MovieChat Forums > The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) Discussion > Lauren Bacall etc etc

Lauren Bacall etc etc

posted 8 years ago by Midgegirl
2 replies | jump to latest

First of all, this is in no way a criticism, because I LOVE this film, but does anyone familiar with film noir know if Lizabeth Scott was deliberately copying Bacall for this film -given that it came out 2 years after To Have And Have Not- or was it just that it was in vogue back then for all femme fatale types to speak in this drawly, smokey way? Because to my modern ears and eyes it seems as if Scott is doing an impersonation of Bacall (albeit brilliantly, and I'm not complaining) in the book-loaning scene in the hotel room instead of being herself. Were audiences and critics back then fine with this or were they critical?

I'm not asking what people today think about it; does anyone know how the performance was received back in the day? tia

[–] hilaryjrp 8 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizabeth_Scott

See "Early Life" section.

[–] Midgegirl 8 years ago

Thanks- that goes some way to explaining -or at least noting- her way of speaking, but I'd still like to try and find out what contemporary audiences thought of her similarities to the newly famous Bacall who just pipped her to the post in film timing.