Hello Fellow Travelers!
Again I was going to take on a subject that desperately needs to be obsessed about: Brain Tumors and Barnabas Collins - Coincidence or Connection? and then this happened:
Last week, Robin Williams committed suicide. Everyone felt really bad about it. It was a straight up suicide too, not an overdose or some erotic adventure gone horribly wrong, the guy hanged himself on Tiburon.
Very sad, for all kinds of reasons. Someone else died (a movie star) that same day with not any of the drama or fanfare of the painful death (I mean for all of us, I have no doubt it was really painful for poor Mr. Williams), so I wanted to express my feelings about this star who I last saw playing herself on "The Sopranos".
Lauren (Betty) Bacall had a long career and an even longer life. Ms. Bacall is known for many things, but most people only remember her as being half of a pair, Bogart & Bacall. After Bogey died (of cancer) Ms. Bacall went forward and had several high-profile relationships and at least one other marriage, but she claimed that Humphrey Bogart was "the love of her life" and it's arguably what she's best known for.
A great deal has been said about her "look" (she was nervous) and the now-infamous "line" (You know how to whistle, right? You just put your lips together and blow!) "To Have and Have Not" and "Key Largo" were the two quintessential Bogart/Bacall pictures and they're very good.
My favorite Lauren Bacall film is as much fun to watch now as it probably was 40 years ago.
All the great qualities of Betty Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, New York in the 50's, are on display in one of my very favorite movies: Howard Hawks' "How to Marry a Millionaire". It's stylish and silly and funny as hell. It's what "Sex In the City"wanted to be, strived for, all those seasons.
These girls were models that ate hotdogs and "dogburgers" whatever those were. They drank beer too. These girls had amazing wardrobes and were dead broke. They lived in a stunning apartment on Park Avenue and had nothing in their refrigerator but old corsages and champagne! The only visible result of this "poverty" was the furniture coming and going. "Dogburgers"? WTH? OK, so it's not technically based in any reality I'm aware of. It's pretty and funny. I love every minute of it!
Bacall is the "brains" of this scheme and the only one that actually marries a millionaire, although she's unaware of it at the time. In every scene she looks incredible, it's in technicolor which was a big step forward back in those days.
Anyway, there are certainly more substantial films in her body of work but none that are as filled with eye-candy and fun to watch. Bacall as "Schatzi" could make any hare-brained scheme sound plausible. "Marry a Millionaire? Sounds like a crazy caper to me! I'm in!
PS - My fun of the week has to go to Funny Or Die's "Drunk History" on Comedy Central. I defy you not to laugh. And the laughs are the best because they're completely unintentional.
Again I was going to take on a subject that desperately needs to be obsessed about: Brain Tumors and Barnabas Collins - Coincidence or Connection? and then this happened:
Last week, Robin Williams committed suicide. Everyone felt really bad about it. It was a straight up suicide too, not an overdose or some erotic adventure gone horribly wrong, the guy hanged himself on Tiburon.
Very sad, for all kinds of reasons. Someone else died (a movie star) that same day with not any of the drama or fanfare of the painful death (I mean for all of us, I have no doubt it was really painful for poor Mr. Williams), so I wanted to express my feelings about this star who I last saw playing herself on "The Sopranos".
Lauren (Betty) Bacall had a long career and an even longer life. Ms. Bacall is known for many things, but most people only remember her as being half of a pair, Bogart & Bacall. After Bogey died (of cancer) Ms. Bacall went forward and had several high-profile relationships and at least one other marriage, but she claimed that Humphrey Bogart was "the love of her life" and it's arguably what she's best known for.
A great deal has been said about her "look" (she was nervous) and the now-infamous "line" (You know how to whistle, right? You just put your lips together and blow!) "To Have and Have Not" and "Key Largo" were the two quintessential Bogart/Bacall pictures and they're very good.
My favorite Lauren Bacall film is as much fun to watch now as it probably was 40 years ago.
All the great qualities of Betty Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, New York in the 50's, are on display in one of my very favorite movies: Howard Hawks' "How to Marry a Millionaire". It's stylish and silly and funny as hell. It's what "Sex In the City"wanted to be, strived for, all those seasons.
These girls were models that ate hotdogs and "dogburgers" whatever those were. They drank beer too. These girls had amazing wardrobes and were dead broke. They lived in a stunning apartment on Park Avenue and had nothing in their refrigerator but old corsages and champagne! The only visible result of this "poverty" was the furniture coming and going. "Dogburgers"? WTH? OK, so it's not technically based in any reality I'm aware of. It's pretty and funny. I love every minute of it!
Bacall is the "brains" of this scheme and the only one that actually marries a millionaire, although she's unaware of it at the time. In every scene she looks incredible, it's in technicolor which was a big step forward back in those days.
Anyway, there are certainly more substantial films in her body of work but none that are as filled with eye-candy and fun to watch. Bacall as "Schatzi" could make any hare-brained scheme sound plausible. "Marry a Millionaire? Sounds like a crazy caper to me! I'm in!
PS - My fun of the week has to go to Funny Or Die's "Drunk History" on Comedy Central. I defy you not to laugh. And the laughs are the best because they're completely unintentional.
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