Closely Watched Trains

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

I occasionally write a post about a film my movie class watched and discussed at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. We recently saw Closely Watched Trains, a Czechoslovakian film which is a tragicomedy that received the Best Foreign Language Oscar of 1966. The story takes place in that country during the Nazi occupation. There is a sarcastic saying that fascist countries can make the trains run on time. The line may imply that the machinery of the state dehumanizes people. It follows that the compensation for the loss of freedom is not worth the sacrifice paid by the dominated citizens. The trains in this context also may be a reference to the shipping of Jews to concentration camps. The placement of the story in the past allowed the filmmakers to make hidden references to the oppression Czechoslovakia suffered under Russian rule.

The film centers on Milos Hrma (Vaclav Neckar), who comes from a family of lazy losers. His great grandfather was a soldier, but students hit him with a stone, and he retired early. Milos says, “he didn’t do anything after that except buying a bottle of rum and a pack of tobacco every day.” His train-driver father retired early and just sits around all day. Milos is an apprentice train dispatcher at a small station. He enjoys wearing his new uniform and when his cap is placed on his head, the image suggests a mock coronation, implying the grandness of the ceremony is only in Milos’s head.

The train dispatcher, Hubicka (Josef Somr), is a ladies’ man, apparently having had many sexual conquests. He exhorts Milos, a virgin, to pursue the conductor, Masa (Jitka Scoffin), who shows an interest in Milos. At her urging, they attempt to have sex, but the inexperienced and anxious Milos has a premature ejaculation and is unable to consummate the act. Milos is in such despair that he attempts suicide, but is rescued. As he is carried to a physician, Milos is naked except for a wrinkled sheet covering his lower body. The image resembles Michelangelo’s Pieta. Could this be a foreshadowing of the need to have an individual sacrifice for the good of the many?

The doctor tries to calm Milos down, telling him what he underwent was common, and to think about other topics so as not to climax so quickly. The class disagreed as to whether the tone of the film was inconsistent, taking a light-hearted view of sex and then combining it with the topic of Nazism and suicide. The film does not depict the brutality of the Nazis, which is consistent with its lighter approach, but it also downplays the repression that the Czechs were undergoing.

Hubicka charms the telegraphist, Zdenicka (Jitka Zelenohorska), into letting him use the station’s rubber stamps to place print marks on her thighs and buttocks. I wondered if this playful activity on the surface suggested its demonic opposite which was the tattooing of numbers on those interned in the concentration camps. At the least, it makes fun of the overemphasis on bureaucracy.

Zdenicka’s mother observes the print on her daughter’s body while the young woman is asleep, and is in an outrage. She ironically lifts the girl’s skirt to show just about anyone what an outrageous act was done, at the same time being even more outrageous by exposing her daughter’s behind. She takes Zdenicka to the pompous Zednicek (Vlastimil Brodski), the Councilor, who is a Nazi collaborator, who previously espoused Nazi propaganda. He is emotionless in listening to the mother’s complaints. The whole episode suggests an abandonment of valuing human feelings for efficient regimentation.

There were comments by members of the class that the movie seemed to be preoccupied with sex, and that women were portrayed as sex objects willing to satisfy the urges of the men. It could be that given the state of the country, sex was a diversion from the Nazi oppression. A resistance agent, Viktoria (Nada Urbankova), brings explosives to the train station to get the workers to blow up a German train carrying ammunitions. She is older than Milos and is successful in making him sexually efficient. Her character, as well as the other uninhibited women, show females awakening the latent masculinity of the males and empowering them to act.

After feeling that he is no longer a “flop” but is now “a real man,” Milos says, “I cut myself off from the past entirely.” He detaches himself from the failed men in his family and his own prior ineptitude. Milos takes the bomb with a timer and climbs a tower which spans the train tracks. When the Nazi train carrying ammunition passes under him, Milos drops the explosive onto it. But, he pays the price for his heroic action as a German soldier on the train shoots him. Milos falls onto the train. In Elizabethan times, death and sex were equated, since the sexual climax in poetry was depicted as a sort of bodily release.

After the train travels away, there are several detonations, and the train is destroyed. The explosions could be seen as an orgasmic eruption against repression. The blast blows Milos’s cap near Masa’s feet. Because he has redeemed his family, fellow workers, and himself, the head covering can now truly be seen as a crown of distinction.

The next film is Wall Street.

