To Have and Have Not

Steyn On-line ^ | September 16. 2017 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

Last weekend Hurricane Irma clobbered Florida, and we offered by way of aural consolation a special edition of our Song of the Week dedicated to "Songs in the Keys of Florida". It included this 1980s hit by Bertie Higgins:

We had it all Just like Bogie and Bacall Starring in our own Late Late Show Sailing away to Key Largo...

Which made me think maybe it's time for Key Largo as our Saturday-night movie date. And then I thought some more and decided that the Bogie/Bacall film I really liked from that neck of the woods, or seas, was set in another patch of Irma-devastated real estate. So we're going to do what Howard Hawks did when he bought the rights to Ernest Hemingway's original novel of To Have and Have Not: Hawks relocated the story from Key West to Martinique, and likewise we're swapping Key Largo for Martinique, where we have at least a couple of readers, whom I hope are holding up okay. And, if you're one of our Keys readers, well, Humphrey Bogart's fishing boat in this film retaines its Florida origins: the Queen Conch, registered in Key West.

[UB355]

Sorry Steyn lost me on this one.

[MinuteGal]

Steyn's piece IS rather overdone, muddy and too cute-by-half, but the tidbits of inside dope on one our favorite oldie-goldies make wading through the review worth the effort.

Leni

[allendale]

No doubt Mark Steyn like many others finds the Florida Keys one of the most spectacular places on earth. No doubt the core of much literary inspiration and a joy to many. However it is an area that is subject to the most devastating, severe hurricanes ever recorded. Hundreds have died there since the area became developed and populated in the 20th century. Now free people knowing the danger are free to live and invest where they like. However it is difficult to generate legitimate sympathy when one of these periodic hurricanes does what they have always done. Yet no doubt the taxpayer will be required to subsidize the rebuilding of their private property and the infrastructure that makes modern life there possible.

[MrEdd]

To Have And Have Not is still my favorite movie of all time.

Everything doesn't have to have a strong relationship to contemporary politics.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

“The Best Years of Our Lives,” is my all time favorite.

[xp38]

Not my all time No. 1 but it is right up there near the top.

[tommythev]

Hawks directed so many great films:

Dawn Patrol
Scarface
Bringing up Baby
His Girl Friday
Sergeant York
To Have and Have Not
The Big Sleep
Red River
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Rio Bravo

Its amazing how often I find that an old movie I like was directed either by Hawks or Michael Curtiz.

[mrs. a]

Best movie ever? House of 1,000 Corpses

But I am a hopeless romantic...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My top 5 would include the Godfather 1 & 2 and The Searchers (John Wayne’s greatest.)

[aquila48]

Definitely not one of Steyn’s best.