One day in the early 1940’s, Howard Hawks’ wife was looking through a magazine when she came across an advertisement that featured a striking young woman. She shows him the picture and the ball starts rolling. Just before this event, Ernest Hemingway had a bet with Mr. Hawks. The bet was that Mr. Hawks could make a movie out of the worst thing that Mr. Hemingway wrote. The ball that started rolling hit a bump named Lauren Bacall. Looking to cast the female lead in the picture that grew out of the bet, Mr. Hawks summoned the soon to be immortal Ms. Bacall west to Hollywood. She tests for the role. Humphrey Bogart sees the test and is introduced to the young actress who was waiting outside the screening room. “We are going top have a lot of fun” is what he said. They did and the rest is for me the absolute pinnacle of Hollywood magic. If there is a god of Motion Pictures, he or she was in the best mood ever that day.

To Have and Have Not is the picture and it is a record of a courtship, a romance that has lived on since the day they shot the first kiss between Ms. Bacall and Mr. Bogart. Knowing what we do now about them I almost feel like a voyeur. Mr. Bogart had only recently established himself as a not only a great actor who could carry a picture (and get Oscar nominated for his work) but also as a romantic leading man as well. In a recent post I quoted a song lyric that I feel summed up Ms. Bacall; “you’re one in a million baby, you’ve got to burn to shine”. In this film she burns. She effortlessly moves through the picture spilling out an aura of sexuality and maturity far beyond her 19 years. No one ever in my opinion has ever had a motion picture debut such as hers in this picture. Oh my god, never. If you’ve seen the picture consider yourself lucky; if you haven’t, now is your time. And I’ll say this, there never ever will be a debut like it again. Ever.

The story is not necessary for me to go into here. It has to be seen. There are shades of Casablanca; the Nazi’s / bad guys here are the Vichy French. Mr. Bogart is still the uninvolved ex-pat American who is forced by events to become involved. What is necessary for me to mention are the great performances from the terrific Warner Brothers stable of character actors. Walter Brennan as Eddie is a great example of a tragic / comic performance at it’s best. Hoagy Carmichael appears as almost as the “Sam” character of Casablanca. Mr Carmichael does a couple of his classic numbers and is accompanied by Ms. Bacall on two of them. As far as Mr. Bogart’s great performances go, his Harry Morgan is one of them.

This is truly a classic. It is only by a stoke of luck that Mrs. Hawks was looking at that magazine. This is a great picture and it’s a lot of fun. It’s safe for the kids and I wanted it to be required viewing when someone joined Movie Place. It was a constant on the screen at the store and I never ever got tired of it. I am not kidding when I say that I have seen a picture a hundred times. I have seen Sweet Smell Of Success close to 400 times. Although I have not seen To Have and Have Not close to the Sweet Smell Of Success level, the number is up there. If you have not seen this picture yet, you will understand when you see it.

Saturday December 22 at 2:00 PM on Turner Classic Movies

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