...an intriguing, romantic, sometimes exciting, predictable, but entertaining motion picture.
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Following the phenomenal success of their 1942 hit, "Casablanca," Warner Bros. tried to duplicate the achievement with their 1944 release, "To Have and Have Not." Both films star Humphrey Bogart as a cynical, world-weary antihero, both have sizzling leading ladies, both have a cast of colorful characters, both are set in an exotic foreign locale, and both feature plenty of intrigue. "To Have and Have Not" may not come close to matching its illustrious predecessor, but it's not for a lack of trying, and the result is nevertheless entertaining.
The movie was directed by Howard Hawks ("Scarface," "His Girl Friday," "Red River") and based loosely, very loosely, on a novel by Ernest Hemingway. After Hawks boasted that he could make a movie out of anything, it's said Hemingway bet Hawks he couldn't make a decent movie out of one of his least-accomplished books, and Hawks took him up on it. Hawks apparently won the bet by excising most of Hemingway's story, thanks to the efforts of screenwriters Jules Furthman and William Faulkner. Yes, that Faulkner. The film has the distinction of being based on a book by a Nobel Prize-winning author and cowritten by a Nobel Prize-winning author.
Realistically, Warners probably never expected "To Have and Have Not" to equal "Casablanca," but they were pleasantly surprised when it did as well as it did. The picture was, after all, simply another studio production being churned out by the factory, even though it did have a big-name cast of film stars and filmmakers behind it. They were even more pleasantly surprised by the chemistry that developed between Bogart and his new costar, Lauren Bacall, both on-screen and off. Despite their age difference (Bogart was forty-four, Bacall nineteen), not only was their romance convincing in the movie, they fell in love in real life, getting married and living blissfully together until Bogart's death in 1957. Age has never seemed to matter much in Hollywood, nor did it matter to moviegoers as the couple made three more films together ("The Big Sleep," "Dark Passage," and "Key Largo").
The setting for "To Have and Have Not" is Martinique, the French island in the Caribbean, southeast of Hemingway's original location of Cuba. Most of the action centers on the Hotel Marquis bar and cafe, a place bearing a close resemblance to Rick's Cafe Americain in "Casablanca" and a gathering place for all the suspicious characters in Fort de France.
Bogart plays Harry Morgan, a charter-boat captain during the summer of 1940, just after the fall of France to the Germans and a year or so prior to America's entrance into the Second World War. Like Rick in "Casablanca," Harry is hard-nosed, tough-minded, and confident, trying mightily not to take sides in the hostilities swirling around him. Do you think he's going to be successful at keeping to himself? Not on your life. Not when the Free French ask him to smuggle a pair of resistance fighters onto the island. Of course, he says he's only doing it for the money, but we know better.
His partner, Eddie, is a boozy old codger played by Walter Brennan. I say "old" because even though Brennan started in the movies in his twenties and was only in his forties when he made "To Have and Have Not," he always seemed to play older men. Maybe it was his famous voice that helped audiences identify him with older types. In any case, Harry indulges Eddie's alcoholic behavior quite a lot, and the two men appear as unlikely friends. Their pairing and the eventual participation of Bacall make up most of the movie's charm.
As you can guess, it doesn't take long before Harry gets reluctantly involved in the War effort as well as involved (more eagerly) with a slender and comely vagabond nightclub singer, Marie Browning (Bacall). Harry calls her "Slim" for obvious reasons, and she calls him "Steve" for no reason except to one-up him. Apparently, their romance in the film was initially not supposed to be as extensive as it turned out, but because Bacall was so sultry and appealing and Bogart was so obviously smitten with her, on-screen and off, Bacall's part was expanded.
This increase in Bacall's role was at the expense of costar Dolores Moran, playing the wife of the resistance fighter Harry is supposed to smuggle into the country. Ms. Moran's character was intended to be another romantic interest for Harry, but when the filmmakers saw Bacall, all bets were off. As things turn out, Moran's participation is reduced to no more than an ambiguous flirtation.
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