Lauren Bacall in a 1946 image / Welbourne, SCOTTY ( Album)
In the black cinema of the forties, where dialogues , feelings and bullets were to the point, did not fit any actress. Lauren Bacall, died yesterday in New York at age 89, was 19 when she showed that she was not either. He had studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, but the economic problems of his family was forced to leave school and work as a model. It was precisely thanks to a cover of Harper’s Bazaar that Howard Hawks’s wife noticed it. Hawks asked his secretary to look for the history of the girl in the photo, but, by mistake, the assistant did take Bacall to Hollywood from New York for an audition with the director. Hawks looking faces for new projects, but as noted by Joseph McBride in a magnificent book-length interview with the filmmaker, the girl did not fit: “Suddenly there was a new breed skirt trench coat, a sweater and a shrill voice, nasal, reedy … though I was so excited I had to tell the girls of our films were far more sophisticated and in no case had that voice. “
Despite the cold water, Bacall stayed in Los Angeles and asked for time and advice to correct this defect. “I can only tell you what he told me the best actor I’ve ever worked, Walter Huston, on how he got the fabulous voice he has.” Two weeks later Bacall returned to office Hawks and launched a “Hi, how are you?” So severe that the test and earned glory. What followed was a four-month training that definitely did Betty Joan Perske mutate into Lauren Bacall.
learned voice, looks and film, but it was not enough. It lacked a little detail: attract men. As was a kid, Hawks and his wife accompanying her everywhere until one day I asked why she never left the party with men. “Do not give me too well,” she said. Hawks gave another priceless tip: “What if you stop being so nice to them? What if you try to insult? “. Holy hand. In the next party, Bacall already had a candidate to take her home: Clark Gable. As William Faulkner said, a real woman should have the heart like a revolving door.
So, which became insolent deep voice, has come down to us. And Hawks began to outline the role that would launch the eternal stardom: the girl Bogart Have And Have Not , a novel by Hemingway in Faulkner whose dialogue worked. Bacall took advantage of his celebrated today lines (“You know I do not have to act with me Steve? … I do not have to say anything and not have to do anything. Absolutely nothing … Or just whistle … You know how to whistle, do not you Steve? … Just put your lips together and … blow “) and set them the myth. They say that when Marlene Dietrich was Have And Have Not is so incensed that he called the principal. “Do you know? That was me 20 years ago, “he snapped. “I know,” Hawks said, “and I know that in 20 years will reach another”
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Lauren Bacall in 1948 / Bettmann (CORBIS)
What followed that film is history. The crush on Bogart, hard top affair by the double life he kept the actor with his then third wife, actress May Methot, alcoholic, like him, died in 1951 by his problems with the bottle, and the fourth ( and final) marriage of actor Bacall. With the new wedding also came the announcement of a new target in the head of the stubborn Betty: motherhood. Despite initial reluctance Bogart in 1949, was born the eldest of three sons of the actress (the last was his second marriage, to Jason Robards), whose name, Stephen, is dedicated to the male character Have and not have . Before the birth of the child, rolled Bacall Dark Passage (1947) and Big Sleep (1946), one of the peaks of black cinema , written by Raymond Chandler and again with screenwriter Faulkner. They followed C ayo Largo (1949) How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) Written in the Wind (1956) My Designing Woman (1957) … That year Bogart died at 56 from cancer.
Ten years earlier the couple had headed the group of stars who traveled to Washington to support witnesses cited by HUAC. In a Howard Hughes flew tickets Bogart, Bacall, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, John Garfield and John Huston. Bacall always felt proud of this episode. Unfortunately, months later, Bogart be erased from the historical photo by declaring publicly that the trip was a mistake.
For better or worse, the Dresser is elongated in the life of Bacall. In 2011, in an interview with Vanity Fair , the actress joked about it: “I am afraid that my obituary will be packed with Bogart.” It is not wrong, but it was never a mere appendage and could defend its place in history. When the actor died, and after a short time receive the consolation of Frank Sinatra, Jason Robards married. Then he turned his career to Broadway and began to choose movies with dropper. In 2009 he received an honorary Oscar. Fifteen years ago, coinciding with the publication of one of the two volumes of his memoirs, Bacall said he had time alone. “The problem is that there are many men who do not like women like sex, have a vase, whatever you call it, but are not interested in the company of a real woman. I miss sharing the good times, but I’ve also learned to enjoy my solitude. “
Despite its extraordinary beauty, always important it was removed. Surely his humor was key to knowing age, splendid. “I was never a beauty, but I consider myself a decent person,” he said.
With his death was almost completely extinguished a golden age of cinema. Consuela remember the first time the actress appeared on the screen, one in the shade. Laconic, opened his mouth to ask a match. I was so scared, shaking both hands and legs, which stuck his chin on his chest to control anxiety. And so, in a panic, was born this feline look, challenging, bottom-up, that from that black screen forever burned the heart of a man and the rest of the world.
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