No small wonder Humphrey Bogart fell in love with Lauren Bacall while making this movie… she smolders.  Intrigue, spy stuff, action, romance, this film is perfect and glossy. It features one of the most iconic scenes of its era: the “you do know how to whistle, don’t you?”   

I don’t think I’ve ever been that cool in my life… and she was only nineteen!

Cassablanca is a classic Humphrey Bogart picture and also a must-see… but while Cassablanca has the star-crossed lovers-who-must-part ending, To Have and Have Not is the opposite– soul mates who are meant to stay together. And while it’s a war time film, the drama is balanced with romance and a bit of comic relief with Walter Brennan as a sweet, drunk friend.

In 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, author Stephen Jay Schneider notes that the director wanted a true partnership between the two main characters– Slim is not going to slip into an apron, stay at home and bake pies while Harry goes out to fight the fascists and win the war; they will do it together. She is “as intrepid and daring” as her counterpart. Funny how women’s roles shifted so much between the 40s and the 50s…

Some interesting trivia about the movie can be found at the Internet Movie Database website that follows–for example, the movie notion launched because director Howard Hawks made a bet that he could make a great movie out of the worst Ernest Hemingway story! (I think he won the bet.)  Bogart said he fell in love with her portraying her character, Slim, who…more trivia… was based on Howard Hawks’ wife…see below–

More trivia:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037382/trivia

Found a public domain photo of the real “Slim” with husband Howard Hawks and their dog:    Slim indeed!!! Is there a size smaller than zero? I think the dog has a bigger waist!