To Have and Have Not (film) became upset with Hawks. This caused an argument between Hawks and Bogart, stunting production for two weeks. Bogart recognized his power and used negotiation to his advantage. After negotiating with Warner, Bogart received an extra $33,000 salary, as long as Bogart promised to no longer stall production. In her autobiography, Lauren Bacall described what she called Hawks's "brilliantly creative work method" on set. She described that every morning on set, Hawks would sit with Bacall, Bogart, and whoever else was in the scene in chairs in a circle as a script girl read the scene. After reading through the scene,
To Have and Have Not Key West and Cuba in the 1930s, and provides a social commentary on that time and place. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers describes the novel as heavily influenced by the Marxist ideology Hemingway was exposed to by his support of the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War while he was writing it. The work got a mixed critical reception. The novel had its origins in two short stories published earlier in periodicals by Hemingway ("One Trip Across" and "The Tradesman's Return") which make up the opening chapters, and a novella, written later, which makes up about two-thirds of the book.