TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT

(October 1944, U.S.)

If you're familiar enough with the Golden Age of Hollywood, then I suppose you're familiar enough with the off-screen romance and eventual marriage between legends Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. That in mind, I can't help but watch their first of four films together, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT with a pair of wider eyes, trying to see just what it was that sparked their initial chemistry and heat that would inevitably lead to Hollywood history.

The story, loosely based on Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel, centers on the romance between charter fisherman Harry Morgan (Bogart) living in Martinique and American drifter "Slim" (Bacall), which is complicated by the growing French resistance in Vichy France during World War II. Harry makes a modest living with tourists alongside his drunken mate Eddie (played by Walter Brennan). The island of Martinique is a haven harboring assorted people sympathetic to a Free France. While Harry stays at his hotel home owned by "Frenchy" (to his English-speaking customers), he's urged to help the French Resistance by smuggling in some people onto the island with his boat. Refusing at first, he reluctantly accepts when he not only hooks up with "Slim" and wants to help her get out of Martinique, but also finds himself dead broke. Upon picking up his cargo, a young married couple, his boat is seen and fired up by a navy patrol boat. The male passenger is wounded, but Harry manages to escape by turning his boat into a dense fog bank.

Returning to the hotel, Harry is able to apply his experience with gunshot wounds to remove the bullet from his wounded passenger. Still seeking Harry's assistance in their operation, he continues to respectfully turn them down. When the police arrive, they confront Harry, having recognized his boat from the night before. They also reveal they're holding Eddie and will exploit his drinking problem to get the information they require about the smuggling plot. His back against the wall, Harry acts with "Slim's" help, and gains control of a hidden gun and the situation he's faced with, turning the tables on the police and killing one of them in the process. He forces the police captain to release Eddie, and the two of them with "Slim" escape on Harry's boat, having finally agreed to help with the mission for the French Resistance.

It's curious to note the theme of fishing in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, because it was apparently during a fishing trip that director Howard Hawks tried to convince his friend Hemingway to write the script, despite Hemingway's disinterest in working in Hollywood. I also have to say that I've never been truly convinced of the line that apparently put Bacall on the map when she told Bogart, "You know how to whistle, don't you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." I'm sure there's plenty of sexual innuendo behind it, even for the 1940s, but I still just don't get it. Still, one can't deny the strong connection between Bogart and Bacall which continued in three more films (including THE BIG SLEEP and KEY LARGO). While this film is certainly no CASABLANCA, it remains a solid romantic melodrama with the traditional Bogart wit his fans love. However, I personally can't help but feel cheated when the film ends the moment the main characters decide to leave the island, their police enemies still undefeated and the story lacking any credible closure. Regardless, I suppose if you're even a small fan of the Bogey-Bacall screen phenomenon, you take what you can get and try to enjoy it.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Harry Morgan: "Johnson's my client."
Slim: "He doesn't speak so well of you."
Harry: "He's still my client. You ought to pick on someone to steal from who doesn't owe me money."