Showing posts with label Lauren Bacall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lauren Bacall. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Gone, Baby, Gone
Damn, what a horrible way to start the week! First it was comedian Robin Williams, lost yesterday, apparently to suicide, at age 63. Now comes the news that actress Lauren Bacall--born Betty Joan Perske in the Bronx, New York, in 1924--has passed away at age 89.
A former theater usher and fashion model, Bacall first came to prominence in 1944, when, at age 19, she starred with 44-year-old Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not, a film based loosely on Ernest Hemingway’s 1937 novel of the same name. Her famous double entendre-laced line, delivered to a smoking, reclining Bogie--“You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and … blow”--knocked out movie-going audiences everywhere, and had no less impact on Bogart himself. At the time he was already on his third marriage, to actress Mayo Methot, but he divorced her the next year to wed Bacall, or “Baby” as he called her. The pair were together only until his death in 1957, but if Bogie’s ghost is still anywhere around, he’s whistling for her to join him today.
READ MORE: “Lauren Bacall (1924-2014), Hollywood Legend and Style Icon,” by Noel Murray (The Dissolve); “Lauren Bacall, Sultry Movie Star, Dies at 89,” by Enid Nemy (The New York Times); “Lauren Bacall, Legendary Actress, Dies at 89,” by Ryan Parker and Dennis McLellan (Los Angeles Times); “The Magnetic Mystique of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall,” by Soraya Nadia McDonald (The Washington Post); “Lauren Bacall’s Guide on How to Become a Successful Model in New York City, 1941” and “Was Lauren Bacall the World’s Most Glamorous Newsie?,” by Greg Young (The Bowery Boys); “Fond Farewells: Pleasant Dreams, Mrs. Bogart,” by John “J.F.” Norris (Pretty Sinister Books); “Tribute to Lauren Bacall (1924-2014),” by Scott (The Nick Carter & Carter Brown Blog); “Reactions to Lauren Bacall’s Death: Great Beauty, An Iron Backbone” (Deadline Hollywood); “Last Bacall” (Pulp International); “Historian Explains Lauren Bacall’s Cool: ‘She’s Got That It Factor With a Capital I,’” by Jessica Goldstein (Think Progress); “Lauren Bacall: Sept. 16, 1924-Aug. 12, 2014,” by Jon M. Wessel (Eleven-Nineteen); “What the Media Isn’t Telling You About Lauren Bacall (and Humphrey Bogart),” by Clancy Sigal (Salon).
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Put Out the Call for Candles
This is a red-letter day for celebrating birthdays of folks near and dear to the hearts of crime-fiction fans. As Ivan G. Shreve Jr. reminds us, it was on this date in 1927 that actor Peter Falk, who would later star in television’s Columbo, was born in New York City. Falk is now 83 years old and reportedly suffering from “advanced dementia.”
It was on another September 16, in 1924, that a second native New Yorker, Betty Joan Perske--later to be introduced to film audiences as Lauren Bacall--took her first breaths. After co-starring with Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944), the two performers became lovers and, in May 1945, swapped “I do’s”; he was 45 years old, she was 20. Bacall went on to star with Bogie in The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947), and after his death from cancer in January 1957, she appeared with Paul Newman in 1966’s Harper (based on Ross Macdonald’s first Lew Archer novel, The Moving Target), served as one of the prime suspects in 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, and co-starred with John Wayne in his last motion picture, The Shootist (1976). Bacall also featured in a two-part, 1979 episode of The Rockford Files. It was a memorable episode, if only because Bacall--the widow of the man who’d played the big screen’s iconic gumshoe (in The Maltese Falcon)--was now playing the latest love interest of the finest gumshoe ever to grace the small screen, Jim Rockford (James Garner). Below, I’ve embedded a scene from To Have and Have Not that shows why Bogart was so entranced by the woman he called “Baby,” who today turns 86.
