Is it me, or do Casablanca and Howard Hawks’ To Have and Have Not have identical premises? (Except for the love-triangle trope.)
I looked into it and found out that it’s no coincidence—Hawks had indeed loosely modeled his adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel on the iconic Casablanca, in the hopes of his film meeting with a similar success, starring the same magnetic actor.
Not only did the movie meet his expectations by becoming one of the top-10 grossing films of 1944, but a particular scene from the movie continues to inspire both filmmakers and actors with its masterful exploration of seduction and romance.
In this article, let’s look at the iconic whistle scene from To Have and Have Not to analyze how it taught movies the art of flirting.
The Story
The narrative is set against the backdrop of the French Resistance against the Nazis, and follows the romance between a fisherman in Martinique and a beautiful American drifter.
In this movie, Bogart’s Harry “Steve” Morgan is a fisherman who lends his boat to tourists for fishing expeditions. However, after the fall of Paris to the Nazis, two French resistance fighters, Paul de Bursac and his wife, Hélène de Bursac, reach out to Harry seeking his boat to escape the island.
While at first Harry is not ready, he reluctantly agrees for the money. At the same time, he meets Bacall’s Marie “Slim” Browning, who is also looking for a way out of the island, left with not enough money to buy a ticket home. Soon, an electrifying romance blooms between the two.
In the end, Harry turns to violence when his business partner and friend, Eddie, is picked up by the police for interrogation. He manages to save Eddie and, with Marie and the de Bursacs, to leave the island safely on his boat.
The Scene
At this point in the story, the de Bursacs have already sought refuge under the hotel owner, Gérard, a.k.a. Frenchy, who has cut a deal with Harry for his boat. They’re ready to flee any day now.
One evening, Marie visits Harry to remind him of his promise to help her escape the island. Slim worries that if Harry helps the de Bursacs to escape, he won’t be able to do it for her afterward. So she tries to dissuade him from helping them. But Harry refuses.
He doesn’t let her know that this is his way of arranging money for her plane tickets. Instead, he teases her by saying that even he needs money, so he needs this job.
Slim offers the little savings that she has (not enough to buy a ticket, though) in return for his help, but Harry turns it down with a snicker.
After two consecutive “nos,” Slim turns on her charm. For the first time, Harry glimpses Slim’s complexities.
It begins with a light banter, as the two size each other up, which soon turns into a witty, flirtatious conversation between two people who’re madly attracted to each other.
Slim charges at him with a romantic authority, “Sometimes I know exactly what you’re going to say. The other times, you’re just a stinker.”
She kisses him.
Slightly bewildered, Steve asks, “What’d you do that for?”
Slim replies softly, “Been wondering if I’d like it.”
Steve replies, amused and tranced, “What’s the decision?”
Slim replies seductively: “I don’t know yet.”
They kiss for a second time, and Slim surmises, ”It’s even better when you help.”
As she proceeds to leave a pleasantly shocked Harry, she stops one last time, protesting against his refusal to help her, “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 do know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.”
The scene ends with a bemused Harry, softly whistling like a cat-call.
Analyzing the Iconic Scene
‘To Have and Have Not’Credit: Warner Bros. Entertainment
The Mise-en-scène
The staging in this scene screams of romantic power dynamics. Harry is smitten with Slim, but she’s all for playing hard to get.
The scene opens with Slim towering over Harry, which symbolizes her power over his psyche. However, Harry, turning away from her, shows himself resisting her and her demands to honor what he deems right for everyone.
Eventually, when Slim seduces him, they’re on level with each other once again, as she finds herself a seat on his lap.
When she leaves, she is again towering over Harry, which mirrors how smitten he is after this brief kiss. The cat-call whistle in the end is the perfect bookend to an electrifying scene like this.
The Performances
The scene peaks in both its writing and the actors’ jaw-dropping performances.
To pull off an emotionally mature scene like the whistle scene from To Have and Have Not at the tender age of 19 takes immense talent and courage, and to think that it was Bacall’s debut on the silver screen still blows my mind.
She is restrained yet out there, fierce and bold, exuding femininity. Her eyes do as much talking as her lips, and her graceful movements make her enticing.
While the Casablanca hero, Humphrey Bogart, is known for his charm, presence, and wit, in this particular scene, it is Bacall who steals the show. That being said, if it weren’t Bogart, the chemistry between the two wouldn’t be this transcendental.
Interestingly, the iconic one-liner is not a part of the original literature.
Reportedly, To Have and Have Not began its script-to-screen journey on a fishing trip.
Hawks was extremely keen on his author friend, Hemingway, writing screenplays for him to make movies. However, Hemingway wasn’t really interested in working for Hollywood.
So, one day, when the two friends were on a fishing trip, Hawks, in an attempt to convince Hemingway, insisted that he could make a film from his “worst story,” which, according to him, was To Have and Have Not.
Soon, Hawks obtained the book rights and eventually sold it to Warner Bros.
To make a film out of Hemingway’s “worst” story, Hawks ended up changing most of the story, with only the first four chapters (or first 15 minutes) bearing any resemblance to the original literature.
Have you watched Hawks’ To Have and Have Not yet?