Humphrey Bogart made many, many films. Several of them are stone cold classics while others… not so much.

Arguably the most bizarre film he made is likely the subject of this piece, 1939’s The Return of Doctor X.  Bogart said of this film:

“This is one of the pictures that made me march in to [Warner Bros. studio chief Jack L. Warner] and ask for more money again. You can’t believe what this one was like. I had a part that somebody like Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff should have played. I was this doctor, brought back to life, and the only thing that nourished this poor bastard was blood. If it had been Jack Warner’s blood or [Harry Warner’s] or [Sam Warner’s] maybe I wouldn’t have minded as much. The trouble was, they were drinking mine and I was making this stinking movie.”

Clearly, Mr. Bogart had little love for the movie but, you know what? He really wasn’t bad in it in a role that, let’s be honest, probably would have worked better with Karloff or Lugosi.