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
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