Six years after Bacall’s birth, on September 16, 1930, Anne Francis was born in Ossining, New York. She first came to widespread public attention starring in the 1956 science-fiction film Forbidden Planet, but is undoubtedly more familiar to Rap Sheet readers as the star of ABC-TV’s Honey West (1965-1966). In the decades since, Francis has guest-starred in everything from The Name of the Game and Banacek, to Ellery Queen, Columbo, Search, Assignment: Vienna, Barnaby Jones, Without a Trace, and ... well, the list could go on and on. But many of us still remember the now 80-year-old Francis best as a lithesome sleuth. Below, I have embedded a 1965 teaser for Honey West.
Finally, let’s not forget that today would have been the 83rd birthday of Jack Kelly, who starred with James Garner in Maverick (1957-1962). He was later a regular on Get Christie Love!, guested on such shows as Ellery Queen and The Fall Guy, reprised his Bart Maverick role in a 1978 teleflick, The New Maverick, and again in Garner’s too-short-lived TV series, Bret Maverick, and like Bacall, showed up on Rockford (figuring into two episodes from 1977). After serving as the mayor of Huntington Beach, California, Kelly died of a stroke in November 1992.
We offer a toast to every one of these performers on this special day.
It was on another September 16, in 1924, that a second native New Yorker, Betty Joan Perske--later to be introduced to film audiences as Lauren Bacall--took her first breaths. After co-starring with Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944), the two performers became lovers and, in May 1945, swapped “I do’s”; he was 45 years old, she was 20. Bacall went on to star with Bogie in The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947), and after his death from cancer in January 1957, she appeared with Paul Newman in 1966’s Harper (based on Ross Macdonald’s first Lew Archer novel, The Moving Target), served as one of the prime suspects in 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, and co-starred with John Wayne in his last motion picture, The Shootist (1976). Bacall also featured in a two-part, 1979 episode of The Rockford Files. It was a memorable episode, if only because Bacall--the widow of the man who’d played the big screen’s iconic gumshoe (in The Maltese Falcon)--was now playing the latest love interest of the finest gumshoe ever to grace the small screen, Jim Rockford (James Garner). Below, I’ve embedded a scene from To Have and Have Not that shows why Bogart was so entranced by the woman he called “Baby,” who today turns 86.
Six years after Bacall’s birth, on September 16, 1930, Anne Francis was born in Ossining, New York. She first came to widespread public attention starring in the 1956 science-fiction film Forbidden Planet, but is undoubtedly more familiar to Rap Sheet readers as the star of ABC-TV’s Honey West (1965-1966). In the decades since, Francis has guest-starred in everything from The Name of the Game and Banacek, to Ellery Queen, Columbo, Search, Assignment: Vienna, Barnaby Jones, Without a Trace, and ... well, the list could go on and on. But many of us still remember the now 80-year-old Francis best as a lithesome sleuth. Below, I have embedded a 1965 teaser for Honey West.
Finally, let’s not forget that today would have been the 83rd birthday of Jack Kelly, who starred with James Garner in Maverick (1957-1962). He was later a regular on Get Christie Love!, guested on such shows as Ellery Queen and The Fall Guy, reprised his Bart Maverick role in a 1978 teleflick, The New Maverick, and again in Garner’s too-short-lived TV series, Bret Maverick, and like Bacall, showed up on Rockford (figuring into two episodes from 1977). After serving as the mayor of Huntington Beach, California, Kelly died of a stroke in November 1992.
We offer a toast to every one of these performers on this special day.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Hills of Homicide:
The Mysteries of San Francisco -- Movies
(Editor’s note: We asked Kelli Stanley, the San Francisco author of City of Dragons [2010] and an admitted film noir obsessive, to name her favorite noirs set in her hometown. She sent back the article below.)
1. The Maltese Falcon (1941). OK, so it wasn’t really filmed here. Still, it feels authentic. During your Bouchercon visit to San Francisco you can stop by Dashiell Hammett Street, right by the spot where Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, meets his end. And there’s Don Herron’s fabulous Hammett tour, too. And of course, The Maltese Falcon is a seminal noir, faithful almost to the letter to author Hammett’s 1930 novel, with a superb cast (including Sydney Greenstreet in his first film role). It is arguably the best adaptation of any private-eye novel ever.
