Bogie and Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood’s Greatest Love Affair

Biographer Mann (The Contender) spotlights screen legends Humphrey Bogart (1899–1957) and Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) in this engrossing examination of the couple’s intertwined careers and mythologized romance. Emotionally deprived rich boy Bogart found his niche on Broadway in the 1935 play The Petrified Forest (the first in which Bogart “glimpsed his own potential,” according to Mann). Later roles in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca cemented his status as a cinematic icon. Meanwhile, alluring magazine photos of New York–born model Bacall helped get her cast in director Howard Hawks’s 1944 film To Have and Have Not. Her chemistry with costar Bogart, then 25 years her senior, caught fire while shooting the famous scene in which her character teaches his to whistle, sparking a passion that led to their marriage a year later. Mann traces the development of the “Bogart-Bacall brand,” a screen team whose electric appeal drew audiences to such box office hits as The Big Sleep, and details the couple’s trials, including fights, rumored affairs, and Bogart’s alcoholism. Scrupulously attending to the distinct personalities, cultural conditions, and media environment that joined forces to create “arguably Hollywood’s greatest love story,” Mann delivers a spirited narrative that’s hard to put down despite its heft. Film buffs will eat this up. (July)