Wed 12 Apr 2023
Archived Movie Review: TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[8] Comments
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. Warner Brothers/First National Pictures, 1944. Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Sheldon Leonard. Screenplay: Jules Furthman and William Faulkner, based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Director: Howard Hawks.
An American fishing boat captain in wartime Martinique finds himself caught between the forces of Vichy in control and the underground movement of the Free French. Complicating matters is the presence of a young woman stranded on the island without money.
One of my favorite movies of all time. Its only flaw, as far as I’m concerned, is that it ends too soon, almost too abruptly, and (if it could be so) too easily. The movie is tough, suspenseful, and sexy – even though nobody’s clothes are ever off.
April 12th, 2023 at 12:50 pm
Casablanca lite.
April 12th, 2023 at 2:29 pm
Well, maybe. But this movie does have one big plus the other film doesn’t.
April 12th, 2023 at 4:13 pm
i see that.
April 12th, 2023 at 6:04 pm
It’s almost disturbing how sexy Bacall is in this considering her age, but there it is, just put your lips together and whistle it away.
I disagree with Hawks that it was a bad book and there is a fine version of it by Michael Curtiz with John Garfield and Patricia Neal (and remade a third time with Audie Murphy), but I love this film replete with the dead bees and Hoagy Carmichael on that honky tonk piano as Bacall shakes her hips …
It would take an awful wet rag to hate this film or complain more than a little about it. It’s strictly for the fun of it, and on that it delivers.
April 12th, 2023 at 10:21 pm
For my money, Walter Brennan practically slouches away with this flick in the same way as he did to Coop in ‘The Westerner’.
That cornpone rascal couldn’t be outshone by any star no matter how big. Wayne, Coop, Bogie, Heston.
Ah well. This specific movie, I love to pair up with George C. Scott in ‘Islands in the Stream’. They complement one another.
April 13th, 2023 at 7:07 am
Steve, I took pages to say what you put neatly in a few paragraphs!
April 16th, 2023 at 12:42 pm
Actually, Steve, there is something I wonder about this movie, and you know I look to you for answers in these matters….. It has to do with the character played by Marcel Dalio.
The population of Martinique is over 90% of French Ancestry. So why would anyone in this community be nicknamed “Frenchy?”
April 16th, 2023 at 12:45 pm
Only in the movies, Dan. Only in the movies.