I fell in love with film because of Lauren Bacall…as a little girl, I was reluctant to watch black and white movies, preferring Saturday morning cartoons and Little House on the Prairie.
Everything changed when I saw To Have and Have Not.
The perfect pairing of Lauren Bacall and future husband Humphrey Bogart made me hungry – ravenous, even, for classic films. The stories! The costumes! The huge musical scores! I was a very quiet child, and I adored the smart, sultry nobody’s-fool characters she tended to play. I began to imitate her steeliness, her resolve and her strong sense of femininity.
I loved all her films, but for me, the short list of her greats are To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, Dark Passage, The Big Sleep and How to Marry a Millionaire.
After watching her films, I read her autobiographies…it turns out she was just as strong in her personal life. It was nothing short of a sigh of relief for me – finally someone (a woman!) who was unapologetic in her beliefs and was a true broad, in the best sense of the word. Her personal life was filled with passion and tragedy, as she was only married to Bogart for a few short years before he died.
From a letter from Bogart to Bacall:
“All the nice things I do each day would be so much sweeter and so much gayer if you were with me. I find myself saying a hundred times a day, ‘If Slim could only see that’ or ‘I wish Slim could hear this.’ I want to make a new life with you – I want all the friends I’ve lost to meet you and know you and love you as I do – and live again with you, for the past years have been terribly tough, damn near drove me crazy. You’ll soon be here, Baby, and when you come you’ll bring everything that’s important to me in this world with you.”
She was a movie star in a way movie stars aren’t made any more. She was memorable without being over the top, she had incredible presence without saying a word, and she pioneered what was called “The Look”; the chin down, eyes looking up. That was her early look, and boy, was she the best at it.
Our culture can be hard on outspoken women – girls are often taught to strive for a certain since of wispiness. What I admired, loved and appreciated is how Lauren Bacall never seemed to try to make herself less than to make others feel better.
“Imagination is the highest kite one can fly”, Lauren Bacall. said once. Thank you for helping me fly, Ms. Bacall. It’s a lesson for which I will be forever grateful.
X Marks the Fox 