To Have and Have Not (1944) Reviews

• "Hey buddy, got a match?"

  classicsoncall2006-02-22

  Each viewing of "To Have and Have Not" earns my greater appreciation of the film. The comparisons to "Casablanca" are numerous and fans of Humphrey Bogart will have no trouble picking them out one by one. Bogey's character Harry Morgan is once again an expatriate on foreign soil, though here he has no trouble calling himself an American. The Peter Lorre part is handled by Marcel Dalio as hotel owner Frenchy, while the Sydney Greenstreet presence is given to Dan Seymour, the smarmy Gestapo captain. Add the smoldering presence of Lauren Bacall in her screen debut, and you have the ingredients for an adventure film that almost plays out stronger in each of it's mini chapters than in the sum of it's parts. That's OK though, because each tableaux presents us with rich characterization and a sense that we know who these players are and what they're up to. As most fans know, the legendary Bogey/Bacall team up began here, so I won't dwell on that. What's worth mentioning though is Bacall's brazen confidence in carrying out her role in what looks like a casting call mismatch. Only a teenager at the time of filming, she looks to be about thirty, with dialog that belies her years. Though her scenes with Bogart are electric even to this day, it's worth noting her chemistry with Dolores Moran near the end of the film. The times "Slim" and Mrs. de Bursac appear together, their subliminal clash over "Steve" fairly screams "meow". That's why it's all the more comical when Bogey's character begins his operation on Paul, "Slim" uses a leaf fan to waft chloroform fumes in the direction of the fainted madame - outrageous! My first introduction to Walter Brennan was his famous TV role as Grandpa McCoy in "The Real McCoys" series of the late 1950's. Here, with a hitch in his giddyup, Brennan sports an early tryout for that television role, but with a reliance on alcohol. He's fairly philosophical about it though - "Drinkin' don't bother my memory, if it did I wouldn't drink. You see, I'd forget how good it was, then where'd I be, start drinkin' water again". The best exchange between Eddie (Brennan) and Harry takes place on board the fishing boat as Harry explains the kind of danger they might be in. It's a masterful dialog that brings Eddie to sobriety real quick. The film's sinister side is revealed when Vichy authorities intend to disrupt any activity that might prove detrimental to German interests. As the Free French resistance look for a suitable base to continue their opposition on the island of Martinique, Captain Renard (Seymour) warns Morgan and company - "We are only interested in those persons who have broken the rules laid down for their behavior". Morgan is busy breaking the rules all over the place, and gets right down to the frightening business at hand by roughing up Renard and his bunch when it appears his time on the island is growing short. Here, letters of transit are known as harbor passes, in another nod to Bogey's better known film. Today's viewing of the film was my third, and as mentioned earlier, it gets better each time. It helps that Humphrey Bogart is my favorite actor, but that begs the question, did Bogey make the films, or did the films make the actor. As in "Casablanca", "The Maltese Falcon, "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Big Sleep", the events and characters come together to create an unforgettable story. And if for no other reason, no matter how many times you watch "To Have and Have Not", it's always worth watching right to the very end, even if just to catch Lauren Bacall's sweet sashay to the strains of Hoagy Carmichael's piano.

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• Bacall was blessed by nature with two advantages...

  Nazi_Fighter_David2003-03-16

  Lauren Bacall, who gave men the license to whistle, was blessed by nature with two advantages: the personality of a buddy and the look of a Femme Fatale... This combination initially took the only 19-years-old actress to the top with her first two films – 'To Have and Have Not' and 'The Big Sleep' – scoring a success even the deadpan expressions of a Buster Keaton could not undermine... It helped, of course, to be co-starred in them with Humphrey Bogart who fell in love with her during shooting, and to have Howard Hawks, who deliberately set out to prove that he could make her a star, directing her every move in the same totally controlled way Joseph Von Sternberg had done with Marlene Dietrich... 'To Have and Have Not' is an almost unrecognizable adaptation of the Hemingway novel... The Rick character again appears, though with a new name... The film is a fairly routinely adventure, with a plot that isn't all that interesting, and with a frequently laughable dialog, but it sparks into life when Bogart and the leading blonde, with whom he is deeply in love and to whom he will later be married, appear... The girl is Lauren Bacall, in her first movie... Cool, smooth, and gorgeous, she sets the screen on fire from her first entrance... She was a new kind of heroine... Opposite Bogart she was colorful and believable... She had no illusions about herself... She was used to getting by, making out as best she could... She wanted Bogey and she let him know it... She offers herself to him, bravely and without shame: ' You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. (She opens his door and pauses.) You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together - and blow.' With the effective use of her sexy, sultry, speaking voice and her confident eyes, Howard Hawks creates a new screen image, and one of the most sizzling yet sexual propositions on film... Lauren Bacall has become heir to our memories of the truly memorable star of the 1940s, and, in her own way, one of them... "To Have or Have Not" was remade as "The Breaking Point" with John Garfield and "The Gun Runners" with Audie Murphy and both were, inferior to the original…

