The fledgling career of Lauren Bacall
Having a career in Hollywood is difficult. It is. It takes drive, tenacity, diligence AND it also doesn't hurt to have powerful people in your corner.
Sometimes when I'm feeling down about life and/or my career I pop on an old, Black and White movie from the 1940's and just allow myself to be transported back to that grand time in Hollywood.
Recently, I was feeling a little down so I put on "The Big Sleep."
I've had the dvd for a while but this is the first time I watched the dvd extra's - those are always sooo cool - you always find out fun facts. The dvd extra's on "The Big Sleep" focused on Lauren Bacall's career and how it was helped by her agent, Charles A Feldman and Director Howard Hawks. They attribute the final version of "The Big Sleep" to helping Bacall have a career.
Here are the deet's...
Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in New York City. (Another Native New Yorker, Thank you very much) Her initial break came from the wife of famed Director Howard Hawks, Nancy Gross. Nancy saw the young Betty on a cover of Harper's Bazaar and arranged for a screen test. How gorgeous does she look??? Seriously, right?
Howard Hawks liked the screen test and became her Svengali. He had wanted to create a star and found his muse in young Betty. Hawks promptly changed her name to Lauren Bacall and cast her in her first film: "To Have and Have Not." Young Bacall made a huge splash in her first film, her reviews were out of this world amazing and she became an over night sensation.
After "To Have and Have Not" Bacall's shot her next film "Confidential Agent." It was released while she was filming "The Big Sleep." The reviews for her work in "Confidential Agent" were not good. She went from being touted as the "New, Fresh face" to having her acting ability questioned. These were the Hedda Hopper days, a time when people lived and died by the information given by the columnists and it meant that Bacall's career was now in jeopardy.
(On a side note: Later Bacall would say this film still hurt her career. In it she played a spy, opposite Charles Boyer, and had to do a British accent, which she admits she did poorly.)
At that time Bacall's agent, Charles A Feldman, watched a cut of "The Big Sleep" and urged Howard Hawks for retakes and also to completely re-do some of Bacall's scenes. In "To Have and Have Not" Bacall played a female character that was startling and new for the time period and so Feldman pointed out that the changes he suggested would help to re-create that "insolent, provocative, female character" that Bacall had been praised for. Feldman went on to say that if changes weren't made Bacall might get more bad reviews and if she does he (Howard Hawks) may lose one of his most important assets.
Talk about earning your 10 percent!!!!
In January of 1946 Howard Hawks, Bogart and Bacall gathered together to re-shoot parts of "The Big Sleep." In the final cut Bacall was given more scenes and better camera angles. Also, by the time they scheduled the re-shoots Bacall and Bogart had married and the actors off screen comfort level translated to amazing chemistry on-screen.
With regards to "STORY" there is no difference between the the 1945 unreleased version and the final 1946 version, but it is obvious that the 1946 version was done solely to restore and enhance the career of Lauren Bacall. If she didn't have these men working for her Bacall probably would never have had a career. These men were able to do this because of the "Studio System'' - they had the power back then to literally create stars.
I sometimes wish I lived back in the time of the "Studio System" - it just seems like it offered steady work for us actors. I feel blessed to have the career I currently have and to work in a time when producing indie films is as affordable as shooting home movies; we seriously hold the keys to our own destiny. At the same time I find it fun to hold the "Studio System" imagery in my mind. Honestly, I have no idea what the personal costs were to have a career back during that era but it just seems like it was easier to have a career. If someone liked you at the studio they'd sign you to be a "Contract Player" and you were on your way AND to top that the roles for women were better too - the characters had way more depth and complexity than what's written today.
I always glean inspiration from the Actresses that paved the way for strong women, like Lauren Bacall. I can't imagine Hollywood without her, can you?
Bacall just celebrated her 88th Birthday in September and though she is the last of the stars from Hollywood's Golden era she continues to work to this day. Below is this amazing quote from Bacall from a recent Vanity Fair Article. I love it because it gives insight into her character.
They really don't make 'em like this anymore:
“There have always been rumors about me: Oh, she’s very difficult. Be careful of her. People who don’t know me—even some people who do know me—know that I say what I think. Very few people want to hear the truth. Bogie was like that, my mother was like that, and I’m like that. I believe in the truth, and I believe in saying what you think. Why not? Do you have to go around whispering all the time or playing a game with people? I just don’t believe in that. So I’m not the most adored person on the face of the earth. You have to know this. There are a lot of people who don’t like me at all, I’m very sure of that. But I wasn’t put on earth to be liked. I have my own reasons for being and my own sense of what is important and what isn’t, and I’m not going to change that.”
