To Have Had . . . and Still Have It

“I’m hard to get, Steve. All you have to do is ask me.”

--Lauren Bacall, as Slim, to Humphrey Bogart in “To Have and Have Not”

*

In “The Mirror Has Two Faces,” opening countywide today (review, F1), there is a scene-stealing supporting role for a New York-savvy, aged-but-still-formidable beauty with the measured delivery and comic timing of Alice Kramden.

Lauren Bacall was a natural for it.

She also was plenty available, she says. Hollywood isn’t exactly beating down her door these days, a condition that anyone who spends five minutes with this actress would find hard to fathom. At 71, the former Betty Joan Perske comes across as intelligent, genuine, witty and opinionated. Actually, perhaps that explains it.

She has lost none of the star magic that radiated even in the intense light of her frequent co-star Humphrey Bogart. Dressed in a sleek black pantsuit and multiple gold baubles, with because-I’m-worth-it-blond hair falling softly at her shoulders, Bacall talked recently over a cup of tea in her Four Seasons Hotel suite in Los Angeles.

She recalled Hollywood during the days of the studio system and had many an opinion about changes in the industry since then. But she was most eager to talk about her new film, directed by and starring Barbra Streisand. Bacall gets to deliver some memorable zingers in the movie.

She doesn’t get to do her impression of Bob Dole. But in this pre-election-day conversation with Janice Page, she found a place to work it in.

*

Question: Why did you decide to do this particular movie now?

Answer: Well, it’s a terrific part, that’s the main reason--a better part than I have been offered for some time. And working with Barbra, of course, was a giant attraction because I’m a fan of hers and I have tremendous respect for her.

(Bacall still remembers her first introduction to Streisand, at the opening-night party for the Broadway run of “Funny Girl” in 1964: “I looked at her, and I thought: You’re too damn good. I said, ‘It’s just so depressing, it’s really upsetting. I think maybe I ought to smack you.’ And she said, ‘Well, that’s good, isn’t it?’ She liked the fact that I was jealous.”)

Also, I’ve never been directed by a woman. It was a wonderful cast, and I knew it would be classy. Her standards are as high as mine, and I’m as big a perfectionist as she is--maybe a little less cuckoo but not so much less--and I understand it and am simpatico with it. So I thought, what a great opportunity for me. Plus she was shooting it in New York, so I could live at home.

Q: Your comedic timing in the movie is really . . .

A: Don’t you understand, that’s what I do? I play comedy. I’m very good at comedy. That’s the one area in my career that I really feel secure about. Jack Benny, who was the most perfect comedian who ever performed, told me I had perfect timing. And I thought, “Well, if Jack Benny says so, by God, I’m proud of that.” I love comedy. I believe that life without laughter is no life. There are people who don’t have humor; I couldn’t stand to be around them. I really couldn’t bear it.

Q: Are you more fond of the comedic roles you’ve played, then?

A: Well, it depends upon the part. Unfortunately, I have not been offered such great parts in quite a while. But there was comedy in “To Have and Have Not.” And certainly “Designing Woman” and “How to Marry a Millionaire” were comedies--there’s been comedy in a lot of good parts I’ve played. And then every now and then I would play a kind of straight part because I wanted the change, and maybe those parts weren’t quite as good, but anyway . . . .

Q: The common rap right now is that there aren’t enough substantial parts for women. And for older women, I would imagine that the pie shrinks even further.

A: Yeah, but there are no parts for any age women, that’s the thing. “The First Wives Club,” which is the big success this year, those three women [Diane Keaton, Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn] are all over 50, so they’re not kids. But Julia Roberts, who was the hottest woman in pictures a couple of years ago, hasn’t had a decent part in three, four years. There are very few good roles for women. Barbra found this one; Goldie got that one. So it takes a woman to find a woman’s part.

Q: And a powerful woman to get it made?

A: And how many woman can do that? Very few.

Q: One of the things I found most interesting in your first autobiography was the story of “The Look” (chin to chest, eyes raised coyly), which became your trademark and nickname. You say that came about (in “To Have and Have Not”) because you were trying to steady your head, which was shaking from nerves. Most people probably wouldn’t think of you as the nervous type.

A: I’m a nervous person. I think most actors have nerves, and I think it’s healthy to have nerves, as long as they don’t take over. You have to learn to control them, and gradually I did, though it’s taken me a long time. I still have nerves when I have to make an appearance or something. It’s my nature.

Q: When you imagine Lauren Bacall on screen, do you see her in black and white or in color?

A: God, you know, I don’t even think of that. But I can tell you that I prefer black and white to color.

Q: So you’re not a fan of the colorization of old movies.

A: Ugh. Totally against that. I think black and white movies were fabulous; we all looked better. And you get all kinds of arguments on the other side--everyone sees everyone in color, I see you in color now--but I still think black and white movies created the greatest moods. But color is here to stay, I’m afraid.

Q: Looking back over your career, is there a film that sticks out in your mind as your favorite, for whatever reason?

A: You mean besides “To Have and Have Not,” which is an obvious choice because of everything connected with it. I guess one of my favorites was maybe “Designing Woman.” It was a wonderful part [she played a fashion designer who falls for a sportswriter], and I loved working with Greg [Peck], and it was a comedy.

Q: Is the movie business that much different now than it was when you first started, the studio system aside?

A: Well, the studio system made the difference. When I went into pictures--I was 18 when I went to work for Warner Bros.--it was all about women. It was Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck and Ann Sheridan. They were all under contract to studios--that meant you stayed there and you made pictures, and occasionally, if you were lucky, they would lend you out to another studio.

