Lauren Bacall, 1924-2014

Lauren Bacall with Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep

The death has been announced of actress Lauren Bacall, at the age of 89. Bacall played a variety of roles in her seven decade career, and is well remembered for her marriage to actor Humphrey Bogart, whom she met while making one of her first movies, To Have and Have Not. Bacall would make three more films with Bogart, those being The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo. Somewhat surprisingly, I don't think I've done a full-length post on any of those films

I say "somewhat", because as I mentioned back in November, 2008, I never got why the Bogart/Bacall romance was supposed to be so much more of a fairy-taly romance than any other of the Hollywood romances, even those that ended in tragedy such as Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. The other reason for saying "somewhat" is that I'm not a huge fan of To Have and Have Not, not being a big fan of Ernest Hemingway; or of The Big Sleep, which is a complete mess.


Lauren Bacall singing to the accompaniment of Hoagy Carmichael in To Have and Have Not

That having been said, I enjoyed Bacall in Written on the Wind. But then, over-the-top Douglas Sirk, when done well, is a joy to sit back and laugh at.

I'm sure that TCM is going to have a programming tribute to Bacall, but with Summer Under the Stars and Bacall not having a day in it, I don't know if they're going to honor Bacall before September. (There doesn't seem to be anything sbout it on the TCM site yet.)


Lauren Bacall teaches Humphrey Bogart how to whistle in To Have and Have Not