To Have and Have Not (film) James Agee liked the film but felt "Going My Way" was better, because "To Have and Have Not" focused too much on "character and atmosphere" rather than on plot. Agee was far more interested in Bacall's performance than the anti-Fascist themes in the film. The film was one of the top thirty grossing pictures of 1944. According to Warner Bros records the film earned $3,652,000 domestically and $1,605,000 foreign, coming close to the high earnings of "Casablanca". "To Have and Have Not" received an award from the National Board of Review. Screenwriter and film critic Paul Schrader classified the film
To Have and Have Not (film) as noir, made during the first or "wartime" period of film noir. Some other scholars categorize the film as noir, while some don't believe Howard Hawks ever made a true "noir". The names of the characters in "To Have and Have Not" are directly related to the quality of the characters. Characters which are meant to elicit sympathy from the viewer are known by their nicknames: Steve, Slim, Eddie, Frenchy, and Cricket. In this way, Hawks creates the illusion of a character by devoiding it of past and present social roles that may be associated with a surname. Villains or