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• Whistling On Martinique

  bkoganbing2006-10-30

  The screen adaption of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not enjoys its place in cinematic history because it is the first screen teaming of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Turns out to have been a personal milestone for the both of them as well. I was watching my VHS copy of To Have and Have Not today and included was the movie trailer and in it Warner Brothers announced it was introducing two exciting new screen personalities, Lauren Bacall and Dolores Moran. Ms. Moran was pretty enough and gave a nice performance as the wife of the resistance leader, but some careers take off and some don't. Didn't hurt Lauren that she married her leading man either. The location of our story is Martinique right after the fall of France in 1940. As a French colonial possession Martinique fell into the hands of the Vichy collaborationist government. They didn't get free of them until 1943, months after the Germans occupied all of France in November of 1942. Humphrey Bogart is an expatriate American along the lines of his Richard Blaine character in Casablanca. He doesn't own a swank nightclub, he's just got a charter fishing boat that lives on and runs with an alcoholic pal, Walter Brennan. But like in Casablanca, a shooting in a nightclub of his client Walter Sande gets him involved with the local Vichy police and the politics of the island. It also gets him involved with Lauren Bacall who's just looking for a way to get back to the USA. She's not above a little light fingered action to help herself, but all that does is get her introduced to Bogey. And their sizzling scenes made cinematic history. To Have and Have Not is fortunate to have the presence of Hoagy Carmichael one of the greatest musical talents America ever produced. He plays Cricket, the club piano player and he sings and plays Hong Kong Blues one of his greatest songs. Hoagy also wrote for this film, How Little We Know, which Bacall sings for her supper. Dan Seymour and Sheldon Leonard play a couple of especially smarmy Vichy police officials. They have the upper hand until the very end when tables get turned rather suddenly. The only two film I've ever seen something turn that quickly is John Ford's Wagonmaster and the Richard Widmark police drama, Madigan. You can only push Bogey just so far. Even in revivals today when Lauren Bacall tells Bogey all he need do is whistle and she'll come running, the whistles of affection will go up in theater. As well they should.

