To Have and Have Not (film) in 1945 was mixed yet often unflattering. Firstly, early publicity and much of the initial reaction to the film centered around Lauren Bacall, either praising her or criticizing her part in the film as merely as a gimmick for attention from the press. Other critics found the film to be betraying Hemingway's novel due to only the first fifteen minutes of the film bearing resemblance to the novel. Finally, Americans were preoccupied with World War II and had little interest in a hero (Bogart) whom consistently rejected commitment and whose only interest in France's cause was financial, to help himself
The Big Sleep (1946 film) on the restoration of the 1945 version. Film critic Walter Chaw writes of the DVD releases of "The Big Sleep" and "To Have and Have Not" (1944), "The fullscreen transfer of "The Big Sleep" is generally good but, again, not crystalline, though the grain that afflicts the earlier picture is blissfully absent. Shadow detail is strong—important given that "The Big Sleep" is oneiric—and while the brightness seems uneven, it's not enough to be terribly distracting. The DD 1.0 audio is just fine." A Blu-ray edition was released by Warner Bros. in 2015. It "includes the 1945 cut of the film