The Breaking Point

This second of three big-screen adaptations of Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel To Have and Have Not stars John Garfield as Harry Morgan—the role first played by Humphrey Bogart. While this 1950 version is more faithful than the Bogart film, it still takes liberties with the story. Morgan is a husband and father of two young girls in a Southern California coastal town, a war veteran struggling to succeed with a charter fishing boat business. When his latest client skips without paying his bill, Morgan takes an illegal job to get his boat back home from Mexico. Patricia Neal costars as Leona Charles, a flirtatious and sassy party girl who tries to seduce Morgan; Phyllis Thaxter is his loyal but worried wife; and Juano Hernández is his partner on the charter boat, serving as a moral voice who tries to keep Morgan from engaging in criminal jobs. What sets this film apart from other adaptations is the focus on Morgan's domestic life and the stress of economic anxieties. Garfield makes those issues the core of his character, a man frustrated that his dream is crumbling and feeling guilty over not being able to provide for his family, which leads to his emotional withdrawal from his wife. Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) effectively draws viewers into Morgan's family life while also underscoring the human costs of his actions. Handsomely restored, this Criterion release features extras including new interviews with Curtiz biographer Alan K. Rode and Garfield's daughter Julie Garfield, a video essay analyzing Curtiz's methods, a 1962 Today show excerpt on Hemingway's Florida home, and a booklet with an essay by film critic Stephanie Zacharek. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)