To Have and Have Not (film)
| To Have and Have Not | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Howard Hawks |
| Produced by | Howard Hawks Jack L. Warner |
| Screenplay by | Jules Furthman William Faulkner |
| Based on | To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway |
| Starring | Humphrey Bogart Walter Brennan Lauren Bacall Dolores Moran Hoagy Carmichael |
| Music by | William Lava Franz Waxman |
| Cinematography | Sidney Hickox |
| Editing by | Christian Nyby |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | October 11, 1944 |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
To Have and Have Not is a 1944 romance-war-adventure film.[1][2] The movie was directed by Howard Hawks and stars Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, and Lauren Bacall in her first film. Although it is nominally based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, the story was extensively altered for the film.
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[edit] Plot
The film is set in Fort de France, Martinique, under the Vichy regime in the summer of 1940, shortly after the fall of France. In this exotic location, the world-weary fishing-boat captain Harry 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 shot before paying him.
The hotel owner Gerard, commonly known as Frenchy (Marcel Dalio), asks Harry to rent him his boat for one night to transport some members of the resistance. Broke, Harry ends up smuggling Helene (Dolores Moran) and Paul de Bursac (Walter Szurovy). Meanwhile, a romance develops between Harry and Marie ("Slim") Browning (Lauren Bacall), an American wanderer who has come to the island.[3]
After picking up his passengers, Harry is spotted by a patrol boat, and Paul is wounded before they escape. Harry is surprised to find that Marie has stayed in Martinique to be with him. At Frenchy's request, Harry removes the bullet from Bursac's shoulder and learns that the de Bursacs have been assigned to help a man escape from Devil's Island. Bursac asks for Harry's assistance, but Harry turns him down.[4]
Later, the police, who have recognized Harry's boat the previous night, reveal that they have Harry's alcoholic buddy, Eddie (Walter Brennan), in custody and will coerce him to tell the truth about the boat's cargo. At gunpoint, Harry forces Police Captain Renard (Dan Seymour) to arrange for Eddie's release and sign harbor passes, so that he can take the Bursacs to Devil's Island. Slim says goodbye to her piano-playing friend Cricket (Hoagy Carmichael). As soon as Eddie returns, he, Harry, and Marie leave Martinique.[5]
[edit] Cast
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[edit] Production
Howard Hughes sold the book rights to independent director Howard Hawks, who sold them to Warner Bros. William Faulkner, “out of print and broke”, was on the payroll, helping with the script.[6]
This was Lauren Bacall's first film, at the age of 19. Hawks' wife "Slim" (whose nickname would be applied to Bacall's character, Marie) 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 the end of Bogart's marriage to Mayo Methot, his third wife, and to Bacall and Bogart getting married. The onscreen chemistry between the two would continue in The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo. They also collaborated on the radio series Bold Venture and were preparing a fifth film collaboration at the time of his death in 1957.
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;[7][8] 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, whose "good neighbor" policy led them not to want to show Cuba in an unfavorable light. The screenplay was further developed by Jules Furthman, and, near the end, William Faulkner, an intense rival of Hemingway.[9] This change, placing the plot on the background of a French colony ruled by the Vichy Regime, also tended to make the film more similar to Bogart's earlier, highly successful "Casablanca". Other changes tended in the same direction, like the introduction of a sympathetic piano player (Hoagy Carmichael) as an important supporting character - such as had not appeared in the Hemingway book but was conspicuously present in "Casablanca". Several cast members from Casablanca also appear in the film, not conspicuously Dan Seymour, who plays the French/Vichy official Renard - a similar name and position to Casablanca's Capt. Renault. Furthermore, the plotline of Bogart's character reluctantly assisting husband-and-wife resistance fighters was similar to Casablanca.
Bacall's part was greatly extended to take advantage of the Bogart-Bacall chemistry, especially in the legendary "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow" (a quote which sits at #34 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list) scene. According to the documentary A Love Story: The Story of To Have and Have Not, included on the 2003 DVD release, Hawks, recognizing the star-making potential of the film for Bacall, emphasized her role, while downplaying that of Dolores Moran, the film's other female lead (although Hawks and Moran had their own affair during production).
[edit] Music
Hoagy Carmichael plays Cricket, the piano player in the hotel bar. Bacall sings "How Little We Know," written by Carmichael and Johnny Mercer. Another Carmichael song, "Hong Kong Blues," co-written with Stanley Adams, was also used. "Am I Blue?", written by Harry Akst and Grant Clarke, is performed by Carmichael and Bacall. "The Rhumba Jumps", by Mercer and Carmichael, is performed by the Martinique band.
There is a persistent myth that a teenage 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 were overshadowed by the desire to have Bacall do her own singing (perhaps championed by Bogart) despite her less than perfect vocal talent, and she very obviously did the singing herself.[citation needed]
[edit] Adaptations
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.
[edit] Remakes
The second film version of To Have and Have Not, titled The Breaking Point (1950), was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars John Garfield. It is generally much more faithful to the novel but shifted the action to southern California and made Garfield a former PT Boat captain.
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 comic than Brennan's. Eddie Albert plays the villain. Like in the novel, the story moves between Florida and Cuba.
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ Variety film review; October 11, 1944, page 12.
- ^ Harrison's Reports film review; October 14, 1944, page 168.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley. "Movies: About To Have and Have Not". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/50157/To-Have-and-Have-Not/overview. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
- ^ http://www.filmsite.org/toha.html
- ^ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=3190
- ^ Sperber and Lax 1997, p. 250.
- ^ 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 film's conception" (p. 257).
[edit] Bibliography
- Mast, Gerald (1982). Howard Hawks, Storyteller. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-503091-5.
- Oliver, Charles M. (1999). Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work. New York: Checkmark. ISBN 0-8160-3467-2.
- Sperber, Ann M., and Lax, Eric. (1997). Bogart. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0688075398
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: To Have and Have Not (film) |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: To Have and Have Not (film) |
- To Have and Have Not at the Internet Movie Database
- To Have and Have Not at the TCM Movie Database
- To Have and Have Not at AllRovi
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