Stalag 17

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Who can you trust? What’s real, and what only appears to be true? When is deception necessary, and when is it a tool used to harm others? Billy Wilder’s 1953 dramatic film with comic elements explores these questions.

The opening shot of the movie establishes a feeling of menace as the camera looks upward at a guard with his dog walking  along a fence, making the two seem larger than real life, and thus very threatening. The camera exaggerates the appearance, but the point is to emphasize the real danger they represent. There is a voiceover, which is delivered by Clarence Harvey Cook (Gil Stratton), known as “Cookie.” He is the occasional narrator, telling a war story after the conflict is over. His opening remarks point to how the depiction of wars in the movies is a deception, only part of the truth. They show “flying leathernecks, and submarine patrols and frogmen and guerillas in the Philippines. What gets me is there never w-was a movie about POW’s.” Cookie stutters, which shows the impact of war on soldiers, the non-heroic side which up to the time of the making of this motion picture was not often explored (The Best Years of Our Lives being a notable exception). This story focuses on prisoners-of-war. It may not show the horrors as were inflicted on those captured in the Pacific, but it does attempt to round out the picture to present a more complete view of what was happening in World War II. For instance, one of the prisoners, Joey (Robinson Stone), has psychological damage due to his brutal war experiences which have caused him to be catatonic.

Cookie lets us know right away that the war story he is telling has to do with a spy in his barracks in the German prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag 17, which consisted of Air Force sergeants. So, not only do the soldiers have to deal with the obvious, overt danger imposed by their captors, but they realize that there is an unseen, hidden threat within their group. They start to smell the rat among them when the Germans thwart all of their plans involving escape and other military activity. The first indication of a traitor among them occurs when guards are already staked out near the forest close to the camp, and shoot two hopeful prisoners after weeks of planning to escape. The soldiers are also deceptive, pretending a radio antenna is a volleyball net, and hiding a radio and later a smoke bomb in the empty pants leg of a prisoner who suffered an amputation due to a war injury. The radio is hidden in a bucket of water with a false bottom, another example of a deceptive appearance. But the Americans are the ones suffering under the oppressive rule of the Commandant (Otto Preminger), and his lackey, Sergeant Schulz (Sig Ruman). And, they are on the side fighting against Nazi atrocities. So, one can argue that subterfuge can be justified if the cause is a just one.

However, there is a prisoner who is not part of any ruses (at least not until the end of the tale). That person is Sefton (William Holden, in the role that won him an Oscar). He is not a likable fellow, as we can see when he takes bets against his wager that the two escaping prisoners won’t make it out of the forest. The other soldiers comment on his coldness, with Harry (Harvey Lembeck) saying Sefton would “make book on his own mother getting hit by a truck.” He is down on any attempts at escape, not liking the odds, which weigh more heavily with him than unreliable patriotism. He cynically says that even if one gets to escape, the Air Force will just put the soldier back in the fight, and then maybe get captured by the Japanese. He acquires food, alcohol, and cigarettes by conducting races involving mice, and making and selling alcohol made from potatoes (this activity shows up in The Great Escape). He uses the goods he acquires to deal with the Germans so he can wait out the war as comfortably as possible. The narrator Cookie is his assistant, helps him with his operations, and even acts like a servant, shaving Sefton. When some judge his attitude, he says in the first week after arriving in the camp somebody stole all the goods in his Red Cross package. He says, “This is everybody for himself, dog eat dog.” He says everybody trades, only his transactions are a little “sharper.” But, when he says that the negative remarks from the others made him lose his appetite, he generously gives the egg he cooked to the afflicted Joey, indicating that there may be a warm spot in him yet.

The man who takes care of security in the barracks is Price (Peter Graves). He says he can’t understand how the Germans knew about the attempted escape. The Commandant coldly displays the bodies of the two men in front of the soldiers to emphasize his order that anyone out after curfew will be shot. One of the prisoners throws Joe’s flute which splashes mud onto the Commandant. When he asks who did it, one steps forward, immediately followed by the others, which undermines Sefton’s statement about selfishness (and which is repeated in the movie Spartacus). The Commandant says the stove covering the escape tunnel (another story device in The Great Escape) will be removed and the tunnel filled in. The hiding of the escape route is another item on the list of appearances being deceiving. The barracks will not have heat as a punishment. Price also questions how the Germans knew about the tunnel. Because Sefton deals with their captors, the suspicion grows among the prisoners that Sefton may be trading secrets for his own gain. One prisoner who is especially hostile toward Sefton is Duke (Neville Brand). When Duke throws something at Sefton, which the latter dodges, Sefton gives a cool and funny response when he says, “Give that man a Kewpie doll.” The line conjures up an escape from what is real in the form of a circus show, where performers play roles that are not their true selves.

