3/4  To Have and Have Not Quick Review
A pretty good film with Bogie and Bacall, very loosely based on an Ernest Hemingway novel.

4/5 American romance and Vichy intrigue
  by James D. Crabtree (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
Set in Martinique in 1940 following the fall of France this story is a great one and well-adapted to Humphrey Bogart's film persona as a "tough guy with character." He plays an American caught up in the struggle between the Free French and the Vichy over who is going to run the island. Add Bacall as "Slim," and you've got a classic film.

5/5 to have and have not
  by Frederick Moore (Little Rock,Arkansas)
I really loved it! It was great for so many reasons.It was a really well done story and dialogue co-writen by William Faulkner.Directed by Howard Hawks it could'nt miss and thank goodness that his wife saw Betty Becalls picture and insisted that he use her in the film.Needless to say,the movie public loved her and so did Humphrey Bogart.It was so obvious that they fell in love with each other and it made the film even better. I am a big fan of Bogart and it is one of his best movies.Walter Brennan,who could never ever disappoint,played one of the best characters of his career. I think that he won an academy award for his performance and if he didn't he should have.And it didn't hurt to have Hoagy Carmichael playing the piano and singing.It all adds up to one of the all time greats.

5/5 BOGEY AND "SLIM" TALK UP A CLASSIC
  by FRED C. DOBBS (USA)
Watching this one was a blast. This is a low-key, loquacious but thoroughly engaging Bogey-Bacall film [Bacall's first]. There's lots of tension and mystery [both sexual as well as situational] and a paucity of real excitment or violence until Bogey shakes things up at the end. As in several of his films [including CASABLANCA, 1942] Bogey plays a translocated American who gets himself involved in foreign sociopolitical conflicts. This time he plays a small-boat captain who takes folks out into the deep blue for bucks. This time the locale is the Caribbean island of Martinique, a territory of France. Some French undergrounders need his help---and his boat---to retrieve one of their key resistance leaders. Walter Brennan, who was so unforgettably great and nefarious in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE [1946], plays Bogey's long-time close but alcoholic first mate. Brennan is wonderfully endearing in this role as Bogey's leeching, bumbling but always cognizant and loyal friend. Bacall plays a dame who just drops into this exotic island from who knows where and who knows why. She's alluring, mysterious, mesmerizing and a pleasure to watch and listen to. The viewer is continuously fixated on her countenance and svelte moves throughout. The scene where she's in Bogey's room smoking a cig and conversing then emphatically tosses the cig over her shoulder as she leaves is as sexually cathartic as the famous "..you know how to whistle" quote. The banter and repartee between the two is now classic. Many parallels between this Bogey flick and CASABLANCA and other Bogart films. As in CASABLANCA we have a night club as the focal point of goings on, a great nightclub singer & music, a fugitive husband-wife duo that have to be scooped surreptitiously out of the country and a Frenchman who saves everyone's hide. Amazing how the French nightclub owner, who gives all the good guys refuge, resembles and sounds like actor Peter Lorre, while the corpulent Martinique chief of detectives reminded me of actor Sydney Greenstreet [both Lorre & Greenstreet starring with Bogey in the all-time classic MALTESE FALCON, 1941]. Both Bogey and Bacall are mysterious characters in this one with blurred pasts and uncertain futures. They seem to have a lot in common, though, including independence, guts, being streetwise and having a willingness to tackle the unknown and take risks. Unlike CASABLANCA, though, the unattached Bacall [aka by the cute moniker "Slim" in the film] falls for the hard-to-pin-down Bogart. She helps him as he reluctantly agrees to retrieve the unkown resistance kingpin using his boat. And just as we're being put into a trance by Slim's sleekness & style comes, right out of the blue, the 'lady in black'. Bogart arrives at the pick-up site only to find that the target to be brought back is accompanied by his wife. Actress Dolores Moran, with a remote resemblance to Ingrid Bergman, gives Slim a run for her money and she almost goes for Bogey who has nursed her spouse back from a bullet wound. Meanwhile, the nightclub owner gives everybody sanctuary at the club while the cops are hot on their trail. Things come to a head as the cops confront Bogart and Slim. Bogey finally cuts loose reaching for a gun in a desk drawer and blasting right through the desk cutting down the cops' gun-wielding bodyguard--very cool move. Bogey subsequently has the chief detective order no interference from his boys and has him sign harbor passes for their escape out of Martinique---a task made with alacrity when you have a gun barrel staring at you. Really lots of fun. Hoagy Carmichael, touthpick-in-mouth and all, was memorable with his catchy singing and songs---Slim's good-bye to her singing pal was touching. Why the intriguing Moran did not make it after this pic is beyond me. Brennan was great. Only beef is the happy but hasty ending: would have preferred some added beads of sweat as they try to get pass the harbor patrol rather than just walking out the front door with luggage.


5/5 A Classic
  by Critic (Portland)
This is a film that, while it doesn't stand out in any category, manages to hit the perfect balance. A must have for anyone who really enjoys the films of the 40's.

4/5 Silver Screen Classic Romance -- Bacall's Premiere!
  by James "Scotman" April (Bakersfield, CA)
Lauren Bacall's new film where Director Howard Hawks wanted to create a film star and he did so in spades! It's said that Lauren fell for Bogie during filming and Bogie's wife was a flipped out alcoholic causing him grief.

Despite the between-scenes soap opera, the film itself was quite well done. Loosely based on a Hemingway novel, who also helped put together the screenplay, it takes place in Martinique, a former French island now run by the Vichy French government (think Nazi with a French accent and skip the history lesson).

Bogie plays Captain Morgan, a world-weary boat for hire skipper with his sidekick (there's always a sidekick in these films!) a rummy played by Walter Brennan of all people! As an aside, I am amazed how some of these great actors later went on to silly sitcoms in the Sixties (Agnes Moorhead, Bewitched; Carolyn Jones, Addams Family and Walter Brennan in The Real McCoys).

The story itself is full of action and a lot of macho testosterone flying around. The best part is the confrontation with the Vichy government "gestapo" and how Bogie lays into him.

Film best noted for Lauren's line: "Just put your lips together and blow!" Baby!

The DVD is great, as it includes the original Lux Radio Theater broadcast from 1946. Also, Leonard Malton and other film historians relay their two cents into the plusses and minuses about the film.

See To Have and Have Not and the Big Sleep. Both iconic films from the most talented, intense couples to ever grace Hollywood (and I mean that up to the present time!).

Bogie and Bacall - The Signature Collection (The Big Sleep / Dark Passage / Key Largo / To Have and Have Not)
Dark Passage (Snap Case)