Betty Joan Perske, otherwise known as Lauren Bacall, achieved fame after starring opposite Humphrey Bogart, her future husband, in Howard Hawks’ 1944 romantic thriller, To Have And Have Not. Portraying a sultry seductress in her movie debut, Bacall would appear with Bogart in three more films: The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948).
Screened on the Turner Classic Movie channel, To Have And Have Not is loosely based on Ernest Hemingway’s 1937 novel, one of his least distinguished works. After Hemingway declined to write the screenplay, the task was assigned to William Faulkner and Jules Furthman.
This Warner Bros. feature film, released in New York City on October 12, 1944, was described by The New York Times‘ critic Bosley Crowther as a spinoff of Casablanca, a movie of memorable proportions.
For purely political reasons, the locale of To Have And Have Not was moved from Florida and Cuba to the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Set in 1940, when Martinique was administered by Vichy forces, it catapulted Bacall to Hollywood stardom.
One of the very few Jewish actresses to attain success during this era, she was born in 1924 and died in 2014. Related through her father to Shimon Peres, a foreign minister, prime minister and president of Israel, Bacall was only 20 when Hawks selected her for the role that would change her life.
The chemistry between Bacall and Bogart, a married man, was palpable. They fell in love during the filming and were married about a year later.
Bogart plays Harry (Steve) Morgan, a gruff American charter boat captain. Why he works in Martinique remains a mystery. He minds his own business and has no interest in getting involved in “local politics.” This scenic tropical island, though controlled by Vichy France, an ally of Nazi Germany, is a refuge for anti-Vichy forces.
Bacall initially appears in the 19th minute of the film. She portrays Marie (Slim) Browning, a cool and self-possessed young woman who has been away from home for six months. It is unclear where she comes from, but we learn that she washed up in Martinique due to a lack of funds. She and Morgan meet by chance after she steals his dishonest client’s wallet. “He dropped it and I picked it up,” she claims disingenuously.
A group of Frenchmen hostile to the Vichy regime want to rent Morgan’s boat for one night, but he turns them away. Being totally apolitical, Morgan has no intention of courting trouble with the local authorities. He changes his mind after the Vichy police chief relieves him of his money following the sudden death of a shifty client.
Morgan is twice Marie’s age, but she is attracted to him. In a compelling scene, she seduces him. Morgan is usually taciturn, but he cracks a smile after she kisses him. They’re an unlikely pair, but they mesh romantically. At one point, she says, “I’m hard to get. All you have to do is ask me.”
At various moments, Bacall belts out several plaintive songs in a smoky nightclub frequented by soldiers and sailors. This girl can sing, though she is no Barbra Streisand. She is accompanied on the piano by the inimitable Hoagy Carmichael.
She is not the only alluring figure. The character actor Walter Brennan turns in a credible performance as Morgan’s liquor-addicted sidekick.
To Have And Have Not, having been shorn of its serious political content, is light and reasonably entertaining. It does not rise to the level of Casablanca, but it may be remembered as the movie that launched the high-flying career of Lauren Bacall.