To Have and Have Not Information

To Have and Have Not is a 1944 romance-war-adventure film. 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.

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, 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.

Gerard, the hotel owner 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 Surovy). Meanwhile, a romance develops between Harry and Marie ("Slim") Browning (Lauren Bacall), an American wanderer who has come to the island.

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 Bursacs have been assigned to help a man escape from Devil's Island. Bursac asks for Harry's assistance, but Harry turns him down.

The police recognized Harry's boat the previous night, and they 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.

Cast

• Humphrey Bogart as Harry "Steve" Morgan
• Walter Brennan as Eddie
• Lauren Bacall as Marie "Slim" Browning
• Dolores Moran as Mme. Helene de Bursac
• Hoagy Carmichael as Cricket
• Sheldon Leonard as Lt. Coyo

• Walter Surovy as Paul de Bursac
• Marcel Dalio as Gerard (Frenchy)
• Walter Sande as Johnson, fishing customer
• Dan Seymour as Capt. M. Renard
• Aldo Nadi as Renard's bodyguard
• Paul Marion as Beauclere

Production

Howard Hughes sold the book rights to independent director Howard Hawks, who sold them to Warner Bros. 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; 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. William Faulkner, "out of print and broke", was on the payroll, helping with the script.

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, by Faulkner, an intense rival of Hemingway. 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; apart from Dalio and Bogart, Dan Seymour (Abdul in the earlier film) 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.

This was Lauren Bacall's first film, at the age of 19. Hawks' wife Nancy "Slim" Keith (whose nickname would be applied to Bacall's character) noticed Bacall on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and showed the photo to her husband, who sought out Bacall and signed her for the role. After filming began, a romance developed between Bacall and Bogart, despite Hawks' disapproval. This romance eventually led to the end of Bogart's marriage to Mayo Methot, his third wife, and to Bacall and Bogart getting married.

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).

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.

A persistent myth is 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

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.