To Have and Have Not [1944] Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall R2 IMPORT

Thanks to Amazon, I am able to see again now and in the future one of my favourite movies of all time.
The screen sparkles with the dialogue between Bogie and the new star Bacall 'You know how to whistle, don't you?
Just pucker up your lips and blow.' Then there's the great piano playing and singing of Hoagy Carmichael, and the wonderful Walter Brennan.

"To Have and Have Not, (1944), a sexy, rather old-fashioned and routine World War II thriller, was taken completely out of the routine, as it was the first of the four films made together by Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca [1942] [DVD]) and Lauren Bacall (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [DVD] [1953]). That would be the mid-twentieth century pair who were, and are, still, great individual Hollywood stars, and an A-list power couple, tremendously admired for the strong stand they took while being harassed in the post-war period by the left-wing hunting (HUAC) House Un-American Activities Committee. The picture was directed by the famed Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep [1946] [DVD]). Like all the pictures of the incandescent stars, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, although nominally set on Martinique, in the Caribbean tropics, was made on Warner Brothers' back lots, filmed in crisp black and white.

The film supposedly resulted from a bet between Hawks and Ernest Hemingway, (Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises (Arrow Classic)) world-famous and admired American author of the book on which it's based. Hawks said he could get a good movie from Hemingway's worst book, which this was. Hawks did so, with a screenplay by another greatly honored American novelist, William Faulkner, (The Sound And The Fury (Vintage Classics)). And Jules Furthman, one of the most prolific, and well-known, screenwriters of his time, who was responsible for the screenplays of some of Hollywood's most highly regarded films, such as Mutiny On The Bounty (Special Edition) [DVD] [1962], and Nightmare Alley - Masters of Cinema series [DVD].

TO HAVE, however, is largely an effort by all concerned to remake Bogart's monster, Oscar-winning wartime smash CASABLANCA, while lacking Ingrid Bergman, and most of the earlier movie's sterling supporting cast. Like its predecessor, TO HAVE is set in the French-speaking world --Martinique-- with Vichy French and Free French at war, and it features an almost-heroic Free French fighter, and his wife.

Bogie is Henry (Steve) Morgan, hardboiled expatriate antihero who still, as in the previous film, sticks his neck out for nobody. He captains a fishing boat for hire. Walter Brennan (Red River [DVD] [1949]) plays his alcoholic first mate Eddie, who is fond of asking people "Was you ever stung by a dead bee?" and is treated with romanticizing kid gloves by all concerned; he's just the sweetest drunk. Anyway, there's a war on, World War II, to be precise, and business is slow. A customer who owes them a lot of money stiffs them. Against his better judgment, Morgan is forced to agree to transport the resistance leader and his wife to Martinique from another island.

Talented American singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael plays Cricket, singing piano player in the bar where Morgan passes time. The singer/composer is evidently in for Dooley Wilson, as Sam, in the earlier movie. Unfortunately, despite Carmichael's many beautiful compositions, he just doesn't hold the screen as did Wilson, nor does he have a song as evocative and evergreen as "As Time Goes By," in the earlier film. Finally, we have the breathtaking 19-year old Bacall, as Marie (Slim) Browning, lounge singer, looking for work, who's just landed on the island because she's run out of money. She's given a snazzy check suit, and some snappy dialogue. Remember "You know how to whistle, don't you?" She even sings; legend says she was dubbed by the 14-year old Andy Williams, but that's not necessarily true. All hands say her part was beefed up when the studio execs saw what was happening onscreen: Bogart and Bacall literally falling in love, shooting out sparks as they did.

Marcel Dalio, the croupier in CASABLANCA, and Sheldon Leonard, popular novelist-to-be, as Lt. Covo, round out the cast. Sid Hickox's noirish cinematography contributes greatly to this moody thriller combining romance, faraway adventure, and a macho Hemingway hero. Well, it's not CASABLANCA, but, as mentioned above, the Bogart/Bacall canon consists of but four pictures. This one is a good film, likely to live forever because of its cast, and if you want all their work, you will want this.

For aging film buffs like me, names like Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck ... are all classics. At 75, I'm collecting this small library of DVDs to remind me of my youth before it is too late. Will today's HD colour, 3D image, oriented cinema goers like it. I doubt it. No matter: the loss is theirs. This one, based on Hemingway's classic novel of that title, is for my generation a must-have.
Dipak Nandy