#Walter Surovy

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To Have and Have Not

1944. Romance War Adventure

By Howard Hawks

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Sheldon Leonard, Walter Surovy, Marcel Dalio, Walter Sande, Dan Seymour, Aldo Nadi, Paul Marion, Eugene Borden...

Country: United States

Language: English

[byneddiedingo]

Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944)

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Sheldon Leonard, Walter Surovy, Marcel Dalio, Walter Sande, Dan Seymour. Screenplay: Jules Furthman, William Faulkner, based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway. Cinematography: Sidney Hickox. Art direction: Charles Novi. Film editing: Christian Nyby. Music: Franz Waxman

Beatrice and Benedick. Rosalind and Orlando. Viola and Orsino. "Slim" and "Steve"? Why do I think of To Have and Have Not in terms of Shakespearean romance? Does this most enjoyable of movies have anything in common with those grand predecessors? It's all Howard Hawks's doing, with a little bit of help from screenwriters Jules Furthman and William Faulkner. Hawks had done this sort of romance before, in his comic masterpieces Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940), but leave it to Hawks to see World War II (and Ernest Hemingway's "grace under pressure" fiction) through the lens of screwball comedy. And to do it with the movies' most famous tough guy, Humphrey Bogart, and an unknown 19-year-old actress who had her name changed from Betty Perske to Lauren Bacall. And to treat it all as a semi-musical, with Hoagy Carmichael at the piano. Blood is shed and causes are espoused, but nobody takes it terribly seriously. Instead, Bogart and Bacall surf through the film on some of the best dialogue ever written, working out their fine romance as deftly as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers ever did on the dance floor. Walter Brennan adds another memorable figure to his impressive gallery of old coots, and Marcel Dalio brings the kind of charm that might threaten to upstage lesser performers than these stars. It's certainly not a perfect film: Dolores Moran (clambering from shore to ship in heels) and Walter Szurovy are rather tediously noble as the de Bursacs. (Watch the bit when Mme. de Bursac faints and spills the chloroform and Bacall's Slim, sensing a rival for her Steve's affections, casts a stinkeye on the fallen form and intentionally fans some of the fumes in her direction.) As the Vichy police captain, Dan Seymour seems to be trying to do a Sydney Greenstreet impersonation with the worst of all French accents. And does anybody really believe that the odd company that sails off at the end to rescue a Resistance fighter from Devil's Island is going to succeed? But no matter. It's all the stuff of which legends are made.

[vintagecinemalife]

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart star in ‘To Have and Have Not’ (1945)

The film is set in Fort-de-France, in the French colony of Martinique, in the summer of 1940, shortly after the fall of France. The island is now controlled by pro-German Vichy France. World-weary Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) has a small fishing-boat which he charters to tourists. Eddie (Walter Brennan) is his unofficial mate, though he is little use to Harry due to his heavy drinking. Harry is urged to help the French Resistance smuggle some people onto the island, but he refuses.

At the hotel he meets Marie ("Slim") Browning (Lauren Bacall), a young American wanderer, who sings "How Little We Know" with pianist Cricket (Hoagy Carmichael) in the bar. Harry's current charter client, Johnson (Walter Sande), owes Harry $825 ($14,100 today), but Johnson says that he cannot pay till the bank opens the next day. Harry sees Slim pick Johnson's pocket, and forces her to give him the wallet – which contains $1,400 in traveler's cheques and a plane ticket for very early the next morning. On returning the wallet to Johnson, he demands that Johnson sign the traveler's cheques to pay him immediately. But just then, there is a shootout in front of the hotel between police and the Resistance, and Johnson is killed by a stray bullet. The police take Harry and several others for questioning, and seize Harry's passport and money.

Hotel owner Gérard (Marcel Dalio), known as "Frenchy" to English speakers, offers to hire Harry and his boat for one night to transport Resistance members Hélène (Dolores Moran) and Paul de Bursac (Walter Surovy). Now effectively penniless, Harry reluctantly accepts Gérard's offer. Meanwhile, a romance has commenced to develop between Harry and Slim, the latter of whom feels that Harry changed his mind about the smuggling to help her out.

Harry picks up the Bursacs, but his boat is seen and fired on by a patrol boat; Paul is wounded, but Harry's boat escapes in the fog. Harry learns that Slim has stayed in Martinique to be with him. At Frenchy's request, Harry removes the bullet from Bursac's shoulder. The Bursacs are to help a man escape from the penal colony at Devil's Island. Bursac asks for Harry's assistance in this operation, but Harry turns him down.

The police reveal that they recognized Harry's boat the previous night, and that they have Eddie in custody and will withhold liquor to make Eddie tell what the boat carried. With Slim's help, Harry turns the tables on them. He holds Captain Renard (Dan Seymour) at gunpoint and forces him to order Eddie's release and sign harbor passes. When Eddie returns, Harry, Eddie, Slim, and the Bursacs all escape on Harry's boat; Harry has agreed to help the Bursacs in their mission.