2. Vertigo (1958). I didn’t get it when I was in my 20s. Too baroque, too outré, too ridiculous ... but Vertigo is a film I’ve come to better understand and savor with each passing year. As a fever-dream of obsession--and a metaphor for the fear of death, which makes the age difference between Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak all the more richly textured--and as a garishly colored, hallucinatory, San Francisco-set noir, it stands unique. It’s also the most powerful personal testimony to director Alfred Hitchcock’s genius. Watch for scenes shot at Fort Point, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, and Mission Dolores.
3. Nora Prentiss (1947). If you subscribe to the most piquant definition of noir---about the characters being “fucked from page one”--then translate that sentiment into a black-and-white melodrama, the kind usually starring Joan Crawford (see below) ... add in San Francisco and Ann Sheridan, with cinematography by James Wong Howe and direction by Vincent Sherman ... the result will be Nora Prentiss. This picture also perfectly captures the honky-tonk atmosphere of the old Fisherman’s Wharf ... which you can still sense on an occasional Friday night, when the Bay wind floats a rich combination of fresh crab, beer, and desperation in just the right proportions. Not yet available on DVD, but be sure to watch for this film on TCM.
4. The Lady from Shanghai (1948). Rita Hayworth. Orson Welles. The movie that ended in divorce for Welles and Hayworth, and not just because he sadistically made her cut her hair and dye it blond. Exterior shots of Playland-at-the-Beach, the fabled but unfortunately long-gone Coney Island of San Francisco, and a brilliant, much-imitated last scene in the amusement park’s Hall of Mirrors (embedded at left). The classic Steinhart Aquarium. And shots of Welles running through Chinatown and Portsmouth Square (with a visit to the old Hall of Justice). Watch especially for the scene on Grant Avenue where he passes by the Li Po bar. That place is still there, and not long ago hosted Dominic Stansberry and I for a reading of Subterranean Noir through the auspices of City Lights Bookstore and Peter Maravelis, the editor of San Francisco Noir.
5. Thieves’ Highway (1949). Richard Conte could portray heroes and villains with equal panache, but his role here is arguably his best (with Mr. Brown in The Big Combo coming in a close second). San Francisco’s waterfront Produce Market--where part of the action is set--is now long gone, and Thieves’ Highway is a lasting testament to the city’s pre-suburb days. It’s also a stirring reminder--from the sublime Jules Dassin (director) and A.I. “Buzz” Bezzerides (writer)--about the labor struggles behind bringing an apple to market. You won’t ever look at your Granny Smith in quite the same way again.
6. Sudden Fear (1952). Joan Crawford, Gloria Grahame, and Jack Palance--what a cast! One of the best proto-feminist noirs around, Sudden Fear, like most of Crawford’s noirs, is what they used to call a “woman’s picture.” It’s suspenseful and deliciously played by all, and you’ll enjoy authentic shots of the city from Nob Hill mansions to Art Deco apartments. Go, Joan, go!
7. Dark Passage (1947). If you’re lucky, you’ll get to ride the very cable car Humphrey Bogart did when he and Lauren Bacall were filming. And of course, there’s the fabulous Telegraph Hill apartment where La Bacall lives ... and the memorable scene in which she drives an old wood-sided station wagon through the Golden Gate Bridge toll lane (everything looks exactly the same, but the price is considerably higher nowadays). If you do happen to cross the bridge, look to your right (heading north) when paying your toll, and you’ll see a round building. That used to be a restaurant in the 1930s and is currently a gift shop. (Watch a scene from Dark Passage above.)
8. D.O.A. (1950). A fun B-movie with some bizarre touches (such as the sound effects in the hotel when Edmond O’Brien is “on the make”), D.O.A. is also a great record of 1950 San Francisco and Los Angeles. Watch for O’Brien’s run down Market Street.
9. The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950). If you’re intrigued by Fort Point after watching Vertigo, by all means try this film. It’s a tight, well-paced little noir, with some fantastic scenes filmed at San Francisco’s Civil War-era fortress, directly beneath the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. You’ll also get to see Spock’s mother (Jane Wyatt) play a femme fatale. And she’s got a cool house on Sea Cliff!
