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It was the most famous romance in Hollywood, a town filled with famous romances. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Bogie and Bacall, transcended the rest. It remains a byword for romance to this day, even after many other Hollywood romances have become long forgotten.
The Real Bogie and Bacall, by Catherine Curzon, tells their story. It is a joint biography and an account of their love and life together.
They shared similarities. Both were natives of New York City, happy in an urban environment. They were consummate and talented theater professionals. They were both willing to take the world in both arms and run with it. Yet there were significant differences, starting with a twenty-year age gap between them.
Bogart grew up rich but unloved. His distant parents largely ignored him, except as a model for his mother’s artwork. (As a child Bogart was the Gerber Baby.) Bacall grew up poor but deeply loved. Her mother raised her to believe she could achieve anything.
Bogart fell into acting, experiencing failure before success. He took it up reluctantly after failing at several other arts. Only after a bad review did he pursue acting seriously to show the critic was wrong. Bacall grew up determined to be an actress. She pursued the theater with a single-minded determination and succeeded early.
Bogart was an indifferent student. Bacall the star pupil. Finally, Bogart had been married three times before they met (and married when they met). She had never been kissed.
She was unimpressed with him before she was cast in her first movie (and her first movie working with him), To Have and Have Not. Yet when they met he bowled her over. She created the famous Bacall look, where she tucked her chin in her shoulder, to keep from shaking in his presence.
Curzon tells their story superbly. She starts with Bogart, following him through youth, into the Navy in World War I, and then onto the stage. She shows his marriages and the slow progression of his career to stardom.
She then introduces Betty Bacall (renamed Lauren for the theater) following a rocketing progression to To Have and Have Not. From there, Curzon shows how the sparks flew and how both, initially reluctantly, began a romance and finally a life together.
The Real Bogie and Bacall is entertaining and informative. It offers insight and some surprising revelations about the stars, explaining why their story is remembered today.
“The Real Bogie and Bacall,” by Catherine Curzon, White Owl, 2024, 224 pages, $36.95 (Hardcover), $16.99 (Ebook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
Discussion (7)
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I read Lauren Bacall By Myself and Then Some.
I came to the conclusion that she was kind of a ditz. She admits was not aware that Bogie was dying, even though she was married to him and lived in the same house with him at the time. She also stated that even after decades of acting in movies and theater she needed direction, that she did not have the ability to act without someone telling her how.
That said, To Have and Have Not is one of my favorite movies.
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Bogart was hiding from both her and himself. Even after he figured out it was more serious than a cough, he continued hiding it from her. To be fair, she was busy with two small children at the time.
Apparently it started as a dare. Hawks, who directed the movie, told Hemmingway that he (Hawks) could take Hemmingway's worst novel and turn it into a hit movie. Hemmingway told him to do To Have and Have Not sold him the film rights to it because he didn't think anyone could do anything with it. Having read it, I really agree that it is Hemmingway's worst novel.
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The novel was remade twice more as The Breaking Point (1950, directed by Michael Curtiz of Casablanca fame) and as The Gun Runners (1958, directed by Don Siegel who directed Dirty Harry.) I guess I could do a Thrice Told Tales post with this film.
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The book cites that song as an example of Bogart's and Bacall's enduring influence on popular culture. A Thrice Told Tales would be interesting. Especially as Hawk's movie really used very little of Hemmingway's novel. It would be interesting to know if the remakes followed the movie version of To Have and Have Not or the novel.
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I was happy to give Lauren Bacall my umbrella on a rainy day.
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