Howard Hawks insisted that he could make a film from Ernest Hemingway’s worst novel, To Have and Have Not. So in 1944 he went and did just that, translating that troubling book into a film about a ship captain who gets involved with smuggling resistant members to Martinique when situations leave him stranded and without money. This film is a perfectly good showcase for actor Humphrey Bogart and his future wife Lauren Bacall. But the problem is, it doesn’t really represent the novel on which it is based. The story was heavily altered to soften the lead character and turn him into some sort of reluctant hero, something that is nothing like the character from the book. So, while Hawks did manage to make a film based on Hemingway’s worst book, he really didn’t make a proper film adaptation of it at all.
Six years later, Warner Bros were prepared to try again, this time going back to the source novel for a more faithful adaptation. But, similar to the first adaptation, they weren’t prepared to fully commit to the more negative aspects of the lead character, Harry Morgan. When the book has him murder a Chinese man and force refugees off of his boat after taking their money, here he is attacked by the Chinese man, who is trying to cheat him out of his money, and has to kill him in self defense. He gives what money he did get back to the other refugees and drops them back where he got them. It is a big difference from Hemingway’s prose and goes a long way towards keeping us on his side, something the book doesn’t care to even try.
Harry isn’t a scoundrel in this film, but he’s hardly altruistic. John Garfield is playing him more as a man put in a desperate situation, cheated out of his earnings by a man who hires him to take him out fishing only to stiff him on the fee, leaving him without even enough money to pay the port fees needed to get back home. This puts Harry in the position where he has to get involved with unscrupulous individuals just to get back to his wife and daughters. Later, though, he will get involved with killers, leading to an exciting shootout on his own boat. We understand why he escalated things but can’t get behind him, especially when his actions end up having deadly consequences, nearly costing him his own life. This is further cemented in the final shot of a young boy waiting for his father who will never return home.
Having read To Have and Have Not, I can agree that it is Hemingway at his worst. While this film does a better job at adapting the material for the screen, it is not a better film than the Bogart picture. This film lacks the sultriness that comes from Bogart and Bacall’s shared scenes. Garfield does share the screen with a bombshell, Patricia Neal, but the relationship is more platonic and therefore lacks the heat of the earlier film. The action and intrigue, with the exception of the climactic shootout, aren’t as well played, either. Still, it is a good picture in its own right and a better representation of what Hemingway was writing originally. 1950 - 97 minutes
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