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 married Mary Philips, whom he'd met when they appeared in the play "Nerves" during its very brief run at the Comedy Theatre in September 1924, at her mother's apartment in Hartford, Connecticut. After the stock market crash of 1929, stage production dropped off sharply, and many of the more photogenic actors headed for Hollywood. Bogart's film debut was with Helen Hayes in the 1928 two-reeler "The Dancing Town", of which a complete copy has never been found. He also appeared with Joan Blondell and Ruth Etting in a Vitaphone short, "Broadway's Like That" (1930) which was re-discovered in 1963. Bogart