10. Woman on the Run (1950). Ann Sheridan strikes again, this time with Dennis O’Keefe. This is a fabulous, low-budget film shot mostly on location here,
except for the scenes supposedly taking place at Playland-at-the-Beach. You will, however, get a close-up of Laughing Sal, whom you can still meet (and who apparently terrorized generations of children who saw her at Playland). Just head down to Pier 45 and walk into the magic of the Musée Méchanique.
Honorable Mentions
Devotees of the genre may note that I have failed to include Out of the Past (1947) on this list. Although it’s one of my favorite noirs, the supposedly San Francisco locations are not altogether believable (unlike those in The Maltese Falcon and even Nora Prentiss), which is why I’ve skipped it. Other films to enjoy:
• The Lineup (1958), which includes a lengthy scene at the long-ago-demolished Sutro Baths, and a great car chase through the city--just about completely accurate, too!
• Experiment in Terror (1962). Lee Remick drives across the Bay Bridge and we visit George Washington High School in the Richmond district.
• The House on Telegraph Hill (1951). Sadly, Julius’ Castle--the famous restaurant on the Hill--has been closed since 2008.
• Impact (1949), offering many shots of Nob Hill and environs.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t call attention to a helpful, pocket-sized paperback called San Francisco Noir (2005), by Nathaniel Rich. While you may disagree with his inclusion of a few films (Dirty Harry, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), the book is extremely well-researched and includes addresses from many of the locales in his list of films.
If you’re interested in film noir and haven’t joined the Film Noir Foundation, please check it out. Founded by Noir Czar (and this year’s Bouchercon Toastmaster) Eddie Muller, the FNF helps preserve films such as these from further deterioration and eventual loss.
1. The Maltese Falcon (1941). OK, so it wasn’t really filmed here. Still, it feels authentic. During your Bouchercon visit to San Francisco you can stop by Dashiell Hammett Street, right by the spot where Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, meets his end. And there’s Don Herron’s fabulous Hammett tour, too. And of course, The Maltese Falcon is a seminal noir, faithful almost to the letter to author Hammett’s 1930 novel, with a superb cast (including Sydney Greenstreet in his first film role). It is arguably the best adaptation of any private-eye novel ever.2. Vertigo (1958). I didn’t get it when I was in my 20s. Too baroque, too outré, too ridiculous ... but Vertigo is a film I’ve come to better understand and savor with each passing year. As a fever-dream of obsession--and a metaphor for the fear of death, which makes the age difference between Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak all the more richly textured--and as a garishly colored, hallucinatory, San Francisco-set noir, it stands unique. It’s also the most powerful personal testimony to director Alfred Hitchcock’s genius. Watch for scenes shot at Fort Point, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, and Mission Dolores.
3. Nora Prentiss (1947). If you subscribe to the most piquant definition of noir---about the characters being “fucked from page one”--then translate that sentiment into a black-and-white melodrama, the kind usually starring Joan Crawford (see below) ... add in San Francisco and Ann Sheridan, with cinematography by James Wong Howe and direction by Vincent Sherman ... the result will be Nora Prentiss. This picture also perfectly captures the honky-tonk atmosphere of the old Fisherman’s Wharf ... which you can still sense on an occasional Friday night, when the Bay wind floats a rich combination of fresh crab, beer, and desperation in just the right proportions. Not yet available on DVD, but be sure to watch for this film on TCM.
4. The Lady from Shanghai (1948). Rita Hayworth. Orson Welles. The movie that ended in divorce for Welles and Hayworth, and not just because he sadistically made her cut her hair and dye it blond. Exterior shots of Playland-at-the-Beach, the fabled but unfortunately long-gone Coney Island of San Francisco, and a brilliant, much-imitated last scene in the amusement park’s Hall of Mirrors (embedded at left). The classic Steinhart Aquarium. And shots of Welles running through Chinatown and Portsmouth Square (with a visit to the old Hall of Justice). Watch especially for the scene on Grant Avenue where he passes by the Li Po bar. That place is still there, and not long ago hosted Dominic Stansberry and I for a reading of Subterranean Noir through the auspices of City Lights Bookstore and Peter Maravelis, the editor of San Francisco Noir.
