Undoubtedly the happiest of accidents, which doesn't make it any less admirable

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 1999)

Undoubtedly the happiest of accidents, which doesn't make it any less admirable - the movie has a perfect note of romantic fatalism, a wonderful balance of comedy and drama, and a staggering array of memorable lines and incidents: however often you've seen them or heard them quoted, the moments when the screen settles into one of those legendary bits have a privileged electricity about them. The film is highly dependent on its players - apart from Rains, none of the support really has ample time to sketch much of anything in depth, but they	re all such strong, persuasive types that the movie feels like an extraordinarily deep canvas. Compared to some other movies, Bogart's hard edge is too much a pose, too obviously ready to be wiped away; and although the movie draws strength from its almost mythic location, it's also a way of reducing the actual political elements to the point of near-abstraction - the elements of personal morality flourish here, but then they have an unnatural advantage. None of this matters very much. The movie has such huge emotional depth, representing such an enormous array of incident, that it's a triumph of economy at 100 minutes or so. Bogart is at the absolute peak of anyone's form here - there's no strained sentiment, no apparent grasping for charismatic distance or charm - he's the peak of moral self-definition interacting with a complex world on its own terms.