TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Drama

Director: Howard Hawks

Cast: Humphrey Bogart / Lauren Bacall / Walter Brennan

Plot

A fishing boat captain in Nazi-occupied Martinique becomes a transport-for-hire for the French resistance.

What I Liked

Virtually every review of “To Have and Have Not” has included comparisons to what might be called its better known older sibling, “Casablanca.”  Like that earlier Bogart picture, this one takes place in Nazi-occupied territory and has Bogie reluctantly betraying his very healthy sense of self-preservation for the resistance.  Though it lacks some of the more romantic and flamboyant emotional content of “Casablanca,” the filmmakers found a very unique blend of politics, adventure, sex, and human drama that earns “To Have and Have Not” the right to be viewed and judged on its own significant merits.

For starters, “To Have and Have Not” is responsible for more than one remarkable pairing.  First off, the script was written by the most outstanding American novelists of the era, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.  It is therefore not surprising that this film is a dialogue heavy adaptation (a very loose one) of Hemingway’s novel of the same name.

The team-up of Hemingway and Faulkner, astonishingly enough, is overshadowed by the first meeting of perhaps Hollywood’s most iconic acting couple, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.  As a matter of fact, this film marks Bacall’s film debut, and what a debut it is!  She was no older than nineteen when this movie was filmed, yet she takes on her character with the confidence of a screen veteran.  Indeed, she is perhaps the only actor, male or female, to ever out-cool Mr. Cool himself, Bogart.  There are several scenes where her innate sultriness and uniquely feminine bravado outshine Bogart.  Bogie and Bacall met on the set of this film and the mix of mutual respect and sexual tension is a potent brew that simmers and sizzles in each and every scene they have together, like the matches they keep lighting for each other.

I'm not usually one for gratuitous musical numbers in an otherwise serious film, but my enjoyment for this one was accented by some wonderfully laid back musical interludes from one of America's greatest pop song writers, Hoagy Carmichael.

What I Disliked

For those who are familiar with Bogart through "The African Queen," or "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," this one might be a little slower than they would expect.  There are a few bursts of violence here and there, but as a whole this film is mostly dialogue, a deliberately paced drama disguised as an international adventure.

There are a couple of characters in this movie that just bugged me.  Walter Brennan was by this point a veteran of playing goofy old coots and naïve sidekicks.  His character Eddie in “To Have and Have Not” is both, as well as a far-from-functioning alcoholic.  In typical old movie style, the drunk is portrayed as a loveable fool whose addiction, memory loss, crooked walk, and slurred speech are portrayed as endearing.  Maybe I’m being overly cynical here, but anyone who has ever known a real alcoholic knows they are neither loveable nor endearing.

The film’s greatest weakness is its lack of an interesting villain.  The head bad guy in this film is a plump foreigner with a beret played by Dan Seymour, who plays the character with all the menace of Dom DeLuise.  Consequently, what should have been some of the most tense moments of the film seem to fall flat and would have been downright pointless without the chemistry between Bogart and Bacall to liven them up.

Most Memorable Scene

For enjoyable flirtation and innuendo in a classic Hollywood film, you can’t get much better than the moments when Bogie and Bacall are alone together in their hotel rooms.  Of these, the one where the future real-life married couple share their first kiss on screen can’t help but bring a smile to the face.  Nearly the entire scene is coy banter and sexual tension, foreplay for the pair of kisses that follow.  Following the second kiss, Bacall’s sultry sexuality reached full maturity and she’s now in control of the moment, closing it out with sexiest exiting-a-room dialogue ever uttered.  The film’s in black and white and you can still see Bogie blush.

My Rating: 4 out of 5