I am probably going to get flamed for this, but I feel the same way about “Casablanca”.
I honestly can’t see why people considered Bogart a great actor. He’s wooden, over-rehearsed and about as spontaneous as turtle sex.
The female lead was totally forgettable. The only decent, or at least amusing, character in the entire film was the French cop.
Total yawner. Yet movie snobs talk about that film like it the greatest work of all time.
I find people over look Casablanca’s comedic value. It’s a damn funny movie, very dry humor, but really funny. And a great yarn.
I don't think it's movie snobs who talk about it that way. Their opinion is that it's a nice example of the studio system at its peak with a bunch of great character actors and some nice quotable lines, but a creaky plot. And Michael Curtiz was never more than a workmanlike director.
There used to be a lot more of the cult of Bogart, but that's faded now.That said, there are some great Bogart performances--Petrified Forest, Maltese Falcon and Treasure of the Sierra Madre come to mind.
Ingrid Bergman is a “yawner”? :)