rip off

While there are some, and I mean no more than some, parallels between To Have and Have Not and Casablanca, they are essentially different films in too many respects to be anywhere near a rip off.

First, let's talk about the admitted similarities:

Vichy France. Neither take place within France (other than the obvious early part of Casablanca - does this not make it different right there from THAHN? Heh), but both concededly are located in French colonies controlled by the Vichy. I think the parallels were more for political reasons than ripping off a story. The political reasons were that Hollywood in service of the Allied cause in WWII wanted to address directly the ambiguity of Vichy, by suggesting, in showing this to be the "case" cinematically, that those Frenchpeople who opposed Vichy were the good guys, and it was just a few either bad guys are good guys who had not yet seen the light who supported Vichy. But the locales of Casablanca and Martinique were quite different, with the later having a very nautical feel totally absent from the former, with the former having a desert, Middle Eastern feel totally absent from the latter.

The freedom fighting couple. In To Have and Have Not the couple never fall into the hands of the bad guys, while in Casablanca they are not free to leave, in effect in the control of the bad guys. But most importantly the Delores Moran character (she was totally gorgeous, btw!) is NOT the love interest of the male lead (although if Slim were not in the picture, who knows!). Need I also point out the couple in To Have and Have Not were French, while in Casablanca...? We also see the French couple actually take part in some action, unlike Casablanca. In short, about the only thing that is really parallel is that they are a couple and are good guys.

And who was Rick's flawed sidekick in Casablanca, paralleling Eddie in To Have and Have Not? I don't get that one.

The use of a bar/restaurant as a venue in the film is hardly a ripoff. That is a huge stretch. As if no one had done that before Casablanca... I think the parallel is more about how music was able to sneak its way in by using these sets. So?

Meanwhile, there are obvious huge differences.

Ilsa was the love interest of Rick while also the wife in the couple. Slim was unattached.

While both Ilsa and Slim had inner strength and determination, that hardly makes their parallels a ripoff. How often do we see films where the female lead is both weak and wants nothing? Please. In any event their characters are quite different. Ilsa is the sophisticated Continental, Slim the tough if somewhat vulnerable American. Ilsa is charming in a demure sort of way, while Slim is much more aggressive, and challenging.

Victor and Ilsa essentially had to leave Casablanca in order to in effect pursue Victor's destiny. Steve and Slim left because they'd worn out their welcome in Martinique. Where they are going next and what they are going to do is presumably no more complex than being together. Perhaps not as inspiring, but hardly equivalent.

While Steve does get around to helping the good guys, it is more to help out Frenchy and because he is without money to help Slim than it is giving over the transfer papers out of love for Ilsa, as it was for Rick. Yes, in both cases he ends up acting on his sympathy for the Allied cause, and love was a motive in both. So? Those make it a ripoff? The differences once again are greater than the parallels.

Bogart's character. By the time Bogart gets to Casablanca, he is embittered by Ilsa's disappearance, and this motivates his cynicism. Steve has no parallel story. What cynicism he has is motivated by a general view of human nature. That and his "client" not paying for the fishing trips. Hardly a parallel. Steve is also envigorated by his relationship with Slim. While Rick is happy in Paris with Ilsa, by the time he gets to Casablanca and meets her again, he is tortured by his feelings for her. Totally different. Different character. I suppose there can be said to be a similarity that both have a general veneer of toughness hiding a romantic figure within. But that is true of many male leads (such as John Wayne in nearly every film, and Bogart in many as well, such as The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and others).

Nope. Not a ripoff.