A Love Story: The Story of 'To Have and Have Not' (2003)

• 64%
• 2003
• Documentary
• Leonard Maltin
• Eric Lax
• Robert Osborne

In the 40's Howard Hawks boasts that he can make a movie out of the worst thing Hemingway ever has written. When Hemingway asks, which novel he means, Hawks says To Have and Have Not. Jules Furthman writes a script, which follows the book closely. The location of the story is Cuba, but the US Government is against depicting corruption and violence on Cuba, and threatens to withdraw the film's export license. William Faulkner rewrites the script, and relocates the story to Martinique. Hawks's wife, Nancy Slim Gross, happens to see a young model at the cover of the magazine Harper's Bazaar, and shows it to her husband. Hawks is a star-maker, who likes to discover and nurture new talents. After a screen test, he chooses the 19 year old model as the lead actress opposite Humphrey Bogart. She changes her name from Betty Perske to Lauren Bacall. At the first takes she is so nervous that she shakes. The only way for her to be still is to bow her head down to the chest, and look upwards at Bogart. Thus she invents The Look that will become her trademark. Three weeks into shooting Bogart and Bacall fall in love, which makes Hawks jealous. The following year they get married.