To Have and Have Not

When Howard Hawks told Ernest Hemingway that he could make a movie out of the worst thing Hemingway ever wrote, “that piece of junk called To Have and Have Not,” the writer balked: “You can’t make a picture out of that!” In between hunting and fishing, however, the two drafted an outline very tenuously connected with the book: Cuba was changed to Martinique, the time moved from the 1930s to the 1940s, the characters substantially altered, and a classic was born: a World War II-era drama notably reminiscent of Casablanca. The story is almost eclipsed by the smouldering debut of the ferociously sexy Lauren Bacall, whose her real-life romance with Bogart visibly develops on-screen; the screenplay was supposedly rewritten during filming to boost Bacall’s role. Hawks’s finished film has Bogart as American expatriate Harry Morgan, busy making money off of tourists and determined to stay out of politics — until an encounter with a young runaway (Bacall) changes everything. When Morgan becomes unwillingly involved with members of the French resistance, it forces him to choose between money and principles. B&W, 35mm. 100 mins.