Out In The Film Noir Night- Ernest Hemingway’s To Have And To Not

Films In Brief

To Have Or To Have Not, based on Ernest Hemingway’s novel, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan

A story based, very loosely based I might add, on Ernest Hemingway’s short novel. A screenplay written in part by William Faulkner. The lead roles played by the charismatic Humphrey Bogart and the dishy Lauren Bacall with able assists by Walter Brennan and the legendary songwriter Hoagie Carmichael. Some classic Hollywood lines. What is not to like about this 1940’s black white film that still plays well after over fifty years. Only if you naively expected faithfulness to the author’s novelistic intent by those who bought the film rights would you complain. But, don’t be silly it happens all the time. If you want Hemingway’s gritty tale of a down and out sea captain scratching out a living for his family anyway he can go read the book. Here we are talking about the film adaptation. And on those terms what a seamless piece of cinematic art.

As is the case in most of the early movies the story line is simple. Jaded boy meets slightly world-weary girl in the throes of Vichy-administered Martinique during World War II. Naturally, given the times, the local variant of the French Resistance is in need of help and a skittish, but in the end courageous, Captain Morgan (the Bogart role) is dragged into the middle of it. Some of this is an echo of the story line in Casablanca but this time Bogart, thankfully, does not let the dame go. All the politics and heroics aside this film is all about the romance. For a 1940’s film the sexual tension and resolution between Morgan and Slim (Bacall’s role) is as steamy as it gets with two people who still have their clothes on. It probably does not hurt the romantic buildup that Bogart and Bacall were an item off-screen, as well. If you want classic Bogart and Bacall this is for you.