NR, 106 min.
Director: Delmer Daves
Writers: Delmer Daves, David
Goodis (novel)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart,
Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead, Tom D’Andrea, Clifton Young,
Douglas Kennedy, Rory Mallinson, Houseley Stevenson
Earlier this week, we lost
two Hollywood legends. While Robin Williams dominated the media coverage, it
was quietly announced the next day that Lauren Bacall had also passed away. She
was 89. She died in New York of an apparent stroke.
Bacall was probably best
known for her sensual husky voice. She was hardly as prolific an actor as
Williams. She chose her projects carefully. She was married to Hollywood legend
Humphrey Bogart in one of Hollywood’s few successful real life romances. They
met on Bacall’s first film “To Have and Have Not” (1944). They quickly married,
had two children together and returned to the screen together three more times,
first in “The Big Sleep” (1945) and finally in “Key Largo” (1948) before Bogey’s
death in 1957.
In between, the two made “Dark
Passage” (1947), in which Bogey plays an escaped convict who has plastic
surgery so he can stay in San Francisco and find out who framed him for the
murder of his wife. Bacall plays a young artist who helps him. The movie is
unusual as it requires its star to remain unseen throughout the first third of
its running time. We hear Bogey’s unmistakable voice but never see his face
until after the surgery. Up to that point everything is shown point of view
from his character. To have such a stylized approach to a murder mystery in
1947 was unusual indeed. The bonus of this daring approach is that we get to see
as much of Bacall as we do of Bogart even though she is not the lead.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment