Pretty Good Rye

"We're like the tree house club," organizer Mike Jones told the small group of Thursday Film for Lunch regulars today.

Which is fine because as long as I get to see all these classic literary adaptations on 35 mm, I don't really care how many other people show up.

And as Mike pointed out, a rainy day like this is perfect movie-watching weather.

Embarrassing as it is to admit, I had never seen 1946's "The Big Sleep" with Bogart and Bacall made after they'd fallen in love a few years before.

Their chemistry was palpable, even with the mounting body count and the dark tones of film noir.

Playing second fiddle to them was alcohol, which was the common thread that ran through the entire film.

When asked how he liked his brandy, Bogart replied, "In a glass."

When he's trying to get information out of a shop girl, he says, "I got a bottle of pretty good rye in my pocket" and next thing she's pulling down the shade on the door and closing the shop.

When Bogart says he's going to drink with Bacall's father, she tells him, "My brandy's just as good and I have a lot of it."

Actually, all of the dialog was wickedly funny despite it being the forties and the themes of nymphomania and pornography being whitewashed.

The innuendo between Bogart and Bacall, which must have seemed risque then, would still come across to me as sexually-charged if someone were to say it to me today.

Like when they were talking about "horse racing."

Bacall: I'd say you don't like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a little lead, take a little breather in the backstretch and then come home free.
Bogart: You don't like to be rated yourself.
Bacall: I haven't met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?
Bogart: Well, I can't tell till I've seen you over a distance of ground. You've got a touch of class, but I don't know how, how far you can go.
Bacall: A lot depends on who's in the saddle.

Spoken for all womankind.