Even in the comic subplots, the movie furthers the theme of appearances hiding underlying truth. Harry’s best friend in the barracks is the deep-voiced Animal (Robert Strauss). He has an extreme crush on the sexy actress Betty Grable. One night at a pre-Christmas party, the men dance with other men (defying reality by pretending their partners are women, to give them a comforting illusion). Harry puts on a cap and stuffs straw under it, giving (again) the appearance of a woman, who the inebriated Animal mistakes for Betty Grable. When Animal discovers that it is an illusion, harsh reality crashes in on him, showing that sometimes the ignorance of the truth is more attractive than accuracy (The Matrix anyone?) Another example of the bliss of denial is illustrated when a prisoner gets a letter from his girl back home. She writes that she found a child on her doorstep, and took it in. She writes to the soldier that he’s not going to believe it, but the baby looks just like her. He keeps repeating, “I believe it,” not wanting to accept the real possibility that she was impregnated by someone else. A new arrival is an impressionist, and can do very good impersonations of Clark Gable, James Cagney, and Cary Grant. It is a bit of entertainment placed in the story, but even here we see the theme of how we sometimes buy into falsehood for escapist purposes. Harry receives a great deal of mail, and tries to fool Animal into thinking the letters are all from female conquests. He wants to foster the appearance that he is a great lover, but Animal discovers that the communications are from a company warning of repossession of Harry’s car for delinquent payments. The attractiveness of pretending instead of seeing the things the way they are is demonstrated by the men looking through a make-shift telescope (another of Sefton’s schemes) to watch Russian female prisoners go into a shower. They can’t really see anything through the cloudy windows, but they find joy in their imaginations. Perhaps writer/director Wilder is making a comment about the power of illusion, which is the province of movie-making.

The film presents devious ways in which the Germans distort how others perceive them. One prisoner’s letter states that those at home are making more sacrifices than the POW’s, because the soldiers have nice accommodations, which include ice skating rinks. The German propaganda machine has perpetuated this lie. And, the Germans clean up the stalag and issue warm blankets temporarily, along with better food, while the inspector representing the Geneva Convention visits to check on the prisoners’ situation. The men don’t dare complain, because they know that the Commandant will punish them, so they participate in the lie to protect themselves.

We see how Schulz empties the barracks for various phony reasons, including deviously pretending that there are air raids and wanting to protect the prisoners. He creates these deceptions in order to retrieve the information the spy places in a hollowed out chess queen piece (the piece hiding its true purpose with a benign exterior). The inclusion of the board game in the story symbolizes the larger game that is being played, using the prisoners as pawns in the deceptive strategy to extract information and report it to the Commandant (who by the way is even devious with his superiors, pretending to adhere to strict military protocol, only putting on boots to be heard clicking when he is on the phone with headquarters). Schulz ties the light wire in a loop above the chess board to indicate that there is a communication waiting for the informer, and straightens it out when he has received information.

An American lieutenant, Dunbar (Don Taylor), arrives at the camp. He blew up a German ammunitions train. Sefton has a grudge against him, because Dunbar comes from a very rich family, and he claims that Dunbar’s mother bought his promotion, while Sefton, who was in the same outfit, failed to make the cut. The Germans discover the radio, and Dunbar is held for questioning without sleep, after he spoke about the train incident in the barracks. The men discover that Sefton traded with the Germans so he could spend some time with the Russian women. The prisoners assume Sefton acquired this last favor by giving up the radio and Dunbar. They beat up Sefton and confiscate his foot locker of contraband. The audience now sees Price eyeing the loop in the light wire. While the others sing together, he takes the chess piece and straightens out the wire, whose shadow Sefton sees dangling. Price finds out how Dunbar blew up the train while playing another game, horseshoes (with the game motif repeated), and when he scores, it is noted that he threw a ringer, which is what he is, someone who wins by pretending to be someone he is not.

