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Both Bogart and the play were tremendous successes. Bogie went back to Hollywood in triumph to play the same role in a Warner version with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. He stayed—to rebel against Hollywood's mores; to scrabble for its gold; to battle bitterly, in public and in private, for better parts; to shock, amuse or horrify his friends and acquaintances. In part he seemed bent, as his enemies charged, on playing Humphrey Bogart in public. In part he was simply making a shrewd bid for publicity, and in part he was giving irascible voice to his honest hatred of the crass and phony side of motion pictures. He also had personal problems. Life with his third wife,* Movie Actress Mayo Methot, was filled with the sound of violent argument. At times, when drinking, they clubbed each other with furniture and whisky bottles.
Meanwhile, he waged a long, stubborn, personal war of rebellion at Warner Bros, to escape from one-dimensional gangster roles. During one of his numerous suspensions, he told New York newsmen that Jack Warner was a "creep." On his return the mogul telephoned his actor and sorrowfully took him to task. "Jack." he replied, "you don't even know what I mean by creep." Said Warner: "Yes, I do—I've got a dictionary right before me. It means loathsome, crawling thing." "But Jack," said Bogart, "I spell it with a 'k.' "
Faithful Husband. But Bogart did more than protest. He proved and reproved his talent in such pictures as High Sierra, Casablanca and To Have and Have Not. With John Huston (who first directed him in 1941 as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, and with whom he has made Treasure of Sierra Madre, African Queen and, lately, Beat the Devil) he gambled both professional reputation and money on his conviction that motion pictures should break away from the trite and the ordinary. Last year he abandoned the security of a 15-year contract (it had eight more years to run) and left Warner to strike out on, his own.
Increasing success and recognition—and his eminently happy nine-year marriage to Actress Bacall—seem to have made him a quieter man. Baby (actually, Bogie calls her Betty) and Bogie make no pretense of leading the sort of romantic existence which screen magazines have tagged "idyllic." Betty now refuses to put foot on his yacht. Bogie refuses to light her cigarettes (although he has gone halfway and presented her with a cigarette lighter). They have numerous, spirited differences of opinion. But despite the difference in their ages (she is 29) and the fact that both are competitors in a cutthroat business, each reflects pride, affection and great respect for the other. In a city noted for ill-concealed adultery, Bogart is famed as a faithful husband.