Lauren Bacall Lives! TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT Saturday Morning at The Hi-Pointe

“You know you don’t have to act with me, Steve. You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow!”

If Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (who died last month) occupy the same screen, you can safely expect fireworks! TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) was Bacall’s debut performance, the movie that introduced both audiences and Bogart {he would marry her the following year} to one of cinema’s most iconic beauties and to her erotically husky voice. TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT is an interesting mixture of war-time adventure and hard-boiled film-noir, set on the island of Martinique under the Vichy regime, and Bogart’s Harry “Steve” Morgan is forced to navigate swathes of low-lifes and immoral authority figures.

Howard Hawks, one of Hollywood’s more versatile directors, was a considerable fan of author Ernest Hemingway, but didn’t think all too highly of his 1937 effort, “To Have and Have Not.” Taking it upon himself to improve the story, Hawks set his writers upon Hemingway’s “bunch of junk,” and created what is considered by some to be one of his best films. With its abundance of pistol-clad gangsters and Bogart’s legendary noble tough-guy, comparisons with other pulp film-noirs {such as THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)’ and Hawks’ own THE BIG SLEEP} are perfectly justified, as are the noticeable parallels with Michael Curtiz’S CASABLANCA (1942),’ with Its intriguing war-time tale of romance and loyalty, in addition to a suitably ambiguous ending that emphasizes the sheer uncertainty of warfare. A hilarious Walter Brennan provides the comedic relief as Eddie, a well-meaning but hopelessly addicted alcoholic who likes to ask people such inane queries as “was you ever bit by a dead bee?” Marcel Dalio, in a role that would ideally have suited Peter Lorre, is also good as Frenchy, the sincere owner of the local hotel with sympathies for the French Resistance.

Now you’ll have the chance to see TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT in all of its big screen glory when it screens this Saturday morning (September 13^th) at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, MO). The movie starts at 10:30am and admission is only $5.

The Hi-Pointe’s site can be found HERE

http://hi-pointetheatre.com/

Check out the TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT trailer: