Long overshadowed by Howard Hawks’ flashy 1944 screen version, Michael Curtiz’s somber, restrained rendition of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not is closer in theme and spirit to the novel. It is also the American novelist’s favorite screen adaptation of any of his books. In the finest performance of his short career, John Garfield plays a down-on-his-luck former wartime naval officer who, in an act of desperation trying to provide for his struggling family, gets entangled in illicit trafficking. The noir cloak barely conceals what is essentially an affecting character study of a man coming to terms with the fact that his life didn’t turn out as he imagined. This is a story of post-war disillusionment – the squashed dreams of financial prosperity and familial bliss, and the taxing moral price of survival in the new America.

35mm print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Preservation funding provided by Warner Bros. in association with The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.