Q: And, since they had you under contract, they had to write parts for you . . . .

A: And they had writers and directors, and that was the focus of most movies. At MGM they had Garbo, Hepburn, Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford . . . you name it. I mean, some of the greatest stars of the movies were women, not men.

Q: So is it even possible to have a Bette Davis today--one actress playing such a great multitude of roles?

A: You can’t have a Bette Davis today because there was only one of her; there ain’t gonna be no more. She was the greatest. She was my favorite, anyway.

I don’t know. Today with communications, television and everything being what it is, everybody and his brother thinks he’s a star, and they’re not. Very few are going to last. The great thing about the studio system was that if you worked enough, more movies were made. But even then it took 20 years to make a real star. And a real star is someone who is known everywhere and who lasts. It’s the lasting thing that is not happening now. And I think the lack of a studio system and the advent of television have contributed greatly to that situation.

Also the tackiness of so much of the work, which is sad. It’s a wonderful medium and a great opportunity for communication and for allowing people to go into a darkened theater and lose themselves in some other lives. Gosh, when I was a kid that was my dream. I was in heaven when I could go there and watch Bette Davis and be her; I would live whatever she was playing. And now, what do you live? Being a sex object?

Q: And does the subtlety of a bit of film like the whistle scene (when Bacall says suggestively in “To Have and Have Not”: “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and . . . blow”) even work these days?

A: Exactly. There’s no imagination allowed anymore. That’s what’s so good about [“The Mirror Has Two Faces”] is that it allows people to see real people with real problems develop in different ways, but in funny ways. It allows you to imagine a little bit. There’s no nudity, no guns going off, no balloons blowing up, no car chases.

Q: Which brings us to people like Bob Dole, who have lately been coming down hard on Hollywood and its . . .

A: Bob Dole . . . please. [Rolling her eyes, Bacall launches into a brief but memorable impression of Dole. Her voice becomes stern, her brow furrowed, her body rigid: “Bob Dole wouldn’t do this. When Bob Dole is on Pennsylvania Avenue, Bob Dole won’t do this. Not Bob Dole.”]

Who is Bob Dole? How many of you are there? The thing about Bob Dole that drives me insane is, first of all, the easiest way to get your name in the newspaper is to attack Hollywood. And they want to kill the arts. The Republicans have done everything they can to kill the arts. God knows the funding has slowly dribbled down the drain, and all of these self-righteous Republicans are saying, “This is not art.” Well, what Jesse Helms [R-N.C.] considers art is not what I consider art.

One of the terrible problems of this country is that art has been demeaned and that art is not considered to be important or valuable, when in every other country in the world, art reflects life and art is creativity and art is what lasts and art is what feeds your spirit. But not in America! Here it’s a fight to the finish. And it’s all about commerce and money and . . . family values--lest we forget family values.

Q: But was Hollywood ever the moral bastion that those people would have us believe? For instance, in the ‘50s?

A: No. No, it wasn’t. And it wasn’t before then, from all I’ve heard. I mean I was not privy to it, but I can tell you that I heard many a fancy story of things that happened all the way back in the ‘20s. Things that went on between actors, and actors and directors, and directors and women--all kinds of stuff. That’s not a new thing. It’s just that there are no secrets now, everything’s out in public. So people know more than they ever wanted to know or ever should have known about everything.

Q: So the golden age of American film hasn’t passed then, necessarily?

A: Well, the golden age of American film, according to a lot of the fan mail I get, was the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Q: And actually, some experts have placed it earlier--in the mid-’30s . . .

A: Thirties, yeah. But the golden age is not now.

There are some people with standards and there are people with talent now. And the times certainly are different, so different things are required for the different times. But I think there’s too much money being spent. All too much money. Unless [she laughs] they give it all to me.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BACKGROUND

* Lauren Bacall was just 18 years old and a Harper’s Bazaar cover girl without a single screen credit when director Howard Hawks hired her to star opposite Humphrey Bogart in the 1944 film version of Ernest Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not.” She wound up burning a hole right through the screen with her portrayal of a drifter who gets caught up in the passions and intrigue of politically volatile 1940s Martinique.

It is that black-and-white image of her that lingers for most film buffs--the deep voice and arched features; the smooth, sure lift of match to cigarette; the perfectly sculpted hair. Long before anyone even imagined Kathleen Turner in “Body Heat,” Bacall was the embodiment of smoldering lust.

With Bogart, who would become her first husband and the father of two of her children, she went on to star in “The Big Sleep,” “Dark Passage” and “Key Largo.” Following Bogie’s death in 1956, and an aborted engagement to Frank Sinatra--detailed in her first autobiography, “By Myself” (Ballantine, 1978)--came a tumultuous marriage to Jason Robards that produced her third child.

Bacall also starred in such films as “Confidential Agent,” “How to Marry a Millionaire,” “Written on the Wind,” “Designing Woman,” “Murder on the Orient Express” and, more recently, “Misery” and “Ready to Wear (Pre^t-a-Porter).” Her Broadway credits include “Goodbye Charlie” (1960), “Cactus Flower” (‘66) and Tony award-winning performances in “Applause” (‘70) and “Woman of the Year” (‘81). Part 2 of her autobiography, this one called “Now,” was published in 1994 (Knopf).

Next up: Bacall stars as a former first lady, opposite Jack Lemmon’s ex-president, in “My Fellow Americans,” due Dec. 20, to be followed in February by “The Day and the Night,” a French film directed by Bernard-Henri Levy and starring Alain Delon.