Sefton also notices that the wire is sometimes tied into a loop. He now also engages in deception, pretending to exit the barracks during a supposed air raid. He hides, and sees Price talking in German with Schulz about how Dunbar set off his explosion. The men, using that aforementioned smoke bomb, snatch Dunbar before the SS can take him away. The barracks leader, Hoffy (Richard Erman) hides him in the water tower, but tells no one about it. They are desperate to get Dunbar out of the camp. Price volunteers, and it is now that Sefton reveals to the men that he is the spy. He removes the hollowed out chess piece from Price’s pocket, and when asked what time was the attack on Pearl Harbor, Price unthinkingly provides the time it occurred in Berlin. It is with the characters of Sefton and Price that the movie most significantly presents its theme of how appearances can be deceiving. Sefton is cynical, selfish, a loner, who has mussed up hair and scruffy beard growth, but he is no traitor. However, the men make that assumption based on factors unrelated to patriotism. Duke, his angriest enemy, has to concede that they really read him wrong. Price is “Security,” the one voted to keep them safe. He is a handsome, clean-cut looking man (maybe the blond Aryan appearance should have been a red flag), who ironically is not there to defend them, but is an infiltrator, a German pretending to be an American and a protector.

Sefton now sees the odds in his favor as he continues to use deception in the form of a diversion. The plan is to tie cans to Price’s leg, and gag him until after curfew. Then, the men will throw him out into the compound. During the commotion, Sefton will rescue Dunbar and they will escape. The plan works. Price is killed, appearing to be an escaping prisoner, and so, he will not be able to be used again to spy on other Americans. Sefton gets Dunbar out. Before he leaves the barracks, Sefton tells the others, in character, that if ever runs “into any of you bums on a street corner, just let’s pretend we never met before.” But, he pops up out of the hole under the barracks, smiles, and salutes them all.” Is he really not as hard-boiled as he pretends, and actually has admiration for his fellow soldiers? Or, is he being sarcastic? I know we would like to believe the former.

Whether it is to do harm, to defend ourselves and others, or to just make life more bearable, deception is a human means used in all aspects of life.

The next film is Dolores Claiborne.

To Have and Have Not

SPOILER ALERT! The plot of the movie will be discussed.

Forget about the fact that this story is based on a novel by one Noble Prize winner (Ernest Hemingway), and adapted, in part, by another (William Faulkner). This film works because of its stars. Is there anybody in Hollywood history who is cooler than Humphrey Bogart, or sexier than Lauren Bacall are here? The highlights of this motion picture are the scenes between these two, crackling with good dialogue, which reveals the connection between them.

Hoard Hawks directed this 1944 work, and contributed to its final screenplay, which includes improvisations from the actors, according to IMDB. Yes, it does seem to be derivative, echoing character and plot elements from Casablanca. Instead of the Cuba of Hemingway’s book, the film is set on the island of Martinique in 1940, mirroring the conflict between the “Free French” and Vichy French German collaborators. (Also, the “haves” and “have nots” of the title indicating class struggle in the novel are not part of the screenplay). The opening scene has Harry Morgan, (Bogart), requesting a temporary permit to do charter fishing. He is told that there are new restrictions. We are immediately introduced to the Nazi influence gripping the world, even on this Caribbean island. Martinique is sort of the Casablanca of the tale, where the American, Harry (a type of Rick), does his business, trying to stay neutral, as is the United States, at the dawn of World War II.

 The atmosphere has turned to one of mistrust, exemplified by the man Johnson (Walter Sande), who hires Harry to take him fishing. He tries to con Harry out of the money he owes him by saying that he must go to the bank in the morning to get funds. Harry later finds out Johnson has more than enough cash and travelers checks on him to pay his debt, and bought a plane ticket to skip out on Harry. The feeling of encroaching repression presents itself when Vichy sympathizers follow and question Harry and Johnson when they suspect that one of them made an anti-Vichy remark. The story even tempers the comic relief, provided by Harry’s shipmate, Eddie (Walter Brennan), with the fact that the man is an alcoholic, constantly asking Harry for money for another drink, and whom Harry worries will inadvertently betray him.

