On a ten-day fishing trip, independent director
Howard Hawks tried to persuade
Ernest Hemingway to write him a script, but Hemingway was not interested in working in Hollywood. Hawks insisted he could make a film from Hemingway's "worst story". Although Hawks had a high regard for Hemingway's works in general, he considered
To Have and Have Not a "bunch of junk" and told Hemingway so. Hemingway and Hawks worked on the screenplay during the remainder of the fishing trip. They decided the film would not resemble the novel, but rather would tell the story of how Morgan met Marie. Marie's character was extensively altered for the film. In May 1939, Hemingway sold the book rights to the
Hughes Tool Company, with whom Hawks had connections. Hawks bought the book rights in October 1943, then sold them to
Warner Bros. Pictures. Because the rights to the novel bounced between sellers, Hawks made ten times more money selling the rights than Hemingway did. On learning this, Hemingway reportedly refused to speak to Hawks for "three months". The screenplay for
To Have and Have Not loosely follows the novel's first four chapters, and a few names and personality traits remain, but otherwise the film bears little resemblance to Hemingway's novel.
Writing Howard Hawks recruited
Jules Furthman to work on the screenplay. Completed on October 12, 1943, the initial screenplay was 207 pages. It resembled the novel more than the final screenplay did. By the end of December, Furthman had completed a revised screenplay with sixty fewer pages. Hawks instructed Furthman to alter Marie's character to be more sultry and masculine like
Marlene Dietrich. In the previous version of the script, Bacall's purse was stolen; after the revision, Bacall's character stole the purse. Much of Bacall's character was based on Hawks's wife
Slim Keith. Some of her lines reportedly came directly from Keith. According to Keith, Furthman even suggested she ask for script credit. Hawks instructed Furthman to work on the final screenplay and stop writing the second version of the screenplay. The second version had Bacall as a minor character in case she proved to be poor for the role. Furthman worked on the screenplay throughout January and February 1944 and recruited Cleve F. Adams and Whitman Chambers to help him with the work. He completed it before February 14, 1944.
Joseph Breen read the script and cited three dozen instances that violated the
Production Code, citing that Morgan was portrayed as an unpunished murderer and the women as suggested prostitutes. He stated that the characters must be softened, the studio must remove all suggestions of inappropriate sexual relations between men and women, and that murder must be made clear to appear as self-defense. As the movie was filmed during
World War II, Hawks moved the setting from
Cuba to Vichy-controlled Martinique as required by the
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to placate the
Roosevelt administration. They objected to the unfavorable portrayal of Cuba's government as against the U.S. government's
"Good Neighbor" policy toward Latin American nations. Writer
William Faulkner was hired on by Hawks on February 22, 1944, to avoid recounting political conflict between Free France and the Vichy government in the story line and to satisfy the Production Code. It was reportedly Faulkner's idea to change the setting of the film to Martinique, because he had been working on an unproduced story line involving
Charles de Gaulle, so he was familiar with the details. Furthman stopped writing after Faulkner was brought on the project. Faulkner and Hemingway never met, but
To Have and Have Not is considered by Charles M. Oliver the best adaptation for film of Hemingway's novels. In order to satisfy the Production Code, Faulkner wrote that every character would sleep in the same hotel, but put Morgan and Marie's bedrooms across from each other to facilitate interactions between them as well as reducing Marie's drinking in the film. He also removed scenes in which Morgan appeared to be a murderer. Other additions included Marie becoming Morgan's sole romantic interest and Helen and her husband becoming fighters for the resistance. Finally, Faulkner made the time frame for the film three days instead of the many months depicted in the novel. Hawks intended to have the screenplay be loosely modeled on
Casablanca, which also starred Humphrey Bogart, hoping for the same success
Casablanca had met at the box office.
Filming Production began on February 29, 1944, with only 36 pages of the screenplay written, due to changes required by the Production Code office. Faulkner had very little time in between the rebuilding of sets to continue the screenplay, therefore, each scene was written three days before it was filmed. The final cast reading was done on March 6, 1944, with final script changes finished by April 22. Line by line, Hawks and Bogart changed the script to create a more sexual and comedic film. For example, the line "It's even better when you help" was not originally in the script and was added during filming. After 62 days, filming was completed May 10, 1944. Bogart and Hawks served as their own technical advisers because of their experience with fishing and sailing. After filming began, a romance developed between Bogart and Bacall, despite Hawks's disapproval. Bogart was married and 45 years old, more than twice Bacall's age. They kept their relationship a secret from Hawks. This romance eventually led to Bogart divorcing
Mayo Methot, his third wife. He and Bacall married a year after
To Have and Have Not and remained married until Bogart's death in 1957. The song "Baltimore Oriole" was intended to be Bacall's theme for the movie, but was merely added as background music on the soundtrack due to Bacall's vocal inexperience. Background music or nondiegetic music is minimal in the picture. However, the film score including the main title was composed by
Franz Waxman. One music cue, 7b, is credited to William Lava on the original cue sheet. William Lava was a music staffer at Warner Bros who regularly contributed additional cues. According to professor of film studies Ian Brookes, Howard Hawks uses jazz, particularly through interracial performance scenes, to underscore
anti-fascism in the story line of the film. A persistent myth is that a teenage
Andy Williams, the future singing star, dubbed the singing for Bacall. According to authoritative sources, including Hawks and Bacall, this was not true. Williams and some female singers were tested to dub for Bacall because of fears she lacked the necessary vocal skills. But those fears were overshadowed by the desire to have Bacall do her own singing (perhaps championed by Bogart) despite her less than perfect vocal talent. This myth is disputed in ''
Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide entry for this film, but is propagated in a 1986 episode of MacGyver'', entitled "
Three for the Road". Several sources on the film set have stated this myth is false. It has been argued that Bacall's low singing voice in the film helps her character establish a form of masculine dominance.
Cultural references In one scene, Marie says to Morgan, "I'm hard to get, Steve. All you have to do is ask me." This quote came from the earlier 1939 Hawks film
Only Angels Have Wings in which
Jean Arthur says to
Cary Grant, "I'm hard to get, Geoff. All you have to do is ask me." ==Release==