Humphrey Bogart Festival set for Key Largo

By Susan King

Nov. 29, 2012 12 AM PT

It’s been a big week for Humphrey Bogart. Monday was the 70th anniversary of the New York premiere of his iconic Oscar-winning film “Casablanca,” and on Tuesday Sotheby’s announced that the famed piano from the romantic drama is up for auction.

Now the legendary tough guy, who died of cancer 55 years ago at the age of 57, is having his own film festival.

The first annual Humphrey Bogart Film Festival is set for May 2-5 in Key Largo, Fla. Bogart and his wife Lauren Bacall starred in the 1948 noir classic “Key Largo,” for which Claire Trevor earned a supporting actress Oscar as a boozy gangster’s moll.

The festival is to hosted by Bogie’s and Bacall’s son, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, and Bacall, who’s now 88. Film historian/critic Leonard Maltin will be the special guest.

The opening night is scheduled to feature an outdoor screening of “Key Largo.” There’s also to be a formal Bogart Ball and rides on the fully restored, original African Queen boat from the 1951 classic “The African Queen,” for which Bogart won his only best actor Oscar.

In keeping with the celebration’s film noir theme, the festival plans to screen such iconic Bogie noirs as 1936’s “The Petrified Forest,” 1941’s “High Sierra” and “The Maltese Falcon” and 1948’s “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”

More information is available at the festival’s website.

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