"Here's Looking At You"

Hello Everyone:

Yesterday a true screen legend passed away.  Lauren Bacall died at the age of 89.  Lauren was one of those actors that personified style, grace, and class, all qualities sorely lacking in the current generation of actors male and female.  She was equally at home in comedy as well as drama.  It was her on and of screen coupling with her equally legendary first husband, Humphrey Bogart, that remain etched in the collective cultural conscious.  I recently saw two of Ms. Bacall's early films, To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep.  To Have and Have Not was Ms. Bacall's debut film and what debut it was.  The script was written by one of the literary greats of the twentieth century, William Faulkner  based on the book by Ernest Hemingway, directed by Howard Hawks, and starred Humphrey Bogart. An average actor would have wilted in the presence of these heavy weights but not Ms. Bacall.  Not only did she hold her own but went on to create one of the most memorable scenes in film history: "You don't have to act with me, Steve.  You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything.  Not a thing.  Oh, maybe just whistle." Pause. "You know how to whistle, don't you Steve?  You put your two lips together and blow."  Electric.  In The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler, screenplay by William Faulkner, directed by Howard Hawks, the role of Vivian Rutledge was just begging to be played by Ms. Bacall.  The chemistry between Ms. Bacall and Mr. Bogart, by then married, was off the charts.  This kind of magic rarely exists in contemporary cinema.  Most the time it's superficial, manufactured, and replicated to the point of nausea.  Very few actors come close to that kind of allure that Lauren Bacall had.  Even though she wasn't in Casablanca, I feel entirely moved to end by saying "Here's looking at you."