|
To Have
And Have Not (1944)
In director Howard Hawks' adaptation (by William Faulkner)
of an Ernest Hemingway novel, set in the French colony of Martinique
during WWII - the locale of some French Resistance efforts; it was
the first of four memorable films co-starring Bogart and Bacall: The
Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key
Largo (1948):
- the sizzling scenes between reclusive, charter fishing
boat skipper Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) and the slinky, sassy,
husky-voiced, young Marie Browning (19 year-old Lauren Bacall in
her film debut), a chanteuse in the local nightclub, located below
their hotel rooms in Hotel Marquis [Note: the two used other nicknames: "Steve" and "Slim"
- to mirror the relationship between director Hawks and his own wife
Mary Gross, who was named "Slim"]
- "Slim's" delivery of lines dripping with
suggestive innuendo, such as "Anybody got a match?" and
then while sitting on his lap and initiating kisses: "It's even
better when you help" and the following obvious, flirtatious
come-on as she left his room: "You know how to whistle, don't
you, Steve? You just put your lips together - and blow"
- and the final tense showdown scene when Morgan lashed
out at the authorities to secure his alcoholic sidekick Eddie's (Walter
Brennan) release and safe passage for them and his boat: ("You're
both gonna take a beating 'til someone uses that phone. That means
one of you's gonna take a beating for nothin'. I don't care which
one it is")
|
|