I was just waking up on Sunday morning when I usually watch film noir movies on Turner Classic Movies (TMC).
I caught The Breaking Point (1950) in the middle, so I wasn’t sure what I was watching. It had all the suspense and stern dialog that is common for noir films. Still I could not recognize it from hundreds of films I’ve seen. The lead actor, John Garfield, was very good but I haven’t seen him in many films with famous actors. Patricia Neal is in it and she is much younger than I have seen her before, in The Day the Earth Stood Still era.
I later checked out the DVD, located in the Regional History Reading Room, in order to watch it completely. There’s a section that describes Garfield and how, after the filming, he was accused of being a communist.
Garfield died blackballed and hidden from the public.
The biographer in the DVD tells the story of how John Garfield and the director, Michael Curtiz, adapted Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not. Hemingway’s style of common racist dialog always seemed to me to be accurate of the times. But in this story of Harry Morgan, they decided to make Harry’s helper a Black man. Harry treats him with respect and admiration as well as allowing their children to play and be together.
This Harry Morgan is a fatalist, “normal,” and morally pure to the core. He is a great father and husband. He is a war veteran and loved by the community.
I grew up where this movie is based. I spent my childhood in Newport Beach and Balboa Island. The penny arcade and Back Bay were all to familiar to me. I got to go out on the ocean in large boats all the way to San Diego. One of the adults had a World War II rifle and I got to see and hear it go off.
The film has a brutal ending but it has you rooting for Harry and everyone around him the entire movie. I’m sure Hemingway approved of this as I do and I suggest should give it a try.
