"And how do you say I wish I were my brother?"

Sabrina is not really a Humphrey Bogart movie. It’s a comedy that is stolen by Audrey Hepburn. This is a rare occurrence for Bogie. Typically he’s playing some sort of cynical idealist in a drama, here he is the rich businessman without a heart in a comedy. He performs well, but not as well as Hepburn does in the role of Cinderella or Sabrina.

The 1954 film was written and directed by Billy Wilder. It was based on the hit play Sabrina Fair by Samuel Taylor. It involves a chauffeurs daughter, who growing up has been madly in love with the younger brother of a rich family on Long Island. She travels to Paris for cooking school and when she gets back, it is the older brother who she falls in love with. Of course the only reason why the older brother, who has never been in love before, pretends to like Sabrina is because dissolving her crush on the younger brother would allow a major business deal to go through.

Bogie did not fare well on the set. He was out of his element with the people around him. There was no John Huston to drink with after hours. There was no Peter Lorre to help play practical jokes with. There was Billy Wilder, Audrey Hepburn and William Holden on the set. All three knew each other and got along wonderfully. Bogie basically felt left out and stuck to himself while on the set.

He had a great respect for Billy Wilder. Wilder was a master at the farce, his movie Some Like It Hot (1959) was named the number one comedy of all time by the American Film Institute. He had already come off success with Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Lost Weekend (1945). His comedic touch was perfected here in Sabrina and carried over throughout the rest of the 1950s.

The relationship between Bogie and Hepburn was not a good one. Bogie despised her on the set. He complained that she never knew her lines and that it took too many takes to get her scenes right. Because Hepburn was familiar with Wilder, he felt the director was not hard enough on the actress. This further alienated him.

As for Holden, Bogie didn’t really get along with him because they came at it with two different acting styles. Holden was a Method Actor, while Bogie was a naturalistic one. Since the Method style was replacing the naturalistic style at this time, Bogie became paranoid. He figured that since Holden and Wilder were friends, Hepburn would end up falling for Holden’s character at the end of the movie. Of course everyone, including Bogie, realized that this would be the smart thing for Hepburn’s character to do. The only reason why this didn’t happen is because, as Wilder pointed out, Bogie was the highest paid actor on the set. He had to walk away with the girl if he was being paid that much money.

Once the movie was finished shooting, Bogie was surprised at how good it was. Critics were surprised that Bogie could actually pass as a comedic actor. The fans absolutely loved the movie. It is still a special film to watch today. It was remade recently by Harrison Ford, but you can’t tell me that a movie with Harrison Ford is going to be better than one starring Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and directed by Billy Wilder.

Sabrina has good acting for the stars and great writing, but the secondary characters stand out as well, especially Walter Hampden as the father of the rich family. Hitchcock fans will also recognize the chauffeur as John Williams, who appeared in the most Hitchcock movies.