To Have and Have Not (1944)

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100 min – rated G – view video trailer

Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan

Genres: Adventure, Romance, Thriller

IMDB 8.0 / Amazon 4.5 / Decent Films B+

Oscars: none

Ranked #135 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

Expatriate American Harry Morgan helps to transport a Free French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sexy lounge singer. IMDB rating: 8.0 from over 15,082 users

It strongly resembles Casablanca: French resistance fighters, a piano-playing bluesman (Hoagy Carmichael) and a Martinique bar much like Rick’s Cafe Americaine. But first and foremost, it showcases Bogart and Bacall, carrying on with a passion that smolders from the tips of their cigarettes clear through to their souls. Amazon 4.5 stars from over 117 users

To Have and Have Not, Howard Hawks’s more or less in-name-only adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s “worst novel,” has more in common with Casablanca (including nearly half a dozen players) than with its ostensible source material. Its real claim to fame, though, is the first pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who appeared together in only three other films but remained ever after linked off the screen. Read full Decent Films review: rated B+, Well Made artistic-entertainment for Teens & Up

MRQE – over 27 review links

Madison Public Library

Double Indemnity (1944)

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107 min – view video trailer

Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Robinson

Genres: Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

IMDB 8.5 / Amazon 4.7 / MRQE 91% / Zagat 28

Oscars: nominated for 7, won 0 (Best Picture, Actress, Director, Cinematography, Music, Sound, Writing)

Ranked #29 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie, included in 19 of 37 greatest movie lists

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator’s suspicions. IMDB 8.5 rating from over 52,595 users

Zagat summary snippet: The story of another dumb cluck done in by a woman, it features a fast-talking MacMurray, knockout Stanwyck (love the anklet) and fantastic Robinson, with plenty of plot twists. Best scene: shopping at the supermarket. Zagat Ratings: Overall 28 / Acting 27 / Story 28 / Production 25 / Total 108

As the would-be lovers plot the unsuspecting husband’s murder, they are pursued by a suspicious claims manager (Edward G. Robinson). It’s a race against time to get away with the perfect crime in this heart-racing Academy Award-nominated masterpiece. Amazon 4.7 stars from over 187 users

MRQE 91% rating with over 67 reviews linked

Madison Public Library