I think Martha Vickers was better looking than Becall and should have had the larger role. I've just never found Lauren Becall all that attractive. She's not ugly, I just don't get the big deal about her. Vickers was much better looking.
shareIt's not purely about looks. Lauren Bacall had this whole simmering, sultry manner about her.
shareYeah, I never found her all that simmering or sultry. She just doesn't do it for me.
shareOkay then.
There's also the way Vickers acted like someone with the mental development of a child in this movie (due to the nature of the character). Not all men would be attracted to that.
Well!, for that matter, Humphrey Bogart is actually butt ugly.
Yeah, it was kind of weird how he got so much attention from all the ladies in this movie.
shareAgree. Sometimes it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense why certain actors are popular with the opposite sex.
shareHe masculine looking which was popular back then. The pretty boy thing didn't start until the 70s and 80s.
Bogart is the kind of guy you'd want by your side in WWII and he had that attitude too. He usually played a "can do" kind of man who was crafty and intelligent.
I'm sure that was very attractive back then.
Are you INSANE? Masculine? He was a short, skinny runt with craggy wrinkles and HORRIBLE teeth. He only spoke masculine lines written by other people. Although I LOVE "The African Queen" I must admit he was always a better villain then he was a protagonist. I will never understand why people thought his romantic allure was believable in Casablanca. His performance was perfect he just didn't LOOK attractive enough to secure Bergman's affections.
He looks like Anthony Bourdain a bit, who is much taller.
There's facial analyzers online and mine comes across as 98% masculine. How do you think Bogart's face would rate given his features? It' wouldn't show as feminine at all.
In addition, most males are average 5 8 in the states and back then I'm sure he was normal. Also, he was in the military and a regular guy. He came across that way too. Back then, you didn't need to know Kung Fu or do crazy stunts to be considered a man.
What about Rudolph Valentino?
sharewho cares?
Martha Vickers was much better looking. And that says a lot. She didn't have the X factor that Bacall had
shareCould be, but remember styles are different in different times. The first movies like pudgey women with very round faces. Also, Bacall, if I remember right was super-young, and Bogart really liked her.
shareVickers was stunning
shareBecall was not attractive compared to many women back then.
We all know how modern Harvey Weinstien works and so just imagine what it was like back then. Perhaps she got places by what she did behind the scenes.
She was a model and got her big (enormously big) break when Howard Hawk's wife spotted her. So she got cast in To Have and Have Not and - according to legend - her part got bigger and bigger as the on screen chemistry with Bogart got stronger and the rest, as they say, was history. After that I think it's fair to say her talent and appeal - even if under appreciated in this thread - kept her on top.
We don't know that though.
She appeared "tough" to me and angry looking, much like prostitutes I've known. I work in the crime field, by the way.
Joan Crawford likely had severe Borderline Personality Disorder and was probably a huge whore on top of it.
These actresses were huge and in some very good movies, but it was the same story back then as today.
I guess you're right, we cannot know that. But I can argue that Bacall came from nowhere to the top in one leap and had no need to sleep her way to the top. That she was tough and intilligent and wrote a very good auto biography and I've never come across any stories claiming she got there on her back or knees or whatever. Which is not the case with Joan Crawford who can even be seen in some grainy old stag movies - allegedly.
Could be.
However, real actresses, business people, etc tend to work their way up from the bottom. People who got to the top instantly tend to be shady in my experience.
For instance, I really like Yul Brenner but her was a heroin dealer and that's how he got into movie. Idris Ilba was a drug dealer and that's how he is in movies. These people didn't work their way up.
Idris Elba got in to movies via years of increasingly bigger and better roles on UK TV and apparently also has a music career which I didn't know about. The only surprising thing about him is an apparent lack of a stage career which so many Brits go through at some time.
I’m sure there is some truth in the Hollywood Babylon type stories but I believe most actors achieve what they do by working very hard and paying their dues.
Bacall was beautiful, had charisma and a look. Star power.
shareI kind of agree with you. But in Becall's defense, I had the chance to see her in person back in 1978 at a book signing. WOW! She had the most intense greenest eyes I ever saw! Stunning!
share