Lauren Bacall, who just died yesterday at 89, is one of the rare actresses whose entire career was based on her performance in a single scene. It happens to be the single sexiest scene ever put on film. In 1944's To Have and Have Not, she was 19 years old, starring with Humphrey Bogart with a script co-written by William Faulkner based on an Ernest Hemingway novel, and yet she is what we all remember. The scene has the famous line "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? Just put your lips together and blow." But the whole scene is one unexpectedly erotic act of hostility after another. "You're just a stinker." "It's even better when you help." "You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything, not a thing." Bacall strolls through this predatory sexiness like a born killer, like a tiger in the jungle. It must have been tough to be Lauren Bacall after this performance. She was a teenager still and the only way to go was down. That's the price of finding eternity when you're 19.

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Watch: Lauren Bacall Has Passed Away

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Stephen Marche Stephen Marche is a novelist who writes a monthly column for Esquire magazine about culture.

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