August 12, 2014

Goodbye to Lauren Bacall.

A grand old actress has died. She was 89.

Watch her with Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe in "How to Marry a Millionaire":



AND: Lauren's best lines:



"I'm hard to get, Steve. All you have to do is ask me."

27 comments:

The Godfather said...

The more mature Betty Bacall had some great lines in "Harper" -- in fact everybody had great lines in that movie except the corpse.

rhhardin said...

I never understood any movie with a noir ambience, or a bunch of women talking.

W.C.Fields was great.

Bob R said...

I've understood To Have and to Have Not since I was about twelve.

madAsHell said...

Why was Marilyn Monroe so popular?

rcocean said...

I liked her, but she got more publicity and praise out of her limited screen talent than probably anyone in Hollywood.

If she'd married John Garfield instead of Bogie, I don't think anyone would remember her.

rcocean said...

She was great with him though.

Heartless Aztec said...

Hubba, hubba...

David said...

It's been a long wait for Bogart, but she's finally coming to join him.

MikeD said...

I really only have seen her on cable/satellite TV. The great, imo,b/w movies she made in late 40's weren't part of our Saturday morning matinee ritual.
That said, Bogart/Bacall movies have, to me, an unidentifiable aura of honesty?
BTW madAsHell, because the Kennedy's were doing her? Or, maybe, because she was a great looking/talented actress?

Bob R said...

@madAsHell - Because she was the funniest of all the "bombshells." There were a lot of actresses as beautiful and sexy as MM. But MM played a great comedic role in one of the great screen comedies - Some Like It Hot.

google is evil said...

Whistle. You know how don't you?

B said...

Watched that movie with my girlfriend six months ago. I was pleasantly surprised. We had a lot of fun.

Unknown said...

she once said:

being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind.

r.i.p.

Kansas City said...

Wow. She was shockingly sexual for the time.

David said...

Kansas City said...
Wow. She was shockingly sexual for the time.


Without taking her clothes off or purchasing breasts the size of grapefruit.

Anonymous said...

Waiting for #3.

rcommal said...

There are a number of ways in which this is quite wonderful (and I recommend not skipping the very end, anyway).

rcommal said...

I never understood any movie with a noir ambience, or a bunch of women talking.

W.C.Fields was great.


W.C. Fields seems to have been greatly influenced by his mother’s sense of humor. His mother would greet neighbors, then mutter caustic comments under her breath. As Wes D. Gehring notes in W.C. Fields, a Bio-Bibliography, “the apparently congenial address followed by the cutting aside is the cornerstone of Fields’ comedy.”

The Drill SGT said...

in to have and have Not, Bacall was 19 and in her first movie. The chemistry between the two of them was amazing. The closing scene though demonstrates that she was really an alien being. No earth woman of 19 should be able to move those hips like she did. Head down,eyes up. wow...

PS: When they buried Boggart, she placed a gold whistle in the casket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs4vI2XnQJ4

Ron said...

Check out Monroe with Cary Grant in "Monkey Business" (not the Marx brothers one!) even sexier than in Some Like It Hot.

A small taste...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBMZu-NzaT0

Robert Cook said...

"I never understood any movie with a noir ambience, or a bunch of women talking."

?????

What's not to understand about either?

Tank said...

Whatever "it" is, she had it.

And hot. Hot. Hot.

Amazingly hot while showing practically nothing.

Anonymous said...

Smoking hot scene. It's hard to believe she was only 19. That woman on the screen had 'been around'.

RazorSharpSundries said...

"I thought I saw Lauren Bacall, I thought I saw Lauren Bacall. Hey fellas, it's Lauren Bacall!"

Robert Cook said...

I did see Lauren Bacall once, years ago. I was on the Upper East Side for some reason, probably going to a doctor's appointment. It was early in the day and I passed her on the sidewalk...there was barely anyone around. It was one of those ritzy residential blocks. (Much of the Upper East Side is actually pretty dismal and run down.)

Douglas B. Levene said...

I went on a small guided tour of a temple in Kyoto once about 30 years ago and Lauren Bacall was on the tour. My wife wanted to tell her how crazy I was about her but I said to leave her alone to enjoy the temple. So I didn't get her autograph but I have a happy memory of being within a few feet of my all-time favorite actress.

Larry J said...

Lauren Bacall was beautiful and talented, but Hedy Lamarr was all that plus brilliant.