I think it\u2019s a pretty remarkable fact, that of the seven films Humphrey Bogart was in that I consider worth owning my least favorite is Casablanca.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible I\u2019ve just seen it too many times already.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve watched the Maltese Falcon many times more and I keep putting it back on.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably just individual preference.\u00a0 But for whatever the reason, it tells me that Bogart was in a relatively large number of excellent films.<\/p>\n
Next up is \u201cTo Have and Have Not.\u201d\u00a0 This movie is based on the Hemingway story.\u00a0 Several of the story elements seem to be repeated in Casablanca.\u00a0 A French colony is the locale.\u00a0 There are Nazis and their local collaborators as the heavies.\u00a0 Resistance fighters including a husband and wife team are looking for help from Bogart\u2019s character.\u00a0 There is a damsel in distress as the love interest.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a singer at a piano that entertains us here and there.\u00a0 Honestly, I actually prefer this earlier film to Casablanca.\u00a0 It seems less strained.<\/p>\n
Bogey is a charter boat captain named Harry Morgan and Walter Brennan is his first mate Eddie.\u00a0 Eddie is a garrulous alcoholic and Harry\u2019s best friend.\u00a0 They\u2019re on a two-week charter out of Florida to the French island of Martinique.\u00a0 Martinique is part of \u201cFree France\u201d but under the thumb of the Nazis.\u00a0 Harry meets Marie Browning, played by a very young Lauren Bacall, as she is stealing the wallet of Harry\u2019s charter client.\u00a0 He takes the wallet from her and discovers from the contents that the client was about to skip out without paying him.\u00a0 Grateful for her unwitting help he strikes up a friendship with her.\u00a0 Of course, under the circumstances, their relationship is always awkward and tentative.\u00a0 He calls her Slim which rankles her so she calls him Steve probably from spite.\u00a0 But for all their verbal jousting the sparks begin to fly and it\u2019s easy to see that their relationship will be at least one of the major plot lines.<\/p>\n
The hotel where Harry, Marie and apparently anyone involved in the resistance ends up staying is owned by, of course, Frenchy, or so he is called by Harry.\u00a0 He is the clandestine leader of the resistance.\u00a0 Several of his friends get into a gun battle with the local police and this leads to Harry and Marie falling under the suspicious eye of the local police chief. \u00a0He seizes their passports and money and grills them for information on the resistance.<\/p>\n
Being strapped for cash Harry accepts a job ferrying some resistance fighters onto the island, Paul and Hellene de Bursac.\u00a0 Paul gets shot during a sea voyage while evading the harbor patrol.\u00a0 Harry acts as a cut-rate trauma surgeon and removes the bullet.\u00a0 The police finally decide to put the squeeze on Harry by grilling Eddie this triggers a confrontation that Harry controls with the help of a few well aimed bullets.\u00a0 Throughout Marie is at Harry\u2019s side, for the most part, trading wisecracks and supporting the cause.\u00a0 Eddie supplies the comic relief and Hoagy Carmichael as Cricket plays the piano and employs Marie as an ersatz lounge singer.<\/p>\n
Bit of well-known classic Hollywood trivia, the sparks flying between Harry and Marie were mirrored in real life between Bogart and Bacall and they shortly afterward became man and wife in real life.\u00a0 And the chemistry they had translated excellently to film.\u00a0 Their sparring courtship is fun to watch and although stylized in the manner of director Howard Hawkes\u2019 staccato bantering dialog it comes off as interesting and of its time.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think it\u2019s a pretty remarkable fact, that of the seven films Humphrey Bogart was in that I consider worth owning my least favorite is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237],"tags":[1569,720,1570,1562,1567,43,38,1568],"class_list":["post-5394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-ernest-hemingway","tag-hoagy-carmichael","tag-howard-hawkes","tag-humphrey-bogart","tag-lauren-bacall","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-to-have-and-have-not"],"yoast_head":"\n