An Intimate Evening with Lauren Bacall

One of actress Lauren Bacall’s most recent roles was playing herself on an episode of “The Sopranos.” She got memorably cold-cocked by a swag bag-thieving Christopher. But that was just acting. In real life, the 84-year-old Bacall probably would have wrestled him to the ground. That’s because the woman once known as Bogie’s Baby is one tough broad.

The Brilliant Lectures series event An Intimate Evening with Lauren Bacall features a screening of the film that launched Bacall’s career, To Have and Have Not, followed by a Q&A and, for a few extra bucks, a private reception with the real-life femme fatale. The 1944 classic film noir saw the husky-voiced 19-year-old Bacall instruct her co-star Humphrey Bogart’s character on how to whistle: “You know how to whistle, don’t cha Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.” The line became a highly quoted cinema staple, and the film rocketed the sex-on-fire vamp to stardom. Bacall would go on to marry Bogie, and they would become one of the glamour couples of Hollywood’s Golden Age — not to mention the subject of Bertie Higgins’s 1982 hit “Key Largo!” 6:30 p.m. River Oaks Theatre, 2009 West Gray. For information, call 713-974-1335 or visit www.brilliantlectures.org. $65 to $250.

Wed., March 11, 6:30 p.m., 2009