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By
NICK ZEGARAC
This is the film credited
with launching Lauren Bacall's movie career. Under
a personal and exclusive contract to director,
Howard Hawks -- who evidently hoped for a more
personal involvement with his young find -- Bacall
disappointed her mentor by falling for, and
eventually marrying, Bogart instead. In the film,
she plays Marie 'Slim' Browning, a pickpocket and
girl about town that crosses paths with Harry
Steve Morgan (Humphrey Bogart). He is a sea
captain in Martinique who is double crossed by his
most frequent fishing patron, Johnson (Walter
Sande). However, before Steve can collect on their
debt, Johnson is accidentally killed by a stray
bullet. But a financial reprieve comes by way of
nightclub owner and supporter of the resistance,
Frenchy (Marcel Dalio). If Steve can water taxi
Frenchy's freedom-fighting friends to safety his
pay off will be substantial.
Like most of Warner's adventure films of the
period, its not the story, so much as the
atmosphere that makes up the sum of this film --
though in this instance -- no less than literary
giant, Ernest Hemmingway, was responsible for the
framework on which the film's plot is based.
Again, Warner outdoes the competition when it
comes to remastering their catalogue of great
films for the DVD consumer. The gray scale is
outstanding and fine detail is rendered with
remarkable clarity. Blacks -- for the most part --
are black. The stock footage -- used during the
fishing trip sequence -- is obvious, riddled with
excessive grain and slightly out of focus rear
projection. However, that's to be expected. The
rest, as they say, is the stuff that dreams are
made of! The audio is MONO but cleaned up and very
well balanced.
Warner gives us a featurette that, although short,
covers a lot of ground regarding the film's
production. There's also a Warner Brothers cartoon
and the film's original theatrical trailer. |