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• Casablanca Part 2

  tieman642007-09-15

  Director Howard Hawks made a bet with Ernest Hemingway, stating that he could make a good movie out of Hemingway's worst novel. I don't know who won or how much the bet was for, but my money is on Hawks. Set on the island of Martinique, Hawks' "To Have and Have Not" stars Humphrey Bogart as a suave fisherman who rents his boat and services to anyone with money. Alongside him is Lauren Bacall's Marie Browning, a weary traveller who falls in love with him. They call each other by nicknames - she's "Slim" and he's "Steve" - but there's no mush between them. Their romantic scenes mostly consist of witty dialogue, written by William Faulkner and Jules Furthman, but played like a chess match. Consider a scene in which Bacall kisses Bogey. Bogey asks what the verdict is, she tells him she dosn't know yet and goes in for another. Walter Brennan, in one of his greatest roles, plays the rummy Eddie, who thinks he takes care of Bogie when in reality it's the other way around. The movie never questions their relationship. Clearly Eddie is an alcoholic, and a pain in the butt, but Bogey's loyalty to him is unfaltering. We thus know that when Bogey is eventually asked to help the French resistance, he can't say no, despite his barbed dialogue and tough-guy facade. Some scholars will tell you that Hawks' films are about male bonding, but they're about bonding, period. And notice that Bacall's character bonding with Bogey is more central to the story than even Bogey and Brennan. Of course such strong female characters are typical in Hawks' films. Consider Rita Hayworth in "Only Angels Have Wings", Bacall again in "The Big Sleep" and Ann Sheridan in "I Was a Male War Bride". But of all these women, Bacall makes the biggest impression. She was discovered by Hawks' wife from a magazine photo, and she fell into cinema with great ease, with her gruff voice, strong face, and soft eyes. She never had another role as good as this one. Hawks was, above all, a storyteller. His eye for characters, actors, locations, music, timing, pace, and for cutting out the boring crap, was impeccable. Take one particular moment of intensity in which Bogey shoots one of the bad guys from a gun concealed in a desk drawer. He then pulls out the gun and aims it at the remaining thugs. After a moment, he realises his hand is shaking. "Look at that," he says to the bad guys. "Isn't that silly?" He shifts the gun to his other, steadier hand. "That's how close you came." "To Have and Have Not" offers some good adventure, romance (both on and off screen), and is a great example of a particular type of writing. The only positive that big-brother "Casablanca" has over it - both films essentially tell the same tale of war-time responsibility - is in its use of space. Rick's bar (in Casablanca) is chartered by Michael Curtiz's camera in such a way that it almost becomes a place you'd like to visit, or feel you already have. It's a three dimensional space, and we're given a tour of every nook and cranny. In contrast, Hawks is a two dimensional director. He is unable to flesh out the bars and "Casablanca" inspired Hotel in which his film largely takes place. We get great lighting, great compositions, but it's all flat. We don't feel like this is a tangible, real space. Hawks' command of mood, editing, lighting and music almost makes up for this, but not quite. 8.9/10 - Underrated.

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• When Harry met Slim

  jotix1002004-12-31

  This film has nothing to do with the Ernest Hemingway's book, which is not one of his best novels. Howard Hawks took a big gamble in trying to have the great Hemingway write the screen treatment, but Papa didn't comply with the request. Instead, Mr. Hawks hired two other writers to work on the scenario for this movie, William Faulkner and Jules Furthman, not too shabby a combination! Mr. Hawks had an enormous talent for giving the American public films that were entertaining, as well as well crafted. Mr. Hawks is responsible for discovering Lauren Bacall, a young model from New York with no experience in the cinema. Well, Mr. Hawk's instinct paid handsomely as Lauren Bacall went to have a fabulous career of her own. This film is interesting as well, for it marked the beginning of the romance between Mr. Bogart and Ms. Bacall. Their love is there in front of the viewers to see. This movie shows us a Bogey with a heart. He was an actor that excelled in this type of picture and under Mr. Hawks's direction, his Capt. Morgan makes a remarkable impression. The story has all the right ingredients to keep us interested in what is going on with all these characters in Martinique. World War II makes a detour and comes to the island. The cast for this movie is first rate. Humphrey Bogart is a tough Capt. Morgan who falls head over heels for young and lovely "Slim" Browning, a mysterious young woman who loves adventure. Ms. Bacall has a way to sing a song that makes it unique because of her sense of style. Both these stars smolder the screen in their love scenes. Walter Brennan plays Eddie, the drunken sailor that helps Morgan take tourists on fishing junkets. Marcel Dalio, is Frenchy, the owner of the local hotel; he is the one responsible for putting Morgan in touch with the partisans operating in the island. Dolores Moran and Walter Szurovy are the De Bursac, who are smuggled into the island by Morgan, at his own risk; they are sought by the local branch of the Gestapo. Hoagy Carmichael, the great musician puts an appearance as Cricket, a pianist that entertains at the hotel lounge. The three musical numbers are done flawlessly. Mr. Carmichael's rendition of "Hong Kong blues" stays in one's mind forever. Also we hear two other of his songs, "Am I blue?", and a sultry rendition by Lauren Bacall of his hit, "How little we know". Hearing sung by Bacall makes any other interpretation superfluous. This is a film to see to enjoy great acting under the magnificent direction of Howard Hawks.

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