TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
(1944)With Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Morgan, Hoagy Carmichael
Directed by Howard Hawks
Black and White
Reviewed by JL
"Humphrey Bogart...with
his kind of woman in a powerful adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's most
daring man-woman story!" So ran the tagline for TO HAVE AND HAVE
NOT in 1944. Well, Lauren Bacall was certainly Bogey's kind of
woman, but the only things adapted from Hemingway were the title and
the names of the characters. As Harry Morgan, the owner of a
charter boat on the island of Martinique, Bogart plays a "don't stick
my neck out for nobody" type of guy who's reluctant to become involved
with the war effort when asked to smuggle a leader of the French
Resistance onto the island. Then Bacall appears in his doorway
and asks for a match, whereupon he's so smitten he'll smuggle anybody
anywhere if it helps Bacall return to America. (And by the way,
she calls him "Steve" and he calls her "Slim" because those were the
pet nicknames that director Howard Hawks and his wife had for one
another.) Bacall's performance is perhaps the most famous screen
debut in history, and the chemistry she generates with Bogart reflects
the potent passion of their real-life romance at the time. Some
revisionist critics regard TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT as a superior spin-off
of CASABLANCA. It's my natural inclination to prefer CASABLANCA,
but every time I see TO HAVE, I wonder if those critics just might have
something there. It is, after all, such a daring man-woman
story. 
- JL
http://thestuffyougottawatch.com
Copyright © 2008 John V. Brennan, John Larrabee