Rio Bravo - VS - To Have and Have Not

One of my all-time favorite movies is “Rio Bravo”. I just watched “To Have and Have Not” for the first time and I was struck by two lines of dialogue that seemed strangely familiar. In “To Have”, Lauren Bacall kisses Humphrey Bogart once and then again and after the second time she says, “It’s even better when you help.” In “Rio Bravo” Angie Dickinson kisses John Wayne once and then again and after the second time says, “It’s better when two people do it”. Later in “To Have” Lauren Bacall says, “I'm hard to get, Steve. All you have to do is ask me.” At the end of “Rio Bravo” Angie Dickinson says, “I’m hard to get, John T. You have to say you want me.” Even their characters are similar, a mysterious traveler with shady skills (one’s a pickpocket, the other a gambler). They are even the same age, 22. There are other similarities as well. In each movie a young yet worldly woman becomes involved with a much older man who never calls her by her name (in “To Have” Humphrey Bogart calls her Slim instead of Marie; in “Rio Bravo” Angie Dickinson’s character isn’t even given a name, just referred to as “Feathers” or “The Girl”); in each the leading man arranges for her to get out of town, then comes back from somewhere to find she didn’t go; in each she gets a job at the local saloon where the leading man lives and hangs out. I knew both of these movies were directed by Howard Hawks, but didn’t know if that would completely account for the similarities. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when I found out that both movies were written by the same man, Jules Furthman, fifteen years apart. Before now, I don’t think I’ve come across a screenwriter who borrowed so heavily from himself to write a movie that wasn’t a sequel or a remake of the original.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.