The Big Smoke

The Surgeon-General's report on smoking and health could not have come at a more tragic time. The day after its ominous warnings were made public the Humphrey Bogart Festival opened at the Brattle. The report says that by smoking we may die, but Bogart shows in film after film that without smoking, it is impossible to live. While the ego may heed the Surgeon-General, the libido refuses to spurn the Bogart Mystique. The tobacco companies tell us we are misinformed; there is no choice but to round up the usual suspects.