Sometimes when I'm feeling down about life and/or my career I pop on an old, Black and White movie from the 1940's and just allow myself to be transported back to that grand time in Hollywood.
Recently, I was feeling a little down so I put on "The Big Sleep."
I've had the dvd for a while but this is the first time I watched the dvd extra's - those are always sooo cool - you always find out fun facts. The dvd extra's on "The Big Sleep" focused on Lauren Bacall's career and how it was helped by her agent, Charles A Feldman and Director Howard Hawks. They attribute the final version of "The Big Sleep" to helping Bacall have a career.
FINAL VERSION??? I had no idea there was more than one version of this film - did you????
Here are the deet's...
Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in New York City. (Another Native New Yorker, Thank you very much) Her initial break came from the wife of famed Director Howard Hawks, Nancy Gross. Nancy saw the young Betty on a cover of Harper's Bazaar and arranged for a screen test. How gorgeous does she look??? Seriously, right?
Howard Hawks liked the screen test and became her Svengali. He had wanted to create a star and found his muse in young Betty. Hawks promptly changed her name to Lauren Bacall and cast her in her first film: "To Have and Have Not." Young Bacall made a huge splash in her first film, her reviews were out of this world amazing and she became an over night sensation.
After "To Have and Have Not" Bacall's shot her next film "Confidential Agent." It was released while she was filming "The Big Sleep." The reviews for her work in "Confidential Agent" were not good. She went from being touted as the "New, Fresh face" to having her acting ability questioned. These were the Hedda Hopper days, a time when people lived and died by the information given by the columnists and it meant that Bacall's career was now in jeopardy.
(On a side note: Later Bacall would say this film still hurt her career. In it she played a spy, opposite Charles Boyer, and had to do a British accent, which she admits she did poorly.)
At that time Bacall's agent, Charles A Feldman, watched a cut of "The Big Sleep" and urged Howard Hawks for retakes and also to completely re-do some of Bacall's scenes. In "To Have and Have Not" Bacall played a female character that was startling and new for the time period and so Feldman pointed out that the changes he suggested would help to re-create that "insolent, provocative, female character" that Bacall had been praised for. Feldman went on to say that if changes weren't made Bacall might get more bad reviews and if she does he (Howard Hawks) may lose one of his most important assets.
Talk about earning your 10 percent!!!!
In January of 1946 Howard Hawks, Bogart and Bacall gathered together to re-shoot parts of "The Big Sleep." In the final cut Bacall was given more scenes and better camera angles. Also, by the time they scheduled the re-shoots Bacall and Bogart had married and the actors off screen comfort level translated to amazing chemistry on-screen.
With regards to "STORY" there is no difference between the the 1945 unreleased version and the final 1946 version, but it is obvious that the 1946 version was done solely to restore and enhance the career of Lauren Bacall. If she didn't have these men working for her Bacall probably would never have had a career. These men were able to do this because of the "Studio System'' - they had the power back then to literally create stars.
I sometimes wish I lived back in the time of the "Studio System" - it just seems like it offered steady work for us actors. I feel blessed to have the career I currently have and to work in a time when producing indie films is as affordable as shooting home movies; we seriously hold the keys to our own destiny. At the same time I find it fun to hold the "Studio System" imagery in my mind. Honestly, I have no idea what the personal costs were to have a career back during that era but it just seems like it was easier to have a career. If someone liked you at the studio they'd sign you to be a "Contract Player" and you were on your way AND to top that the roles for women were better too - the characters had way more depth and complexity than what's written today.
I always glean inspiration from the Actresses that paved the way for strong women, like Lauren Bacall. I can't imagine Hollywood without her, can you?
Bacall just celebrated her 88th Birthday in September and though she is the last of the stars from Hollywood's Golden era she continues to work to this day. Below is this amazing quote from Bacall from a recent Vanity Fair Article. I love it because it gives insight into her character.
They really don't make 'em like this anymore:
“There have always been rumors about me: Oh, she’s very difficult. Be careful of her. People who don’t know me—even some people who do know me—know that I say what I think. Very few people want to hear the truth. Bogie was like that, my mother was like that, and I’m like that. I believe in the truth, and I believe in saying what you think. Why not? Do you have to go around whispering all the time or playing a game with people? I just don’t believe in that. So I’m not the most adored person on the face of the earth. You have to know this. There are a lot of people who don’t like me at all, I’m very sure of that. But I wasn’t put on earth to be liked. I have my own reasons for being and my own sense of what is important and what isn’t, and I’m not going to change that.”
 |
| This is the photo they ran with the article in Vanity Fair. It was taken in her New York apartment at The Dakota. She bought John Lennon's old apartment. |
xo,
DawnMarie
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