\n<\/p>\n
After he was expelled from school, Maud Humphrey told her son, \u201cYou\u2019re on your own from now on.\u201d For Ferguson, the pair\u2019s complicated bond naturally anchored Bogart\u2019s origin story. \u201c[Maud] was one of the highest-paid artists at the turn of the century and a leading suffragette,\u201d Ferguson says. \u201cWhile she was obviously incredibly prolific and successful, he felt that she wasn\u2019t the mother that he needed\u2014and I feel like this goes on to shape the trajectory of his life and his love life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film follows Bogart\u2019s tough beginnings as an actor, convinced he\u2019ll never make a career of it while struggling with alcoholism and a string of \u201cdreadful\u201d parts. Within that relatively established narrative, we get to know another side of his early years. Ferguson examines Bogart\u2019s relationship with his first wife, actress Helen Menken, by zeroing in on her participation in the 1926 play The Captive,<\/em> a controversial and radical piece depicting women in love. As Life Comes in Flashes<\/em> tells it, Bogart encouraged her to do the play and supported its contents. But Menken was arrested for her participation, and the play shut down\u2014informing Bogart\u2019s lifelong (and increasingly conflicted) fight against censorship in Hollywood.<\/p>\n All the while, Bogart stews over the direction of his career, his \u201cresentment\u201d at being a contracted employee of studios. He listens to his mother insult his career. \u201cHe was really a loner in a way,\u201d Stephen says. \u201cThe relationships with his wives were not really a familial thing. They were part of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n