Review of To Have and Have Not (1945) by John T — 31 Jul 2013

Humphrey Bogart stars as a charter boat operator with a stick my neck out for no one attitude in Vichy controlled Martinique who is asked to assist the French Resistance in transporting freedom fighters. If you think you saw this plot before, you would be right; the original story based on the Ernest Hemingway novel was extensively re-worked to resemble the superior Casablanca which had been released three years earlier.

The film marked the debut of Lauren Bacall and there are a ton of great exchanges between the two, the most famous being the "just whistle" scene. There are many others equally as good, however, including an exchange about strings that has Bacall walking around Bogart, and a great line from Bacall about "walking home if it weren't for all that water." The banter between the two was probably the best part of the film since it the film relies on a what had become a well worn plot and was based on what Hemingway considered his worst novel. This movie is not as good as Bogie's classics: Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon, and the subsequent Bogart-Bacall pairing in Key Largo has far more suspense & tension within it. However, few films in history can equal To Have and Have Not for its on-screen chemistry.