In The Good German, the roles are reversed. Clooney is the guy who softens Blanchett’s Ice Princess act. His looks are at once more wholesome and optimistic than Bogart could ever manage. Bogart expected the worst of his women even when they were on the up-and-up. Clooney knows Blanchett has something awful up her sleeve but still wants to give her a break, much like Cotten once did. With Bogart there was always a suggestion of bawdiness about the banter; Clooney plays it like a gentleman.

When you saw Bogart with his women, you couldn’t help but think that these two must be having a hell of a time in the bedroom. And of all their contemporaries, Bacall and Bergman were exemplary in their ability to hint at a carnal appetite while playing ladylike characters. When Clooney finally gets his hands on a willing Blanchett, on the other hand, he treats her as if she were made of porcelain. I guess that’s a good way to treat a rape victim but rationality isn’t what makes a great noir movie as The Big Sleep has taught us all.

This is why it’s such a relief when Lena’s hooker-in-arms roommate (a wonderful Robin Weigert) Hannelore pricks the bubble. She’s stuffing herself greedily with ‘real’ ham, procured for them by Clooney's Geismar and generously offers some to Lena when she wakes up. Blanchett, in full Dietrich mode, flicks both Hannelore and Geismar an icy glance and seems inclined to favor some coffee over the ham when he asks her about a box full of documents that belonged to her missing husband.

Lena (abruptly gliding away with her husband’s effects): What do you think you will find in here? It is all I have left of him.

Hannelore (disgusted): Hey-yi-ie! So dr-a-ma-tic, the princess!

When I later found out that The Third Man (available for download here) was one of Soderbergh’s influences, I wasn’t surprised. I do wish, for the sake of the movie, that he’d made that a little more clear rather than playing up the Bogart-Bergman-Casablanca angle. I found that I enjoyed the movie much more once I didn’t have Bogart’s distracting… er, bogey casting a shadow.

In fact, this schizophrenia – the image is Bogart, the character is Cotten – arbitrarily frozen in time is a real shame, because a single sexy love scene between Clooney and Blanchett would have made all the difference. Not just to all the women out there who went to see the movie with stars in their eyes for The Sexiest Man Alive, but to the story itself – everything was geared towards the two main characters coming together in an explosion of emotion.