From Reel Love to Real Love

Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff Updated by an Factmonster Editor on February 21, 2017

To Have and Have Not (1944)
Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart

19-year-old Lauren Bacall's screen debut led to a long romance with her substantially older leading man, Humphrey Bogart.

"We'll have a lot of fun together." So Humphrey Bogart told his beguiling 19-year-old costar before shooting this masterful Howard Hawks drama. Though the actor had never had a relationship with a leading lady, and the ingenue had never been in a film, what transpired was one of Hollywood's most storied affairs. Anyone who doubts their crackling chemistry need only to watch the now-legendary "whistle" scene, where Bacall's surprisingly self-possessed sexuality emerges as more than a match for Bogart's crusty cool. Despite a quarter-century age difference, the couple stayed together until the actor's death in 1957. Just as Bogey promised, they had a lot of fun together.

Stromboli (1950)
Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini

This tedious, Neo-Realist film almost ruined Ingrid Bergman when the news that she was leaving her family to carry out an affair (and shortly thereafter, have a child) with the Roman moviemaker shocked a morality-conscious America. The rambling movie, which casts Bergman as a refugee wife, was boycotted stateside, leaving the regal Swedish beauty to completely rebuild her career. As one friend observed about Stromboli, "What [Roberto] was really interested in was capturing Ingrid not so much to make a film, but for love."

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