In her autobiography, Lauren Bacall said:

“1956 was to be the year that Bogie and I were to make our first film together since KEY LARGO eight years before.”

But it wasn’t to be. Warner Brothers had bought the novel “Melville Goodwin USA”  by John P. Marquand.   Bogart and Bacall were cast and in February 1956 they were at the stage of doing costume tests.

Bogie had been diagnosed with cancer and had been in hospital. He had to pull out of the film and Lauren also left the production. Bogie died less than a year later.
The film was filmed with Kirk Douglas and Susan Hayward and released in 1957.

It’s sad but also interesting to see this extended video of costume tests for Bogie and his wife. There’s a lot of turning round. Unfortunately,no sound. I wonder what Bogie was saying as he twirled. He makes a joke about Lauren’s height which makes me think of a line in The Big Sleep. (“You’re not very tall, are you? – Martha Vickers.)

Nice closeup at the end.

 

 

TOP SECRET AFFAIR was made by Susan Hayward’ s own company, Carrollton Inc ( named after her adopted home town in Georgia.)

I don’t recall having seen this film. Ms. Hayward said of it, “the film was very good, but nobody went to see it.”

 

 

It would have been great to see Bogart and Bacall together again.