5. Thieves’ Highway (1949). Richard Conte could portray heroes and villains with equal panache, but his role here is arguably his best (with Mr. Brown in The Big Combo coming in a close second). San Francisco’s waterfront Produce Market--where part of the action is set--is now long gone, and Thieves’ Highway is a lasting testament to the city’s pre-suburb days. It’s also a stirring reminder--from the sublime Jules Dassin (director) and A.I. “Buzz” Bezzerides (writer)--about the labor struggles behind bringing an apple to market. You won’t ever look at your Granny Smith in quite the same way again.
6. Sudden Fear (1952). Joan Crawford, Gloria Grahame, and Jack Palance--what a cast! One of the best proto-feminist noirs around, Sudden Fear, like most of Crawford’s noirs, is what they used to call a “woman’s picture.” It’s suspenseful and deliciously played by all, and you’ll enjoy authentic shots of the city from Nob Hill mansions to Art Deco apartments. Go, Joan, go!
7. Dark Passage (1947). If you’re lucky, you’ll get to ride the very cable car Humphrey Bogart did when he and Lauren Bacall were filming. And of course, there’s the fabulous Telegraph Hill apartment where La Bacall lives ... and the memorable scene in which she drives an old wood-sided station wagon through the Golden Gate Bridge toll lane (everything looks exactly the same, but the price is considerably higher nowadays). If you do happen to cross the bridge, look to your right (heading north) when paying your toll, and you’ll see a round building. That used to be a restaurant in the 1930s and is currently a gift shop. (Watch a scene from Dark Passage above.)
8. D.O.A. (1950). A fun B-movie with some bizarre touches (such as the sound effects in the hotel when Edmond O’Brien is “on the make”), D.O.A. is also a great record of 1950 San Francisco and Los Angeles. Watch for O’Brien’s run down Market Street.
9. The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950). If you’re intrigued by Fort Point after watching Vertigo, by all means try this film. It’s a tight, well-paced little noir, with some fantastic scenes filmed at San Francisco’s Civil War-era fortress, directly beneath the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. You’ll also get to see Spock’s mother (Jane Wyatt) play a femme fatale. And she’s got a cool house on Sea Cliff!
10. Woman on the Run (1950). Ann Sheridan strikes again, this time with Dennis O’Keefe. This is a fabulous, low-budget film shot mostly on location here,
except for the scenes supposedly taking place at Playland-at-the-Beach. You will, however, get a close-up of Laughing Sal, whom you can still meet (and who apparently terrorized generations of children who saw her at Playland). Just head down to Pier 45 and walk into the magic of the Musée Méchanique.Honorable Mentions
Devotees of the genre may note that I have failed to include Out of the Past (1947) on this list. Although it’s one of my favorite noirs, the supposedly San Francisco locations are not altogether believable (unlike those in The Maltese Falcon and even Nora Prentiss), which is why I’ve skipped it. Other films to enjoy:
• The Lineup (1958), which includes a lengthy scene at the long-ago-demolished Sutro Baths, and a great car chase through the city--just about completely accurate, too!
• Experiment in Terror (1962). Lee Remick drives across the Bay Bridge and we visit George Washington High School in the Richmond district.
• The House on Telegraph Hill (1951). Sadly, Julius’ Castle--the famous restaurant on the Hill--has been closed since 2008.
• Impact (1949), offering many shots of Nob Hill and environs.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t call attention to a helpful, pocket-sized paperback called San Francisco Noir (2005), by Nathaniel Rich. While you may disagree with his inclusion of a few films (Dirty Harry, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), the book is extremely well-researched and includes addresses from many of the locales in his list of films.
If you’re interested in film noir and haven’t joined the Film Noir Foundation, please check it out. Founded by Noir Czar (and this year’s Bouchercon Toastmaster) Eddie Muller, the FNF helps preserve films such as these from further deterioration and eventual loss.
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