Harry shows his desire not to get involved in the politics of the time (like Casablanca’s Rick) when he refuses to help Gerard, (also known as Frenchy) (Marcel Dalio), with the Free French movement by using his boat to transport rebel sympathizers. Harry stays at the bar/hotel that Frenchy owns, and a young woman named Marie (Bacall), who has rented the room across from Harry, shows up while Frenchy and Harry are talking. She asks, in her breathy way, for a match for a smoke, and that there is heat between these two is quickly evident in the looks they exchange. Later in the bar downstairs, they again exchange meaningful glances. Marie, however, is also a scammer. She cozies up to Johnson, and Harry sees that she has lifted his wallet. (But, not too cozy, as she pulls away from the man when he touches her arm, which offsets how she is warming up to Harry). When he confronts her with her theft, he finds out about the lucrative and duplicitous contents of Johnson’s wallet. He demonstrates his roguish wit when he says he doesn’t have anything against her stealing, just not from someone who owes him money. When he returns the wallet in a confrontation with Johnson, he says that the liar should give a receipt to the stealing Slim, to show she brought it back. This joke elicits a smile from Slim, who now reciprocates by lighting Harry’s cigarette, solidifying the use of the “heat” metaphor for the passion between them.

Their bonding continues when she meets Eddie. The shipmate asks a question “was you ever bit by a dead bee?” When he continues by saying that he was bitten by dead bees, she says why didn’t he bite them back. Eddie then says that is what Harry always says; thus, the implication is that Slim and Harry are made for each other. But, the “dead bee” line crops up other times. Slim takes it up when she asks the Vichy Gestapo man if he ever was bit by a dead bee. Eddie asks it of the local secret policeman, Captain Renard (Dan Seymour), but Harry interrupts the question, not wanting any rapport established with the Vichy authorities. However, Harry later refers to Renard as having “bee’s lips.” Eddie’s question works as a kind of test to see if a person qualifies as a friend. The “bee” represents hidden danger to the point that it can harm one even after the threat seems to be gone. If one answers correctly, that person can be trusted. So, toward the end of the film, Eddie, in and out of drunken states, asks Slim about the biting dead bee again, and because she gives the right response, she is welcomed once more into Harry’s and Eddie’s confidence.

It is interesting that Harry calls Marie “Slim” throughout the movie, and she refers to him as “Steve” (because, according to IMDB, “stevedores” work on docks). And, Harry addresses Gerard as “Frenchy.” These may be endearing nicknames. However, this practice may also indicate an inability to know anyone too well in the suspicious times in which the movie is set. Also, it can hint at not really wanting to reveal who one really is when it is difficult to know whom to trust. (Marie comically tells Harry that she might object to being called “Slim” because she is too skinny to not take offense at the nickname, thus revealing, by calling herself “skinny,” that the nickname doesn’t bother her at all).

At the time, the two confront Johnson about his lying ways, the cheater is shot in the crossfire between the authorities and the Free French. Harry’s self-centered nature is evident because he is disappointed that Johnson died before signing over the travelers’ checks. He cynically says that Johnson signed checks as slowly as he ducked bullets. Frenchy, Harry, and Slim are brought in for questioning since they were observed in the company of the Free French men. The authorities take the cash Harry took from Johnson’s wallet as part of what the man owed for the fishing charter, and confiscate Harry’s passport. Injustice is taking hold here, as is intimidation. One of the policemen slaps Slim for a wisecrack, and Renard asks Harry where his loyalties lie. Harry shows his current neutrality by answering, “minding my own business.” Renard then falsely assures Harry that the new Vichy government is peaceful and just, and slanderously compares it to America.

In the meantime, Harry and Slim get to know each other in a roundabout way, reflecting the suspicious environment around them. They go to a bar, and, since they don’t have any money, she goes off to use her feminine ways to get some liquor. He tells her he’ll go back to the hotel, but does not reveal that he is actually becoming jealous of her using other men. When she returns with a bottle of booze, she senses that he is “sore,” and she gets angry because he makes assumptions about her life, running off at a young age (she’s supposed to be twenty-two, but Bacall was really nineteen), and wandering from place to place. He tells her that she must have had a life of hard knocks, since she didn’t even flinch when the policeman slapped her. When he asks her how long she has been on the run, her first response is to say it’s none of his business, and to act tough. But, she seems to want more here, and becomes honest, telling Harry that she has been away from home for six months. She says with him, she feels cheap, which is not what she is used to, and exhibits vulnerability, and hope, when she hints that she had thought things would be different with Harry. First, they connected through looks, now he smells her perfume, and then he touches her face, as their bond deepens through the senses.

