Bacall broke onto the movie scene after director Howard Hawks saw her on a Harper’s Bazaar magazine cover, and immediately signed her to a seven-year contract. On set, the 20-year-old met Humphrey Bogart. Their on-screen chemistry, including the famous double-entendre line “You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow,” became an off-screen romance and marriage. This is where Bacall’s “it factor” first went on the record in Hollywood–her seemingly bored countenance, her husky voice, her unending wit and timeless good looks.
While the first Hawks-Bogart-Bacall movie collaboration did not make waves, their next effort paid off in this Detective Philip Marlowe mystery, now considered a film classic. Based on Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled crime novel, it’s chock full of double crossing back stabbers and one liners that are as sexually tense as anything on film today–especially a conversation about horseback riding that electrified audiences in 1946. Bacall is untrustworthy and tempting. There was no looking back for her career after this movie.
The fourth on-screen pairing for now-married Bogie and Bacall won an Oscar for supporting actress Claire Trevor, but no golden statuette for the two commanding stars. (Bogart won in 1951 for “The African Queen,” Bacall never won). With John Huston at the helm, this was another dark mystery/drama payoff for Warner Brothers in post-war 1940s. The dismal, amoral characters of Maxwell Anderson’s play converge in a Florida hotel, and one of them — Nora Temple — is played by Bacall. There was never a sharper onscreen feminine presence in this decade than Bacall, and never a counterpart (or counter punch) like Bogart for her.
Marilyn Monroe. Betty Grable. Lauren Bacall. We needn’t say anymore. Pola, Loco, and Schatze are three New York models each on an official hunt to bag a wealthy man. Bacall played Schatze, the steely one of the gold diggin’ group, and she is in the company of two other amazing and beautiful legends.
Bacall plays New York executive secretary Lucy — an object of lust and affection for two men played by Rock Hudson and Robert Stack. Bacall plays the solid, straight-arrowed one here, surrounded by alcoholics and nymphomaniacs in over their heads with miscarriages, and scores of soap opera goings-on. Though its content may come off as ridiculous at times, it’s worth seeing for a portal into a certain film genre and era.
Bacall went straight back to screwball comedy with this Vincente Minnelli vehicle for her and actor Gregory Peck. They are Mike and Marilla Hagen, who realize after a whirlwind marriage that they are opposites who once attracted. Bacall is great with any leading man, even the very serious Peck. Here you realize how truly remarkable her comedic timing is.
We skip a decade which found Bacall with less meaty film roles and more TV performances, and arrive at the classic train caper. Albert Finney is Detective Hercule Poirot, aboard the sinister snowbound Orient Express sorting through a gallery of entirely shady folk in order to solve a slaying. From Ingrid Bergman (in an Oscar-winning performance) to Sean Connery, and then to Bacall, standing erect and indignant as Harriet Belinda Hubbard, Agatha Christie would have been impressed with this imposing setup of characters.
When Kevin Spacey opened the envelope thinking he’d see Lauren Bacall’s name for Best Supporting Actress in “The Mirror has two Faces,” (1996) he instead saw Juliette Binoche’s name. Considered one of the most shocking upsets in Oscar history, Bacall lost out to the indie French actress. Bacall was as cutting-edge and loveable as ever at age 71 in Barbra Streisand’s romantic comedy. Who cares if she lost? It’s not like she needs a statue to convey how wonderful she is.
Bacall went an interesting route when cast in controversial Danish director Von Trier’s experimental film, “Dogville.” Acting with Nicole Kidman and a bunch of non-household-name actors on a sound stage, Bacall was strange and intriguing in this unsettling story about a small mountain town that basically punishes an outsider who is trying to fit in. While Von Trier’s films are certainly not for everyone’s taste–and are prone to offend viewers–it’s an interesting movie.
In an even more bizarre turn of filmography–and a strangely great way to celebrate life in general–this film didn’t fare too well at the box office, but has undeniable power. Set to some clanging and crashing symphonic music, it’s the story of how Nicole Kidman’s character reacts to her husband coming back reincarnated as a 10-year-old boy. Bacall plays Kidman’s skeptical and sarcastic mother, and her presence adds to the dark richness of a snobbish Park Avenue family affected by the mystery of death and the power of love.
