MovieChat Forums > The Harder They Fall (1956) Discussion > Just how sick was Bogie when they were f...

Just how sick was Bogie when they were filming this?

posted 15 years ago by Howlin Wolf
8 replies | jump to latest

... This was his last film. I don't know my dates but I'm assuming he'd already been diagnosed with throat cancer when it came time to shoot his scenes... I was looking for any visible signs of illness, but he didn't seem that frail to me... Would throat cancer affect your weight/appearance at all? I imagine it would! Yet on camera, everything to my eyes looked as it should be.

... but then there's all these rumours (unsubstantiated, as far as I know... ) about his having voice trouble. So just what is the truth, as some more knowledgeable person than I is aware of it?

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[–] EJWCOMMRE 14 years ago

Bogart was not diagnosed with cancer until after the filming however he'd started to feel weaker and his cough persisted during production.
This film was not his last screen appearance however. He and Bacall were contracted to make a comedy back at Warner Bros. called MELVILLE GOODWIN USA and wardrobe tests were made that are probably still on You Tube but are also on various video compilations. He also made an appearance on Ed Sullivan in Summer 1956 post operation for a John Huston MOBY DICK tribute. Don't think any record of it remains though

[–] Howlin Wolf 14 years ago

Interesting... Thanks!

"I've been turned down more times than the beds at the Holiday Inn; I still try"

[–] joehrobertsjr 14 years ago

Bogie looked a little weary and every bit his age in this film but he didn't look terrible and his voice seemed okay. I don't know how much of it had to be dubbed. He actually looked better here than in one of his previous films, The Desperate Hours.

[–] jerryripple 14 years ago

They said that his illness was one of the reasons that his acting was so low key in this movie. He was just tired and worn down. The movie was released in april/may 1956.... so filming might have ended by the time he went to see a doctor and was diagnosed with cancer in Jan/Feb 1956... but was very sick all of 1955. He died less than one year after his diagnosis, so you know that it didn't appear the day he was finally talked into going to the doctor.

Plenty of film critics talk about how worn down he looks/acts in the movie. He certainly looked/acted a lot older than 56.

[–] EJWCOMMRE 14 years ago

Yes he probably was sick all during 1955 before the early '56 cancer diagnosis. But watch him on the 1955 Oscars , LEFT HAND OF GOD , WE'RE NO ANGELS and even his live 90 min PETRIFIED FOREST Producer's Showcase appearance the previous May and he seems much more energetic just before HARDER THEY FALL.
Part of his fascination is his changeable persona-world weary, older one minute from one angle then the timeless, younger Bogie of years past in another. And his physique never really changed through the years unlike Wayne, Tracy, Cagney 's weigh gainst. His body always seemed to move the same way.

[–] jerryripple 14 years ago

Yeah it didn't appear that he changed much in weight during his career. But in one or two scenes in this movie he hitches up his pants and he looks a little thinner than usual. I noticed that when I watched this movie, and I had honestly forgotten how he had died or how soon it was after this film. I have read that he was well under 100 pounds, maybe as low as 80 when he died.

[–] EJWCOMMRE 14 years ago

Have you seen the wardrobe tests he and Bacall did for WB's MELVILLE GOODWIN USA a few weeks after HARDER THEY FALL completed? HE looks wan in those until Bacall joins him then he's his playful self with her. Sad to watch.
Only a year before HARDER...filmed he and his wife were on PERSON TO PERSON. He seems vibrant in that.
BOth of these are on You Tube or were a few weeks ago

[–] michaelannamarie 14 years ago

I thought he looked the same as he had in his last few films. Always a bit haggard & always thin. I've read (forget where) that he had major coughing fits during filming & the director had to use whatever he could. I've never heard that his voice was dubbed.
He was set to film Melville Goodwin with Bacall but after finding out about the cancer he dropped out; it was later made as Top Secret Affair with Kirk Douglas & Susan Haward. Doctors supposedly told him that if he made the movie it'd be his last or he could have the surgery & treatment & continue his career. They obviously didn't realize the extent of his illness. Either way it was a damned shame. He had a lot of films left in him when he died.