I hadn't seen this in decades and all I remembered
is that this was the film where Bogie met Bacall and her famous line "You
know how to whistle don't you Harry? You just have to put your lips together
and blow." But I just finished Hemingway's novel and found myself watching
it again. Clearly, the producer, director and writers assumed the audience
had not read the book because other than the scene at the beginning with
the customer fishing, it has little in common with the book. One of those
writers was William Faulkner though Jules Furthman wrote the first draft
and Faulkner was brought in to clean it up. Faulkner hated working in Hollywood
but his books sold like mud sandwiches and he needed the money. He was perpetually
drunk or hung over and one time told his boss that he needed to go home.
The boss said sure thinking he meant his home in California. The next time
he heard from Faulkner, the author was back in his home in Mississippi. But
the studios kept him on the payroll because having his name on the credits
was prestigious.
The book rights had been purchased from Howard Hughes by Howard Hawks. Hawks
had been trying to put a movie deal together for a big war movie with Warner
Brothers and when that fell through he quickly put forward the book. Hemingway
was a friend of Hawks. I wonder if Hawks had read the book either. But he
was in desperate need of money because the IRS wanted a huge payment of unpaid
taxes. Hawks was by all accounts a louse of a human being, treated everyone
like shit, especially women and was a huge anti-Semite and racist. Faulkner
said of him to Hawk's third wife "I wouldn't want to be dog, a horse or a
woman around Mr. Hawks". He was also of course a hell of a director in pretty
much every genre imaginable. One thing he specialized in was good fast talking
dialogue that often overlapped - which is certainly the case here.
The book is not considered one of Hemingway's better efforts. Though it has
some wonderful passages that are a pleasure to read, it is kind of a mess.
It keeps shifting the telling of the story - first with Harry Morgan narrating
and then on to others. And then about three quarters of the way through he
introduces new characters who had nothing to do with the earlier part of
the novel - but seem to just be a device for Hemingway to lay his hate on
the wealthy and useless. He had been covering the Spanish Civil War and picked
up some of the ideals of the Republic and socialism. The book takes place
in Key West and Cuba and one of the Cuban characters tells Harry about why
they want to over throw the dictator - then a fellow called Machado. By the
time of the movie Batista was in power and an ally of the United States so
the government asked the studio to take Cuba out and put Martinique in.
Which ended up changing everything. Martinique was run by Vichy in league
with Germany - the film is set in 1940 - and basically they Casablancize
the whole film. In the book Harry Morgan is a complete heel, married to a
large grotesque woman with three children with few scruples and at one time
when Eddy (the Walter Brennan character) sneaks onto his boat when Harry
is up to something illegal seriously considers killing Eddie because he is
a rummy who can't keep his mouth shut. In the end Harry is killed. You feel
bad because he loves that grotesque woman as much as any man can. So not
surprising that a lot was changed!
This has Casablanca all through it - from the bar where Harry lives to a
piano player (in this case the composer of Stardust and many other classic
songs - Hoagy Carmichael - in his debut. Bogart was pissed because "it is
his first film and he makes acting look so easy"), the French resistance
leader with the beautiful wife (Dolores Moran who had been in the running
for the female lead) and the large Gestapo agent (Dan Seymour). To Harry
himself - out for himself at the beginning and unwilling to take sides. They
only left out the singing of the Marseilles. They even bring on Marcel Dalio
and Dan Seymour who were in Casablanca.
A dame walks into the bar - not quite "Of All The Gin Joints In All The Towns
In All The World, She Walks Into Mine" but close enough. A sleek blonde soon
nicknamed Slim (her nickname in real life) asks Harry for a match as she
leans against the door (the first scene filmed) and gives him the look that
made her famous. This is of course Betty Bacal. Yes, Bacal. A nice Jewish
girl from New York. Whether Hawks knew or not I can't say but once Warners
knew they did everything they could to keep it from the public. Hawk's wife
named Slim saw her modeling on a magazine cover and told her husband to sign
her up.
Hawks brought her to Hollywood and wanted to put her in that war movie he
was planning as a female Soviet soldier. When that fell apart he pushed Warner's
to sign her up for To Have and Have Not. First though he told Bacall that
she had to develop a deeper sexier voice and she spent hours doing so. That
is her singing deep and low in the film. Jack Warner looked at her screen
test and went wow. Bogart was already signed up. The film went into production.
Over the film Bogart and Bacall fell in love. She was 19, he was 44 and married.
It worked out and they were married till he died in 1957. It isn't Casablanca
for sure but it has acting power, great dialogue and the Hawks touch. And
you know now that you are watching two people fall in love. It is all over
the screen. Their chemistry simmers and the film luxuriates in it. Hawks
knew what he was watching and got it on tape. At the end of the shooting
they decided to change her name to Lauren Bacall.
