Themes: Heroic Mission, Opposites Attract, War At Sea
Main Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Dan Seymour
Release Year: 1944
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Humphrey Bogart plays Harry Morgan, owner-operator of charter boat in wartime Martinique. Morgan's right-hand man is Eddie (Walter Brennan), a garrulous alky whose pet question to anyone and everyone is "Ever get stung by a dead bee?" While in port, Harry is approached by Free French activist Gerard (Marcel Dalio), who wants to charter Harry's boat to smuggle in an important underground leader. Adopting his usual I-stick-my-neck-out-for-no-one stance, Morgan refuses. Later on, he starts up a dalliance with Marie Browning (screen newcomer Lauren Bacall), an attractive pickpocket. In order to help Marie return to America, Harry agrees to Gerard's smuggling terms. He uses his boat to bring resistance fighter De Bursac (Walter Molnar) and De Bursac's wife Helene (Dolores Moran) into Martinique. The Vichy police, suspecting that something's amiss, hold Morgan's pal Eddie hostage, tormenting the poor rummy by denying him liquor. Predictably, Morgan comes to Eddie's rescue and manages to escape Martinique, with the delectable Marie as cozy company. In the hands of director Howard Hawks and screenwriters Jules Furthman and William Faulkner, the end result bore only a passing relation to the original story by Ernest Hemingway: instead, it was a virtual rehash (but a good one!) of the recently released Casablanca, replete with several of that film's cast members. The film's enduring popularity is primarily -- if not solely -- due to the sexy chemistry between Bogart and Bacall, especially in the legendary "You know how to whistle, don't you?" scene. The most salutary result of To Have & Have Not was the subsequent Bogart-Bacall marriage, which endured until his death in 1957. It's widely believed that Lauren Bacall's singing voice was dubbed in by a pre-puberty Andy Williams; this is not true. For the record, a more faithful-to-the-source cinemadaptation of the Hemingway original was filmed in 1950 as The Breaking Point. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A masterful blend of comedy, romance, and action, Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not is filled with the director's signature situations and relationships. The characters could have been lifted from any one of a number of Hawks films: a strong, stoic hero (Humphrey Bogart), a clueless sidekick (Hawks regular Walter Brennan), and a bold, sexually-charged heroine (Lauren Bacall, in her screen debut). A few scenes even recur in the director's other films, such as the classic, post-kiss line, "It's even better when you help." Jules Furthman and William Faulkner loosely adapted the screenplay from an Ernest Hemingway novel; though the setting of To Have is the Caribbean, the characters and Bogart's unselfish transformation is clearly reminiscent of 1942's Casablanca. Hawks would exploit the tremendous chemistry between Bogart and Bacall again in his next film, 1946's The Big Sleep; the two stars married in the interim. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Marcel Dalio - Gerard (Frenchy); Walter Molnar - Paul de Bursac; Sheldon Leonard - Lieutenant Coyo; Walter Sande - Johnson; Aldo Nadi - Bodyguard; Paul Marion - Beauclerc; Patricia Shay - Mrs. Beauclerc; Pat West - Bartender; Sir Lancelot - Horatio; Eugene Borden - Quartermaster; Jack Chefe - Guide; Adrienne D'Ambricourt - Cashier; Jean de Briac - Gendarme; Marcel dela Brosse - Sailor; Elzie Emanuel - Child; Suzette Harbin; Maurice Marsac - Gaulist; Louis Mercier - Gaulist; Chef Joseph Milani - Chef; Pedro Regas - Civilian; Emmett E. Smith - Emil, the Bartender; George Sorel - French Officer; Marguerite Sylva - Cashier; Crane Whitley - DeGaullists; Frank Johnson; Harold Garrison - Black Urchin; Oscar Loraine - Bartender; Kanza Omar; George Suzanne; Roger Valmy; Ronnie Rondell - Naval Ensign
Credit
Charles Novi - Art Director, Milo Anderson - Costume Designer, Jack Sullivan - First Assistant Director, Howard Hawks - Director, Christian Nyby - Editor, Leo F. Forbstein - Composer (Music Score), Max Steiner - Composer (Music Score), Franz Waxman - Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Perc Westmore - Makeup, Sidney Hickox - Cinematographer, Howard Hawks - Producer, Casey Roberts - Set Designer, Roy Davidson - Special Effects, Rex Wimpy - Special Effects, Oliver S. Garretson - Sound/Sound Designer, William Faulkner - Screenwriter, Jules Furthman - Screenwriter, Ernest Hemingway - Book Author
The film is set in the Caribbean city of Fort de France, Martinique under the Vichy regime in the summer of 1940, shortly after the fall of France to the Germans. In this exotic location, the world-weary fishing boat captain Harry 'Steve' Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) is urged to help the French Resistance smuggle some people onto the island. He refuses, until the client, Johnson (Walter Sande) who has been hiring out his fishing boat (and owes him $825) is accidentally shot before paying him.
