Once again, Humphrey Bogart is portraying a man who must face the reality of the rest of the world and forget about his own needs as he helps the French resistance in Martinique, controlled by the Nazis after the fall of Paris. With the help of a certain husky voiced blonde (Lauren Bacall) with a crack for every situation, Bogart does just that. This adaption of a Hemingway story was changed from the rum-running world of Cuba to the fishing world of Martinique. It is full of snap, crackle and pop, and plenty of humor from tipsy Walter Brennan in another fine performance filled with heart. Bogart and Bacall really know how to light up the screen and would do so in three other films. I watched three of their four pairings back to back, and there is no doubt; They have "it". Real life couples don't always sizzle on screen, but this one does, especially here as this is where they discovered each other. But this is about the story, not the real-life soon to be married couple, and it is fascinating to watch Bogart go from uninvolved boat captain to a political hero who finally decides to stick his neck out for someone. There is a nice camaraderie between Bacall and piano player Hoagy Carmichael. The scene of "Am I Blue?" is particularly memorable as Bacall steps into sing, the drummer with the brush slowly comes in, and Bogart takes notice. Dan Seymour is the slimy Nazi villain, while Dolores Moran is fine in a smaller part as the French woman Bogart is trying to get out of Martinique along with her resistance husband (Walter Molnar).
It took me a long time to get to see this film for the first time, and it was worth the wait. They showed equal spark in their subsequent films ("Dark Passage" and "Key Largo", which I had seen years before, were the other two I watched after this; I've seen "The Big Sleep" numerous times) but Bacall is at her freshest here. She is one of the few stars to be a lead in her film debut that actually had a long lasting career. It is obvious that there is a tiger under the kittenish way she plays the part, and we've had more than 60 years of her wonderful face on stage, screen and television. The fishing sequence at the beginning is a great way to start the story. This is a film worth watching once a year to recall the magic, a rarity in cinema today. While there may be the obvious comparisons to "Casablanca" (an exotic location, a friendly piano player, an anti-Nazi sentiment), the film holds up on its own.
It took me a long time to get to see this film for the first time, and it was worth the wait. They showed equal spark in their subsequent films ("Dark Passage" and "Key Largo", which I had seen years before, were the other two I watched after this; I've seen "The Big Sleep" numerous times) but Bacall is at her freshest here. She is one of the few stars to be a lead in her film debut that actually had a long lasting career. It is obvious that there is a tiger under the kittenish way she plays the part, and we've had more than 60 years of her wonderful face on stage, screen and television. The fishing sequence at the beginning is a great way to start the story. This is a film worth watching once a year to recall the magic, a rarity in cinema today. While there may be the obvious comparisons to "Casablanca" (an exotic location, a friendly piano player, an anti-Nazi sentiment), the film holds up on its own.