To Have and Have Not
directed by Howard Hawks, 1944

As the DVD packaging says, To Have and Have Not has little to do with the Ernest Hemmingway novel but it does have a lot to do with the earlier movie Casablanca.

You would think this film would be a poor knock-off of the earlier, classic movie but it has three things going for it that elevate it above that: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Howard Hawks. What we end up with is a pretty good, quickly paced romantic thriller.

Reprising his earlier role as Rick in Casablanca, albeit with a different name (Harry Morgan), Bogie is here captain of a ship that takes wealthy vacationers out fishing for marlin.

He doesn’t think a lot of these rich guys; he doesn’t have a high opinion of a lot of things. He’s a guy who looks out for number one, though he has a few friends he takes care of (notably the character played by Walter Brennan as a down-at-heel alcoholic).

Then he meets Bacall and all bets are off.

The effect they have is to turn one another into apparent chain-smokers – they’re constantly lighting cigarettes. There’s a flirtatious antagonism that goes on between them, in the true Hawk’s tradition.

Set during the war, just as in Casablanca Bogart helped the Resistance, here he helps the Free French … but only after Bacall has pulled him out of himself and made him a better man. Or something like that.

While not the best Bogart and Bacall film, and not Howard Hawk’s best work, the film is a delight to watch and is a great example of the type of movie people think of when they talk of old Hollywood movies – romantic, suspenseful and lots of fun.

(And, as always with films of this period and Hawks films generally, it has and uses a great supporting cast that really add to the pleasure of the film.)

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