Bogie & Bacall: The Signature Collection DVD Review

The legendary chemistry between Bogart and Bacall showcased in four movies--"To Have and to Have Not," "Dark Passage," "Key Largo" and "The Big Sleep," the latter of which is one of the finest examples of the noir genre.

Saturated with shadows, style and cigarette smoke, the movie follows Bogart's Philip Marlowe, a private dick trying to get to the bottom of a blackmail case involving socialite Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers).

Since Carmen is a conniving kitten, all isn't what it seems with her. Neither is it with Carmen's equally mysterious sister, Vivian Rutledge (Bacall), a gorgeous femme fatale who deepens the dysfunction by adding her own bad habits to the mix, which Marlowe inevitably finds himself fixing.

With the exception of the World War II drama “To Have and to Have Not,” the cheap sort of slum hustling that goes on in these movies either would bring down a red light district or brighten it, depending on how you view the world.

Nobody talks as they do in noir, which is a great deal of the fun. And nobody--nobody--spoke it with such a heated undercurrent of lust as Bogart and Bacall in their prime.

Grade: A