The hotel owner Gerard, commonly known as Frenchy (Marcel Dalio) (the leader of the Free French), asks Harry to rent him his boat for one night to transport some members of the resistance underground. Broke, he ends up smuggling onto Martinique Helene (Dolores Moran) and Paul De Bursac (Walter Szurovy). Meanwhile, a romance unfolds between Harry and Marie 'Slim' Browning (Lauren Bacall), an American pickpocket who has come to the island.[1]
After picking up Helene and Paul De Bursac, Harry is spotted by a patrol boat, and Paul is wounded before they escape. Harry is surprised to find that Marie stayed in Martinique to be with him. At Frenchy's request, Harry removes the bullet from De Bursac's shoulder and learns that the De Bursacs have been assigned to help a man escape from Devil's Island. De Bursac asks for Harry's assistance, but Harry turns him down.[2]
Later, the police, who recognized Harry's boat the previous night, reveal that they have Harry's buddy, a rummy, Eddie (Walter Brennan) in custody and will coerce him to tell the truth about the boat's cargo. At gunpoint, Harry forces the police to arrange for Eddie's release and sign harbor passes, so that he can take the De Bursacs to Devil's Island. Slim says goodbye to her piano-playing friend Cricket (Hoagy Carmichael). After Eddie returns, he, Harry and Marie leave Martinique for a more committed life together.[3]
Howard Hughes sold the book rights to independent director Howard Hawks. Hawks sold the rights to Warner Bros. William Faulkner, “out of print and broke”, was on the payroll, helping with the script.[4]
This was Lauren Bacall's first film, at the age of 19. Howard Hawks' wife "Slim" noticed Bacall on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and showed the photo to her husband, who soon sought out Bacall and signed her for the role. After filming began, a romance developed between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, despite the disapproval of Hawks. This romance eventually led to Bacall's first marriage and ended Bogart's marriage with Mayo Methot, his third wife. It created a memorable onscreen chemistry between Bogart and Bacall, which would be used in The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo.
Although Hawks had a high regard for Hemingway's works in general, he considered To Have and Have Not his worst book, a "bunch of junk," and told Hemingway so;[5][6] Hawks and Hemingway worked on the story together. The film preserves the book's title, and the names and characteristics of some of the characters, but nothing from beyond the first fifth of the volume. The setting was moved from Cuba to Martinique in order to placate the Roosevelt administration's "good neighbor" policy that did not want to show Cuba in an unfavorable light. The screenplay was further developed by Jules Furthman, and, at the end, William Faulkner (an intense rival of Hemingway).[7] In addition, Slim's part was greatly extended to take advantage of the Bogart-Bacall chemistry.
In the movie, Bacall sings "How Little We Know" by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer. Another Carmichael song, "Hong Kong Blues" (co-written with Stanley Adams), was also used. Carmichael plays Cricket, the piano player in the film. There is a persistent myth that teenage boy Andy Williams, the future singing star, dubbed the singing for Bacall. According to authoritative sources, including Hawks and Bacall, this was not true. Williams and some female singers were tested to dub for Bacall, because of fears that she lacked the necessary vocal skills. But those fears proved groundless, and she did the singing herself.
Another song played in the film was "Am I Blue?", written by Harry Akst and Grant Clarke.
Adaptations to Other Media
To Have and Have Not was adapted as an hour-long radio play on the October 14, 1946 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall reprising their screen roles.
The third film version, titled The Gun Runners (1958), was directed by Don Siegel and stars Audie Murphy in the Bogart/Garfield role and Everett Sloane in Walter Brennan's role as the alcoholic sidekick, although Sloane's interpretation was less overtly comedic than Brennan's.
See also
Casablanca (1942), another film in which Bogart plays an American trying to stay neutral while running a business in Vichy-controlled territory.
^ Hawks telling Hemingway he could film his worst book and that this one was "a bunch of junk": interview with Hawks by Joseph McBride for the Directors' Guild of America, October 21–23, 1977, private publication of the Directors' Guild, p.21; quoted at length in Mast, p.243.
^You Must Remember This (retrospective for Warner Brothers' 85th anniversary), American Masters, PBS, broadcast September 23, 2008.
^ Mast relates the contributions of each of the people who worked on the screenplay. He says "the film's many upstairs sequences are Faulkner's primary contribution to the the film's conception" (p.257).
References
Mast, Gerald (1982). Howard Hawks, Storyteller. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-503091-5.
