Stream Selected Films of The Throaty Lauren Bacall
To Have and Have Not 1944 Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Summer 1940, the island colony of Martinique controlled by pro-German Vichy France. Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) owns a small fishing boat he rents to tourists with the help of drunk, loud-mouthed first mate Eddie (Walter Brennan) for whom he has deep affection. Harry steers clear of politics, but when beautiful Marie (“Slim”) Browning (18 year-old Lauren Bacall-her film debut) needs to get off the island, he agrees to secretly pick up and transport Resistance members Paul and Helene de Bursac in order to pay her transport.
Violence and a chase scene follows. The corrupt police are on his tail. Slim no longer wants to go home. This is the film with the iconic, “You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? Just put your lips together and blow.” Bogart and Bacall began an off-screen relationship during production and married in 1945, after the film’s release. Cricket, the piano player in the hotel bar was played by Hoagy Carmichael. To Have and Have Not presents “one of the most basic anti-fascist statements the cinema has given us.” (British critic Robin Wood) Rent on Amazon Prime.
Key Largo 1948 Adapted from the Maxwell Anderson play. Directed by John Huston. Vacation season having ended and with a hurricane approaching, Hotel Key Largo (Florida), has only six guests when army veteran Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) arrives to visit the hotel’s owners, his service friend’s widow Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall) and her father James (Lionel Barrymore). The others, ostensibly there to fish, are: Toots (Harry Lewis), Curly (Thomas Gomez), Ralph (William Haade), Angel (Harry Lewis), alcoholic moll, Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor – Best Supporting Actress Academy Award), and her boyfriend, a sixth man who remains shut up in his room.
Sheriff Ben Wade arrives searching for two fugitive American Indians who arrive with several other Seminoles seeking storm shelter soon after the law exits. As if that weren’t sufficient trouble-in-the-making, the sixth man turns out to be federal fugitive, gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson). Several murders, counterfeit money, a foolish escape plan, clever Frank’s heroics, and of course, the mutual attraction Nora and him ensue. Taut. With familiar character portrayals. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Young Man with a Horn 1950 Based on the novel by Dorothy Baker inspired by the life of jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Directed by Michael Curtiz. When his parents die, young Rick Martin (Kirk Douglas) is raised close to the bone by his neglectful sister. Only music interests him. He teaches himself piano basics after wandering into church services and is then magnetized by a jazz band featuring trumpeter Art Hazzard (Juano Hernandez- terrific). The musician helps Rick buy an instrument from a pawn shop and becomes his teacher. Rick signs onto a dance band featuring pianist Smoke Willoughby (Hoagy Carmichael) and singer Jo Jordan (Doris Day).
Smoke becomes a lifelong friend, Jo falls in unrequited love. Rick bounces from band to band unable to surpress his individuality for the paycheck earned with established sound. One night, Jo introduces him, ostensibly in passing, to rich, cold, unstable, patrician Amy North (Lauren Bacall). He falls in love. Consequences are dire, though not quite fatal. The rare example of a 1940s film noir with a central character who is bisexual (one scene towards the end). Harry James supplies the music. Rent on Amazon Prime.
How To Marry a Millionaire 1953 Comedy based on the plays The Greeks Had a Word for It by Zoe Akins and Loco by Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert. Directed by Jean Negulesco. Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall. With William Powell (older and still attractive), Rory Calhoun, Cameron Mitchell, David Wayne. Three twenty-something women pool resources to sublet an extravagant Sutton Place penthouse while its owner hides from the IRS. In order to hook millionaire husbands, they must appear as if they don’t need money. All seem to fall in love with men who don’t fit the bill – except that one secretly does. Absolutely charming despite predictability. A must-see for single women. Amazon Prime and Netflix.
The Cobweb 1955 Based on a novel by William Gibson. Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Good Dr. Stewart McIver (Richard Widmark) runs a psychiatric institution in which he’s experimenting by letting the patients regulate their own lives. Signs indicate this having a positive effect. The committed psychiatrist is inadvertently neglecting frustrated wife Karen (Gloria Grahame) and attracted to art therapist/widower Meg Rinehart (Lauren Bacall).
A battle for control of the institution is waged between its still-on-staff former head, Dr. Devanal (Charles Boyer), now an unfaithful alcoholic, dour Victoria Inch (Lillian Gish), who inherited the place, and the reticent McIver. Headstrong Karen pours oil on the flames causing volatile patient Steven Holte (John Kerr, the boy from Tea and Sympathy) to attempt suicide and chaos at the facility. Forward thinking in many ways. Holds your attention. Susan Strasburg makes her debut in a minor role and Oscar Levant plays a patient rather close to his own character. With Fay Wray of King Kong fame and Tommy Rettig who’d go on to the Lassie films. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Designing Woman 1957 Directed by Vincente Minnelli. As close to Woman of the Year (Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn) as one can get, yet apparently one of Gregory Peck/Lauren Bacall’s most successful films. If you love the actors, the formula probably won’t bother you. In California, sportswriter Mike Hagen (Peck) and dress designer Marilla Brown (Bacall) fall in whirlwind love and marry knowing practically nothing about one another. Back in New York, his Runyonesque friends and her socialite/artist friends are polar opposites, priorities are incomprehensible to one another, friction leads to separation. Of course love wins out in the end. Also featuring Dolores Gray and Mickey Shaughnessy. Rent on Amazon Prime.
The Mirror Has Two Faces 1996 can be found in Stream Selected Films of Barbra Streisand
The Portrait 2017 can be found in Stream Selected Films of Gregory Peck
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