My Favourite Movies: To Have and Have Not
Made in 1944, this clear precursor to Casablanca has been in my top 10 movie list since I first saw it. Starring Humphrey Bogart and introducing the world to the phenomena that is Lauren Bacall, this romantic drama still makes me gasp at just how brilliant a movie it is. Based on the Caribbean island of Martinique not long after the Fall of France it centres on Bogart’s character of fisherman for hire Harry Morgan. Morgan is an American with a shadowed past who, through circumstances beyond his control, puts his considerable talents to work in the struggle between the Free French and the forces of Vichy. Thrown into the mix is the amazingly talented and quirkily beautiful Bacall (then a mere 19 years old) who bewitches Bogart with her considerable charm. The obvious spark between them is a highlight of the film and their highly quotable banter still delights over 60 years later. One of the things that most intrigued me about the movie is that throughout Bacall consistently called Bogart’s character Steve despite his name being Harry. Everyone else did indeed call him this and no one corrected Bacall. It was all very strange.
As with films of the era the cinematography is outstanding – these people really did paint with light – and although clearly designed as a throw-away propaganda piece it actually holds up as a pretty good movie. Supported by a cast which included the seemingly unchanging Walter Brennan and the beautiful Dolores Moran (who Bacall had some great sparing moments with over Bogart’s affections) it also starred the hugely talented Hoagy Carmichael as the bar pianist Cricket.
If you haven’t come across this movie before I suggest you rent it on a wet Sunday afternoon, take the phone of the hook, put your feet up and enjoy one of the best wartime movies ever made.
6 comments:
I've never heard of this movie. I'll put it on Netflix. Bacall is stunningly beautiful! Those eyes are captivating. I like your description that they painted with light. That is something I've noticed about some old films that the lighting is just as much a character in the film as the actors. It really creates moods.
V V said: I like your description that they painted with light. That is something I've noticed about some old films that the lighting is just as much a character in the film as the actors. It really creates moods.
I'm not sure if they were forced to be so artistic with the lighting because of the limitation of working without colour. If that's the case they most certainly transcended their medium.
I hope you enjoy the movie.
Three cheers for this! It's also one of my faves. The electricity between B&B is palpable, and Bogie just plays a great tough guy. Memorable characters, an excellent plot, a dreamy setting, luscious black & white; it has it all.
It wasn't the pre-curser to "CASABLANCA"....It came after "Casablanca", a perfect film if there ever was one! I like "To Have & Have Not" a lot, too.....Maybe not quite as much as you, my dear CK, but everything you say about it is true, and that these great Artists knew how to use the lighting to say a lot about the content of a film is without question...! Sometimesm as in the case of many Joan Crawford films...She was lit in the most interesting and Artistic ways....Sometimes half her face would be in semi shadow---but so Aerfullt done....!
I LOVE the old Black & White films, more than I can say. It isn't that I don't like color...I DO! But, the ART of the B&W Films is truly stunning, and it was ALL about The Lighting!
"...But So ARTFULLY Done...."
OY! Sorry about the finger slipping off the keys so much!
Naomi said: It wasn't the pre-curser to "CASABLANCA"....It came after "Casablanca", a perfect film if there ever was one!
You're quite right! Casablanca was filmed 2 years *before* 'To Have & Have not' - for some reason I thought it was the other way around... Thanks for the correction.
Naomi said: I LOVE the old Black & White films, more than I can say. It isn't that I don't like color...I DO! But, the ART of the B&W Films is truly stunning, and it was ALL about The Lighting!
Very true. Many of the films from that era are true works of *art* in every sense. Not only was the acting and the script often extraordinarily good but the visual feel of the film was often quite breathtaking. Modern films could stand to learn a lot from these old films. The things they did with no access to anything approaching 'special effects' is astonishing.
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