Once upon a time, I couldn’t stand “Bogie and Bacall.” I found Bogart overly gruff and distinctly unattractive. Back then, I was all about the 30s, favoring couples like Fred and Ginger and Grant and Hepburn in Holiday and The Philadelphia Story. Bacall hadn’t even hit my radar, and my own fiercely independent teen years had brought the end of a dating relationship with a guy 5 years older than me who called me “Baby.” Of course, there was also Bertie Higgins “Key Largo” song, incessantly on the radio in 1982, inspiring my then-BFF to blather on about how true it was, how perfect Bogie and Bacall were together. I kneejerked hard and got as far away as I could, even refusing to watch Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon because Bogart was in them. Over time, this silly bias became an afterthought, just a gap in my film knowledge as I continued to bask in 30s screwball comedies and delighted in Mel Brooks and early Woody Allen comedies. During college I became fascinated with film versions of Shakespeare. During graduate school, I delighted in feminist film theory and science fiction film and tv. Other film fetishes have come and gone since then, from anime to queer cinema.
Only very recently did I fall in love with classic noir. Films I had found so-so upon first screening (from Scarlet Street to Night of the Hunter) became sources of complex and powerful pleasure. I coupled my screenings of B public domain films and classics alike with readings in theory and history, read Chandler and Hammett, and started filling in those 40s film gaps…including Bogie and Bacall.
And this brings me to the focus and purpose of this post, MovieMovieBlogBlog’s “In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb” Blogathon. We are to share a film that we approached with misgivings but turned out to love. Or, as Steve puts it, “you began with gruff expectations, only to have your heart melt by movie’s end.” For me, that gruff-to-melty film is Howard Hawks’ wild mess The Big Sleep (1946).
To clarify my “lion becomes lamb” experience, here are my top three grouchy objections and their happy resolutions:
BEFORE/LION:
- The Bogie-Bacall twosome is about a sugar daddy and a bimbo
- Bogart is ugly and too old for the role of Marlowe
- They’re going to ruin the Chandler novel because of Code censorship
AFTER/LAMB:
- Bacall is fantastically poised and potent as an actress. She actually somehow magically gives Bogart sex appeal.
- Bogart pulls off a gruff and craggy version of Marlowe that somehow really works
- Censorship did mess up the novel, particularly re drugs and homosexuality; but the novel is a mess to begin with
In short, the noir atmosphere and Bogie-Bacall chemistry in the film bowled me over (though I give most of the credit to Bacall for the latter). I didn’t even care that Marlowe is supposed to be more enamored of Eddie Mars’ wife (aka “silver wig”) than of Bacall’s deceitful spoiled Vivian Rutledge (name changed for no reason I can see from the novel). Frankly, I loved how Bogart’s Marlowe loved and desired Bacall-as-Vivian…because I loved and desired her, too. Still do. All this and a great supporting cast: who has the energy to give a damn about plot holes?
From this lion-to-lamb experience, I watched and rewatched Key Largo and found similar pleasure. And I even went back to The Petrified Forest (about which I’ll be writing in April for The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood’s Bette Davis Blogathon) to find Bogart endearing opposite Leslie Howard and Davis in his first tough guy role.
The rest, as they say, is (ongoing) history. I’m just glad I gave in and gave the Bogie-Bacall magic a try.
Exit music:
February 28, 2016 at 8:02 PM
Nicely done, as always! It’s been years since I’ve seen THE BIG SLEEP, but I share similar sentiments about TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, which I saw for the first time only a few months ago.
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February 28, 2016 at 9:37 PM
So, did you finish like a lamb with To Have and Have Not?
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February 28, 2016 at 11:43 PM
Just barely, thanks to Bacall.
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February 28, 2016 at 11:57 PM
Try Key Largo. They’re nicely offset by Lionel Barrymore, Edward G., and Claire Trevor. Great ensemble cast.
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February 28, 2016 at 8:43 PM
Ha! I have several movies like this. I guess the standout for me is Citizen Kane, which I thought was going to be dead boring but which, when I finally watched it a few years ago, I loved to pieces.
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February 28, 2016 at 9:35 PM
Yeah, I felt that about Citizen Kane, too. And I confess I have little desire to see it again anytime soon, powerful though it is. By contrast, I could watch The Big Sleep or Key Largo on a monthly basis. 🙂
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February 28, 2016 at 11:02 PM
I confess to having an antipathy toward The Big Sleep, even though I could watch Bacall for hours. The chaos of the plot is like sand under an eyelid for me, while Bogart’s version of Marlowe is indistinguishable to me from his version of Spade. Hammett’s writings don’t resonate for me in the same way as Chandler’s do, so I’m not too fussed about Bogart’s screen Spade, but I do resent the Bogartification (or perhaps Spaderization?) of Marlowe. I like Bogart in plenty of other things (In a Lonely Place is a particular example, although even then I think his performance falls short of Gloria Grahame’s), but not here.
And I could certainly see me rewatching Citizen Kane . . . sooner rather than later, in fact.
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February 28, 2016 at 11:59 PM
He is great in In a Lonely Place and Petrified Forest, too. And I love the ensemble of Key Largo. But yes, he is not my favorite Marlowe, even if I don’t mind the chaotic mess of the plot.
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February 28, 2016 at 9:21 PM
Glad you got over your dislike of Bogie and Bacall-They worked well together on and off screen, but yeah, the plot holes of The Big Sleep do bug me, great cast or not. I’ll take your word for it that the book is a mess, too.
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February 28, 2016 at 9:32 PM
The mystery of who killed the chauffeur is resolved in neither film nor novel, for one. But the film also tempers the sex and drugs way too much: the younger murderous-mad sister is high as a kite and naked in two of her key scenes with Marlowe. I’m ready for a new remake, if only we can find the right Marlowe!
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