To Have and Have Not (1943)

To Have and Have Not
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Jules Furthman and William Faulkner from the novel by Ernest Hemingway
1943/USA
Warner Bros.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#178 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Slim: 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. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow.[/box]

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall have so much chemistry that it’s easy to forget how good the other elements of this film are.

The lead-in is a lot like that of Casablanca with the map pinpointing the exotic island of Martinique, governed by the Vichy French in the days before the U.S. joined the war. Harry (“Steve”) Morgan (Bogart) hires out his boat for deep-sea fishing excursions.  He is so short on cash that he has to get paid up front for the gas.  His constant companion, whom he cares for like a mother, is goofy drunkard Eddie (Walter Brennan).

The bar owned by Frenchy (Marcel Dalio) seems to be the main gathering place for expatriates on the island.  Into this mileu walks Marie (“Slim”) Browning (Bacall).  Slim is a young woman far from home and also down to her last few dollars.  She might be a waif if it weren’t that she could so clearly take care of her self.  The sparks fly as soon as Slim and Steve set eyes on each other.  Piano player Cricket (Hoagy Carmichael) gets her a job singing at the bar.

Steve’s political alliance is “minding his own business” but when his last customer stiffs him, and wanting to help Slim, he is persuaded by a few thousand francs to smuggle a French resistance fighter on his boat and back to Martinique.  Nothing goes particularly well and Steve has an opportunity to rise to the occasion.

This is a film with many pleasures.  The dialogue is fantastic throughout, not just during the famous love scenes.  I always forget how good Walter Brennan is until the next time I see him.  He is quite versatile when you get down to it, despite his distinctive voice and manner.  It’s fun to watch his little bits of business.  I think we would have been able to guess that the leading man and woman were giddy with new love even if we didn’t know it.  Bogart can’t suppress a silly grin at many points during his fine performance.  I picked out two new favorite parts.  The first is when Hoagy Carmichael sings “The Hong Kong Blues”.  The second is at the very end when Slim does a kind of samba out the door of the bar and Eddie echoes it with a little dance step of his own.  Recommended.

Amazingly, this film was ignored by the Academy at nominations time.  Michael Curtiz remade the Hemingway novel’s story, perhaps with greater fidelity, as  in 1950 with John Garfield and Patricia Neal.  I can recommend that film as well.

Clip – that scene