To Have and Have Not (film) and his girl (Bacall). Critics called the film a fast, witty romance with a plot as merely "an excuse for some good scenes." "Variety" cited the film's inferiority to "Casablanca" and other Warner Bros. melodramas, but acknowledged the film's success in its characterization. "Time" called the film a, "tinny romantic melodrama which millions of cinemaddicts have been waiting forever since "Casablanca". "New York Variety" was mixed about the film citing, "nifty productional accoutrements" with "too unsteady" of a story line. Other reviewers called it, "definitely swell entertainment", while others stated it was an delightful remake of "Casablanca". American film critic
Joan Barry (American actress) was not associated with "Shadows", but won Chaplin's favour for the part following an "excellent private reading." Indeed, Chaplin spoke highly of her acting abilities, as David Robinson captures in his biography, where he notes "Chaplin’s sincerity in believing that he could make Joan Barry into an actress…. [as] she had ‘all the qualities of a new Maude Adams’ and told his sons, ‘She has a quality, an ethereal something that’s truly marvelous…a talent as great as any I’ve seen in my whole life.” Other sources, including FBI case records and Chaplin autobiographical writings, indicate the young actress to have