, the rest of the film is shot in the usual manner. Bogart is intent on finding the real murderer in a crime for which he was blamed and sentenced to prison. The couple next starred in the future classic, "Key Largo" (1948). Directed by John Huston, the film highlighted Edward G. Robinson as gangster "Johnny Rocco," a seething older synthesis of many of his vicious early bad guy roles. The characters are trapped during a spectacular hurricane in a hotel owned by Bacall's screen father-in-law, played