The one movie Lauren Bacall wanted to delete from history: “Whatever you do, don’t watch that”
Few Hollywood couples were as iconic as Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, with the pair sharing the screen several times, beginning with the former’s first-ever movie role in To Have and Have Not.
Born Betty Joan Perske, the actor got her start as a teen model, but soon her face captivated Slim Keith, the wife of Howard Hawks, and it wasn’t long before Perske landed herself a Hollywood contract. With a new name to go with her seductive image, she was ready for the silver screen, even if she had very little experience as an actor.
Bacall turned out to be an unforgettable star, although there is one performance from early in her career that she wishes people would forget, because it hardly represented her true talents as an actor. She was still finding her feet, getting used to existing under the spotlight and acting alongside those who were considerably more experienced than her, so when she took on her second ever role, it proved to be a decision that perhaps needed thinking out a little more wisely.
The actor had quickly risen from a part-time model to a Hollywood starlet with just one role (opposite her future husband, no less), and the step she took next would be incredibly important. Bacall was offered the role of Rose Cullen in Confidential Agent, a young British woman who meets Charles Boyer’s Luis, a spy.
Her performance was rather negatively reviewed, contributing to the film’s middling ratings, although Graham Greene, author of the source material, actually thought she did a good job. His opinion didn’t matter, though, because Bacall was at the receiving end of some less-than-positive press that she needed to find a way to bounce back from.
Blaming Warner Bros executive Jack L Warner for guiding her towards such a disastrous sophomore effort, she seriously worried that she’d never be taken seriously again. “Whatever you do, don’t watch that movie,” she instructed in an interview with Vanity Fair.
Luckily for Bacall, Confidential Agent doesn’t stick out as a particularly enduring movie from the era. Even better, she wisely reteamed with Hawks for her third movie role, which proved to be the greatest decision of her career. After the disaster of Confidential Agent, she could rest easy with a role in The Big Sleep, yet again reuniting her on-screen with Bogart, at which point they were already married.
The Big Sleep, based on Raymond Chandler’s novel of the same name, saw Bogart play a private detective, while Bacall starred as the oldest daughter of General Sternwood, whom Bogart’s Phillip is hired by.
Not all reviews were overwhelmingly positive when the movie was released, but soon it became an undisputed classic. Two more collaborations with Bogart followed, starting with Dark Passage, followed by John Huston’s classic Academy Award-winning Key Largo.
Bacall was evidently able to bounce back from her awful miscasting in Confidential Agent, continuing her career into the 21st century with roles in everything from Lars von Trier’s Dogville to Jonathan Glazer’s Birth.
