Lauren Bacall: talkin’ sexy

You know you don’t have to act with me, Steve. You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow.

That’s how Lauren Bacall broke into the movies – getting Humphrey Bogart’s attention in To Have and Have Not and rendering him speechless.  Her chemistry with Bogie sparked a run of classic cinema: To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948).  Because of her, these are the sexiest Bogart movies.  She was a 19-year-old supermodel when it started, and by Key Largo,  was the 23-year-old Mrs. Bogart.  Today, stars of the 30s and 40s often seem older than their ages (maybe all those cigarettes?), and, to me, she looks 19 goin’ on 30 in To Have and Have Not.

That on-screen chemistry was for real, and Bacall remained Bogart’s partner for fourteen years until his death.  Her later films, without Bogart, never had the same power, but in 1976 she was an effective and poignant choice to match with the dying John Wayne in The Shootist.

Bacall had a gift for delivering sexy dialogue in hardboiled movies.  (Maybe only since matched by Sharon Stone, Kathleen Turner and a few others.)  Here Bacall’s Vivian Sternwood banters with Bogie’s Philip Marlowe.

Vivian: Speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them workout a little first, see if they’re front runners or come from behind, find out what their whole card is, what makes them run.

Marlowe: Find out mine?

Vivian: I think so.

Marlowe: Go ahead.

Vivian: I’d say you don’t like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a little lead, take a little breather in the backstretch, and then come home free.

Marlowe: You don’t like to be rated yourself.

Vivian: I haven’t met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?

Marlowe: Well, I can’t tell till I’ve seen you over a distance of ground. You’ve got a touch of class, but I don’t know how, how far you can go.

Vivian: A lot depends on who’s in the saddle.