‘Steel with curves' doesn't sound all that tough when it comes to personal relationships today. ' People have always had the wrong impression of me. If I didn't have a sense of humour I would probably have killed myself over some of the things that people have said and written about me. They hear my deep voice and think I'm tough. They think I'm always in control and can handle any situation. Well, they're wrong. Liste, I'm alone in the world and have been for a long time and in order to survive I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. That's always gotten me in trouble and I know it grates on those people who wish I would just shut up. Why, sometimes I wish I would shut up. But I can't analyse what people think of me. I can't change anything now -- it's too late.' She met Bogart on the set of ‘To Have and Have Not', a loose, 1944 film reworking of Hemingway's story. She wasn't 20, he was 25 years older, but the magic, the charisma, the whatever ‘it' is that makes a movie or a love affair, sparked spectacularly on and off director Howard Hawks' film set. On screen Bacall kisses Bogart and tells him:' It's even better when you help.' Then, she says:' You don't have to act with me Steve. You don't have to say anything, you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? Just put your lips together and blow'. She walks out of shot and Bogart purses his lips, blows a low whistle, and smiles. If you squeeze your eyes and let memory flick the frames of her life she's never really changed that much. Bogart called her ‘Slim' in their landmark movie and she always has been. Of course, she's aged but only in real life. On the video shelves she'll always be ‘Slim' asking Bogie if he can whistle. She says -- and she's used to the questions -- that her memories are not painful. ‘Bogie was an extraordinary, sensational man and I always had tremendous admiration for him. God knows those were wonderful years - I have no complaints. But our life together was so many years ago. I'm not sure I'm the same person now that I was back then. Why should I live in the past? It's funny but I don't think of “missing” Bogie because he is still alive in all the wonderful things he said to me and the moments and events we shared. ‘When I want a real special memory I reread his love letters -- I've kept them all. Bogie was a very romantic man. I only wish I'd kept his trenchcoat -- getting rid of that was the stupidest thing I've ever done. ‘Bogie and I didn't have a perfect marriage. We argued. He drank. When I married him I was a baby -- I was mindless -- and since I knew nothing about marriage I was bound to get out of line. And I did. But Bogie and I had a relationship. We had love. If he hadn't died I would still be married to him. I would always have been married to him.' Four years after Bogart's death she married the award-winning actor Jason Robards. It followed a torrid but horrid affair with Frank Sinatra although she recalls now:' I liked what I had of him. He was interesting.' With Bogart she had two children (Stephen who was born in 1949 and is now a TV producer in New York and daughter Leslie, born in 1952 and now a yoga instructor in the city) .Her marriage to Robards produced son Sam in 1961. He's an actor based in Manhattan . Like Bogart, Robards drank. He doesn't anymore but he didn't stop sipping in time to save the marriage which ended in 1969. The clock ticked on. Bacall finds it a strange new world. In ‘To Have and Have Not' she was sultry and sexy but revealed nothing but her dental work. Just a shade more than 50 years later, actresses are still trying to turn audiences on but are, well, rather more forward. After ‘Basic Instinct' and the stunning success it provided for Sharon Stone scripts in Hollywood now include dozens of pages of material reflecting naked ambition for box office hits.
|
|
|