Excellent but underrated film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

'To Have and Have Not' is far from perfect. It's derivative of Casablanca from two years earlier, includes a character who quickly becomes annoying (Walter Brennan, who plays a toper), is implausible in places, and has little to do with the novel by Ernest Hemingway. On the other hand, it was 19-year-old Lauren Bacall's first film, and she displays a sultriness and presence not often seen in someone so young. Bogart is also strong as the fishing boat skipper in Martinique who wants nothing to do with politics or the French resistance, but finds himself drawn into events as they unfold. He's gritty, tough, and real, and has a couple of fantastic scenes with Bacall, where their chemistry is apparent despite him being 25 years older, including the one where she so famously says to him "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and ... blow." I also liked musical performances led by Hoagy Carmichael, though Bacall's singing in the numbers she was in was pretty awkward. Like I said, it's not perfect, but it is solid and entertaining, and as the start of 'Bogie and Bacall', has a place in film history.

How to take advantage of Bogart's popularity and acting potential? I think that this, after Casablanca, was the real question. Simply create a similar atmosphere, ambiance, scenery and themes, and finally let Bogart to finish the job. Despite Have and Have Not is a very good movie. Play with writers on the script is certainly an interesting background. Despite that TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT is a very good movie. Play with writers on the script is certainly an interesting background.In an adventurous world intriguing story to enter the fate of small but important people. Sports fisherman, ordinary pockets and old drunkard fit that description. The thesis according to which the battle or revolution express little people in this case is true.Humphrey Bogart as Harry "Steve" Morgan He again works the sidelines. Skipper who minds his own business. All approach with a mocking cynicism. Of course, at any given moment things happen that his views absolutely disrupted. The young woman and the resistance movement. Character too similar to Mr. Blaine from Casablanka with the important fact that the "younger character" from the very beginning of the story is very important. Lauren Bacall as Marie "Slim" Browning is a migratory bird that finally landed in the arms of Bogart. Chemistry is so obvious that it is superfluous to say anything. "THE LOOK" is spontaneous and excellent. Walter Brennan as Eddie is absolutely at the height of the task. Very good complements Bogart's character. Description of the failed old sailors and drunk were irreconcilable.

A Bogart-Bacall classic.Martinique in the Caribbean, 1940. France has fallen to Germany and the Vichy French are now in charge of the island. An American, Harry Morgan (played by Humphrey Bogart) runs a charter boat and is determined to stay out of politics and not get involved in the war. However, there are Free French sympathisers and agents who would dearly like his help. To make things more complicated, a beautiful American woman, Marie "Slim" Browning (played by Lauren Bacall) keeps drifting across his path... An excellent drama, based on the Ernest Hemingway novel and directed by Howard Hawks. Solid, intriguing plot. Does resemble Casablanca at times - at one point I thought it was just Casablanca transported to the Caribbean - but ultimately differentiates itself quite well from that other classic Bogart movie.Has the legendary Humphrey Bogart smoothness and coolness. Lauren Bacall is great in her film debut - cool, beautiful, stylish and doesn't take a backward step to Bogart. This would be the first of many collaborations between the two. Moreover, they would marry a year after the movie was released...Cast also includes Hoagy Carmichael as the bar's singer / band- leader, Cricket.Only two negative aspects. One is the Eddie character - quite irritating at times. Him and his flaws are necessary to the plot, however. Walter Brennan did a decent job playing him, but every time he appeared I lost some interest in the scene.The other negative is that the Bogart-Bacall dialogue battles sometimes felt overdone. There are some terrific quotes and word plays but it's as if the writer or director didn't know when to stop. These are minor issues, however, in what is a fantastic movie.

The adaptation of Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not" gave Humphrey Bogart a very good opportunity to more or less recreate his role from the super-hit of the previous year, "Casablanca". Just like Rick Blaine, Harry Morgan also 'sticks out his neck for nobody', he's also an American living abroad (in Martinique this time), caring only about making a living and nothing else - less of all the War that's rocking the whole world. But just like in "Casablanca", again he's being implored by a friend to help sheltering Renaissance fighters - and again, his conscience and the good heart he's hiding so well underneath his rough shell don't allow him to refuse.And again, a woman comes into his life; not from the past this time, but from the FUTURE - Bogart's OWN future. Young model Lauren Bacall, only 19 at the time, has just been given her first role; and a leading role, no less. Her cocksure ways (although she really was quite shy and very nervous about her film debut), her husky, sexy voice, her slender figure, and of course her famous 'look' from beneath (which resulted, as she herself admitted, from being so nervous during the shooting...), had immediately impressed everybody - and she also impressed Bogey, of course, who at the time was caught in a pretty unhappy marriage, and just felt that in Lauren he'd found the woman he'd always been looking for. Which turned out to be absolutely true...And so we can witness something UNIQUE here, a 'live' chapter of Hollywood history: Harry and young singer Marie get to know each other, start teasing each other, quarrel, make up, and finally fall in love with each other - and so did, behind the scenes, Bogart and Bacall. For all the millions of fans of Bogey and Bacall, this movie (the first of four they did together) is the most beautiful 'love document' imaginable - but it's also, seen 'purely' as a movie, an absolute masterpiece, a really worthy adaptation of a Hemingway novel.The entire cast is PERFECT, with a lot of amiable characters in it (like 'Frenchy' Marcel Dalio, another old acquaintance from "Casablanca", piano player 'Cricket' Hoagy Carmichael, and the lovable boozer 'Eddie' Walter Brennen, who thinks he has to 'take care' of the young couple...), but also some first-class Vichy regime scoundrels; the atmosphere is just as dense and suspenseful as in "Casablanca", only the humor is more sarcastic than cynical here - and the emotions, as we said, REAL...In any case, one of Hollywood's true, immortal Classics.