Who remembers the 1944 Bogart-Bacall classic "To Have and Have Not"?

I do. I keep a copy on an external drive. It’s a great story and I agree the music is awfully good. By the way, Hemingway hated the film and swore to god he would never work with Hollywood again. But like a lot of things Hem said, it went by the wayside if the woman or the money was right. He did have a legitimate complaint, though.

Hem’s story didn’t take place in Martinique during the Vichy occupation, didn’t involve a woman of questionable circumstance, didn’t involve spies or refugees from the Nazis. So, there was no police inspector Capitaine Renard who was played so well by Dan Seymour (who also had memorable roles in Key Largo as Angel Garcia and in Casablanca as Abdoul the doorman of Rick’s Cafe Americain). Hawks and Warner Bros. destroyed his story as far as Hemingway was concerned.

Hem’s feelings were soothed in 1948 when Michael Curtiz from WB approach him to do the film again, this time loyal to Hem’s book. Hem hemmed and hawed long enough for the price to rise to his satisfaction and finally agreed.

If you want to see another really good and almost forgotten film, see The Breaking Point (1950), which was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars John Garfield and Patricia Neal with Juano Hernandez as Morgan’s partner. The movie shifted the action to southern California and made Garfield a former PT Boat captain but is otherwise the most faithful to the original book.

So, Hem was happy in the end. He got paid very well, twice.

@Espiritus_Corvus, I HAVE seen it and it’s marvelous. Love Garfield, and the similarities are fun to count.

Yep, saw it last night. Casablanca is still better. But this isn’t bad.

I agree, @elbanditoroso.

It was way before my time, and I haven’t seen it on DVD. I have seen “Casablanca” though, and I like it well enough.