TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT

Lauren Bacall and Hoagy Carmichael

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944). Director: Howard Hawks.

Charter boat captain Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) meets up with adventuress Marie (Lauren Bacall) in Martinique just after France has fallen. Needing money, Harry agrees to bring two members of the French resistance, De Bursac (Walter Szurovy) and his wife (Delores Moran of Old Acquaintance), into Martinique, but he comes afoul of the corpulent Captain Renard once they arrive. Renard wants their whereabouts, and captures Harry's old sot friend, Eddie (Walter Brennan) to achieve his ends. But Harry may have a trick  or two up his sleeve ...  If you're expecting a serious or faithful version of Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name, look elsewhere, for this movie is pure Hollywood and little else. Bogart and Bacall, who fell for each other while making this movie -- they were married the following year -- certainly had a unique chemistry despite the difference in ages and attractiveness. This was Bacall's first picture, and she's fine, probably due in no small measure to Hawks' special tutoring . Dan Seymour [Return of the Fly] is just plain strange as Renard, but amusing, speaking in musical cadences as he makes silent threats with his eyes and belly. Walter Brennan is Walter Brennan. The presence of real-life songwriter Hoagy Carmichael as Crickett, the piano player in a club, almost turns this into a semi-musical. The best thing about the movie is the ending, with both Bacall and Brennan boogieing their way out of the club, albeit in entirely different manners. As a thriller, if that's what it is, To Have and Have Not is almost a complete failure, as scenes that should crackle with tension are flat (if well-acted). The movie holds the attention for the most part, but it's a little too odd and Hollywood-ish to be effective. This was remade as The Breaking Point, which is a much better and much more serious picture.

Verdict: Not much to do with Ernest Hemingway. **1/2.

OLD ACQUAINTANCE

Millie (Hopkins) and Kit (Davis) have a disagreement

OLD ACQUAINTANCE (1943). Director: Vincent Sherman.

"There's a certain ecstasy in wanting things you know you can't get." -- Kit

"It's late -- and I'm very tired of youth and love and self-sacrifice." -- Kit

"I'm sure if she was a man she wouldn't have shaved!" -- Millie

Katherine "Kit" Marlowe (Bette Davis), who has a written a well-received if slack-selling literary novel, comes to visit her very dear old friend Millie Drake (Miriam Hopkins), who not only tells her that she and her husband Preston (John  Loder) are expecting a baby, but that she, too, has written a novel, a romantic potboiler that she is sure will become a bestseller. She's right, and several years and many books later. the Drakes are visiting New York even as Kit is awaiting the opening night of her first play. Millie does little to deal with the fact that her husband is in her shadow, and she doesn't even notice that he's fallen in love with Kit -- and vice versa. But Kit decides that sometimes a sacrifice has to be made in the name of friendship, but will Millie ever appreciate what she has done? Old Acquaintance is well-acted, entertaining, and often very funny in its tale of the self-absorbed if likable Millie and her more sensitive and understanding best friend, and it has some fine dialogue. John Loder could often be dismissed as a cinematic lightweight, but he's perfectly cast in this and has some very decent moments. Gig Young makes an impression in one of his earliest roles as one of Kit's beaus, and Delores Moran is quite pretty and competent as Millie's grown up daughter, Deirdre. Anne Revere and Esther Dale are notable in interesting supporting parts as, respectively, a reporter who speaks too freely, and a maid who knows her own mind and isn't afraid to speak it. A very amusing scene has the two friends having a confrontation, with Kit finally giving in and shaking the life out of her irritating buddy. Old Acquaintance is by no means perfect -- it's probably more soap opera than [comedy-]drama -- but for most of its length, it works. The two lead actresses are both excellent, although the ever-affected Davis sometimes comes off like a drag queen doing a Davis impersonation! This was remade years later as Rich and Famous, which, if I recall correctly, was pretty terrible.


Verdict: This is no Old Maid -- which also starred Davis and Hopkins-- but it is fun and fast-paced. ***