To Have or Have Not

Remember these lyrics?
“We had it all
Just like Bogie and Bacall
Starring in our old late, late show
Sailing away to Key Largo”

On the movie set of To Have or Have Not the real-life romance between Humphrey Bogart and his then 19 year-old leading lady, Lauren Bacall sizzled. Howard Hawks, the director, had chosen Bacall (a former model) to be his next “star” and was not thrilled about these developments because he had designs on her himself. So he had to an affair with Dolores Moran, the supporting actress instead. (That’s showbiz!)

The best reason to see To Have or Have Not is the onscreen chemistry between Bogart and Bacall. It is palatable and exciting to watch the leads fall in love with each other. Lauren Bacall also has the best lines in the film; she calls Morgan “Steve” and he calls her “Slim” (These were the real-life pet names that Hawks and his wife has for each other.) And who can forget the famous line uttered by Bacall in the best sultry siren voice: “You do know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”

Hoagy Carmichael, called “Cricket” plays smoldering moody and spooky piano numbers. He and “Slim” do a smoky rendition of “Am I Blue?” Delightful!

To Have to Have Not is very loosely based on the Hemingway novel. According to legend, Hawks bragged to Hemingway on a boating trip that he could make a movie out of Hemingway’s worst novel. When Hemingway asked him which one he meant, Hawks replied, “That bunch of junk, To Have or Have Not.” Thus, a film adaptation was born.

Hawks was attracted to the novel because he liked the protagonist of the book, Harry Morgan. To adapt it to the big screen, substantial changes were made to Morgan’s character, the setting and many plot threads of the book. In the book, the Harry Morgan is a fishing boat captain running black market activities between Key West and Cuban due to the poor economy. It was meant to be social commentary on the Great Depression. However, in the switch to the big screen, the setting is changed to Martinique, and the villains are the Vichy (Axis) regime, not the United States government.

Harry Morgan is turned into a compassionate hero who helps a pair of French resistant fighters escape the treacherous Vichy local police. He rescues his friend, Eddie, the rummy being denied liquor to get him to talk. Jules Furthman and William Faulkner are the screenwriters who turn the book into a cheap version Casablanca.

But the enduring reason to watch To Have or Have Not are Bogey and Bacall because they had it all…

In a Lonely Place – Bogey is Brilliant!

Rita found out about the influence of Nicolas Ray’s In a Lonely Place from A.O. Scott’s article on Breathless. So Rita queued the flick and was not disappointed. Humphrey Bogart gives a complex performance as a Hollywood hack screenwriter Dixon Steele fighting his inner demons. Gloria Graham play his love interest, Laurel Gray, who falls in love with the volatile Dix.

The story unfolds innocently enough when Dix is handed an assignment by his agent, Mel Lippman to adapt a trashy novel for the screen. (Nicholas Ray and the screenwriter, Andrew Solt, subtly critiquing the Hollywood system and also reflecting the paranoia from the Hollywood blacklist from alleged Communist propaganda.)

Dix persuades a young hat check woman who has read the book to summarize it for him in his hacienda bachelor pad so he doesn’t have to read it. He sends her home with cab fare. The next morning, at 5 a.m. he is awakened by a police officer and taken down to the police station. The young woman was murdered and he was the last person to see her alive. Dix is a prime suspect given his past violent actions but his comely neighbor is called into the police station and she vouches for him. He’s released.

As the story progresses, In a Lonely Place the emphasis moves from the murder to the relationship that develops between Dix and his beautiful neighbor, Laurel. Humphrey Bogart inhabits an ugly character; he is at times, brutish and callous, and yet as he best with Laurel, tender and romantic. With her, he blossoms.

And Laurel is a great femme fatale as she playful keeps her distance but eventually falls for Dix and becomes his muse. Unfortunately, the pressure of the murder investigation takes its toll on the couple and what starts out as a whirlwind romance devolves into mistrust and paranoia. The acting is phenomenal and natural. Nicolas Ray continues his cinematic themes of protagonists battling against the world as outsiders, trying to come to grips with forces beyond their control.

The black and white setting of the film is pristine and the lighting is dazzling. This is one of the best Hollywood classics. Don’t miss it!

A Place in the Sun (1951)

The radiant Elizabeth Taylor and handsome Montgomery Clift star in this social drama about the haves and the have-nots. George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) is the working class protagonist with aspirations to work for his rich Uncle, Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes) in his bathing suit factory. He hitchhikes his way from Chicago to his Uncle’s factory. His Uncle decides to put him to work immediately in one of his assembly lines and on the first day, he meets a fellow co-worker, plain Jane Alice Tripp (Shelly Winters). He starts an affair with Alice but he life gets more complicated when he is invited to a party at his Uncle’s lavish home and meets ravishing debutante Elizabeth Taylor. His entanglement between a high society girl and impoverished Alice, causes George Eastman to hatch a plan that portends a calamity.

One of the extras on the DVD is an interview with Elizabeth Taylor. She was 18 at the time of this role and it was on the set of A Place in the Sun where she met and became life-long friends with Montgomery Clift. This was Taylor’s first adult film role and she looks absolutely stunning. She talks at length about her friendship with “Monty” in the interview and how she really learned what acting was about from him. It is a marvelous, B/W film directed by George Stevens emphasizing the complexity of the class divide in America. The film was adopted from Timothy Drieser’s 1925 novel, An American Tragedy which in turn, was based on a real life 1906 trial of Chester Gillette in the state of New York.

Many of the external shots of Lake Tahoe were shot on location and add to the beauty of the film.

Suspicion

Suspicion (1941) I just adore this b/w movie by the master of suspense. It stars Joan Fontaine as the shy and provincial Lina. She is a schoolmarmish woman who falls for the debonair cad, Johnny Aysgarth, cooly played by Cary Grant. They marry and Lina begins to suspect her husband is only after her money, then plotting murder, and that she may be the next victim. As the movie progresses, her “suspicions” get the best of her—the suspense expertly built by the film score and the more sinister shots of Johnny, as he slowly turns on his wife, as her fear of him grows. There are some marvelous scenes leading up to the climax, one with Cary Grant climbing the grand staircase with a glowing glass of milk. The dialogue, like in many of these old b/w movies, is well-crafted.

The film does amble along in the first hour, but the pace picks up. Based on Francis Iles’ novel, Before the Fact, with some substantial changes to preserve Cary Grant’s romantic hero image.

Joan Fontaine won an Oscar for Best Actress but many critics feel that it was because she did not win the Oscar for another outstanding performance for Rebecca, the previous year. (Hitchcock’s first American directed feature)