Smash hit

Bacall would appear with Bogart in three more films, all of them classics – The Big Sleep, Key Largo and Dark Passage. By the end of the Forties, they were Hollywood’s golden couple. “I learned so much from observing his friends and listening to the conversations, some of which I found boring as hell,” she laughs. “The more they drank, the duller they got. But I was exposed to these amazing people. Dorothy Parker – Bogey said, ‘Look out for her, be careful, you never know what she’ll come up with.’”

They had two children, a son, Stephen, and a daughter, Leslie, and they were, by all accounts, a devoted and happy couple. His long and painful illness, suffering from cancer, did nothing to prepare her for the shock of his death in 1957. “The writer John O’Hara sent me a wire after Bogey died, ‘Being prepared doesn’t make it any easier.’ And it doesn't. There’s no easy.”

In 1961, she married actor Jason Robards and they had a son, Sam, also an actor. But in 1969 she divorced him, blaming his alcoholism. “Jason was a formidable man in his own right and certainly a great actor. But difficult, you know. He had these problems, especially with alcohol and I just couldn’t take it any more.” Through it all, she continued to work. Although none of her later film work quite matched the classics of the Forties and Fifties, she did prove herself to be an extremely talented stage actress, winning Tony Awards for performances in Applause and Woman of the Year. She also won a Golden Globe, and, in 1997, was nominated for an Academy Award for The Mirror Has Two Faces.

Since her divorce, she’s been alone. In fact, as she points out, she’s been alone most of her life. “Not by design. I’ve never designed my life. And that’s why work has been so important to me, because it’s got me out of myself and in a position where I can function and amuse myself and be part of the living... I like intelligent, witty men. I would have loved to have found a great guy, but they don’t exist any more. Why? Don’t ask me. I haven't met anyone I wanted to spend an evening with, much less a life with. I mean, there has to be something that holds your interest. And there are men who say they are intimidated by me when they don’t even know me. Frankly, the only men I’ve been interested in these past 20 years – that I thought attractive – were married, and there weren’t many of them. They had wives and I can’t deal with that – although both my husbands were married when I met them. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

She laughs. There are a lot of laughs in a conversation with Bacall. (“Sex? I don’t even remember the word…” she says at one point.) But also a sense of sadness and loss. She’s learning how to use a computer, loves watching sport and going to the theatre, and her days are busy. She is especially happy in the company of friends. “I can’t imagine a life without friends. Now, of course, most of my friends are dead, because they were so much older. I’ve lost a lot in the past couple of years. Horrible. Really close friends who have gone.”

As she says, it’s best not to dwell on such things for too long. Instead, it’s good to look to the future and enjoy the benefits of the present. The waiter has arrived with a cup of tea brewed to Ms Bacall’s satisfaction. At her “Thank you”, he looks like a man who has just won the lottery. “I think about Bogey a lot, but I don’t say, ‘Oh I wish…’” she tells me as I prepare to leave. “I don’t think that way. If you live that way, you lose today, and I feel that today is very important. It’s the only thing that matters, really. Just to see if you are going to make it to tomorrow…”

The Walker goes on general release on August 10

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