To Have and Have Not (1944)

 Second viewing (first with original audio); previously viewed on July 3, 1988.

On an island in the Caribbean, a boat pilot who takes tourists on fishing trips gets involved with anti-Nazi rebels.

I'll admit that this was more entertaining on second viewing than it had been on first. I'll also admit it's somewhat absurd that Martinicans should give a damn about the politics of the European rulers of their Central American island; that it is ruled by the French to this very day is a somewhat dismal fact, I think. To make matters worse, this film has the most caricatural Nazi villain of all times; sometimes it seems that Hollywood doesn't really think what the Nazis did was bad enough; they have to make people believe that aside from their actions and ideology, every Nazi or Nazi-supporting functionary had to be a sadistic brute. Putting politics aside, one can quite enjoy the film, and I don't remember being bored at any moment while watching it. Of course, there is no denying that the characters are just a collection of clichés, but the sheer dynamism of the movie and the cleverness of the dialogue makes one more tolerant of its flaws. Incidentally, I was completely shocked when I read the synopsis of the source novel and compared it to the movie. Apparently, they have turned one of the bleakest and most downbeat plots ever written into a tense yet fairly lightweight romantic comedy. The gruesomest it gets is the reference to an off-screen torture session consisting of... enforcing alcohol abstinence!

Rating: 56 (up from 50)