 He almost switches to being paternally protective when he says he will get her back home, because she says she would walk there if she could, except for all of the “water.” She realizes he will get the money to help her by aiding the Free French. She now becomes protective, urging him not to do anything dangerous. His default position is one of security through secrecy, so he hides his growing feelings for her by saying he isn’t going to get involved for her, but because he needs the money. She then pulls out some cash, after saying she was broke, and wants to give it to him. So, she wasn’t being totally honest, and he acknowledges her sneaky ways by saying, “You’re good. You’re awfully good.” She tempers her deception by saying she always keeps a little money (only $30) handy as a buffer of protection against those who want to take advantage of her. But, she is honestly offering him some cash so he won’t be reckless. She then turns the tables on him, showing she can read him, too. She wants to know who was the woman in his past that jilted him, and made him so suspicious. Her intentions become more overt, as she sits in his lap and kisses Harry. Keeping their cool exterior, even at a time of passion, he asks why did she do that, and she says she was wondering what it would be like. She kisses him again because she wasn’t sure yet what she thought of it. After the second kiss, she tells him, “It’s even better when you help.”

The film’s famous lines (actually written by director Hawks) are significant. Slim wants Harry to know that they can fearlessly communicate honestly. She tells him, “You know, you don’t have to act with me, Steve.” She wants to break down defensive facades. Their connection is so strong, they can show their feelings without the worry of misleading words getting in the way. She says to him, “You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing. Or, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together, and … blow.” No need to explain the intensity of what is going on between these two.

Harry again asserts that he is not on the side of the Free French, and only will help them for a payment. But, he does show his sympathy for them when he aids one of their wounded. His toughness is again tempered when he gives Slim a ticket to get off the island to escape any danger that might come her way through his actions. (She refuses to leave, though, and Harry is actually glad she stayed. Frenchy offered her a job singing in the bar.) He also tries to stop Eddie from going along on the job, but he becomes a stowaway. Harry must transport Paul de Bursac (Walter Molnar), and his attractive wife, Helene (Dolores Moran). There is a dense fog on the sea. It adds to the suspense, but it is also symbolic of the perilous times. When one can’t see clearly, it is difficult to determine where the enemy lurks. In a confrontation with a patrol boat, Paul, acting recklessly, is wounded. Harry transfers him onto a smaller boat, but his wounds require him to return to Martinique, where, by necessity, he is placed in Frenchy’s basement. 

The relationship between Paul and Helene, in one sense, mirrors that of Harry and Slim, but in another, contrasts with it. Harry has familiarity with gunshot wounds, and offers to treat Paul. Because of the frightening world in which she lives, Helene is mistrustful of Harry, and initially refuses treatment. After she relents, she pretends to be tough, but passes out when Harry removes the bullet from Paul’s arm. Slim takes over, and she, in contrast, shows no such squeamishness. Afterwards, Helene admits her crippling fear, and how that apprehension spread to, and weakened her husband. Slim’s strength shows that she would be no such drain on Harry. Harry soothes Helene’s guilt by assuring her that being afraid is a pervasive response. Because of his comforting manner, Helene now, just as did Slim, begins to let down her guard and is able to trust, even to the point to have Harry hold onto her jewelry so it won’t fall into enemy hands. After Paul recovers, he admits to the contrast between the coolly confidant Harry and his less competent self. But, he has a mission to free a prisoner from Devil’s Island, a charismatic leader (similar to Casablanca’s Victor Laszlo). He shows his courage, and that of the Resistance, which Harry respects, when Paul says that the enemy isn’t counting on the fact that, if one person fails, “there will always be someone else” to take up the fight. He tells Harry that even though it is not yet his war, he hopes that “someday it will be.” This statement certainly resonates with the urging in Casablanca for America to abandon its isolationism and join the battle against Nazi Germany. Harry is actually already onboard, even if he hasn’t announced it, as he refused Frenchy’s offer to liquidate his room bill for treating Paul, and did so for free. Helene and Paul may not have the personality tools of Harry and Slim, but they have a purpose bigger than themselves, and that commitment wins over Harry and Slim (as it did Rick in Casablanca.)

It is now Slim’s turn to exhibit jealousy. Helene does come on to Harry, and Slim hears her say to him that nothing he ever would say would make her angry. Slim was bringing down breakfast and says the eggs may be a little too hard-boiled, to which Helene responds that she likes them that way. This exchange may refer to the type of man Harry is, with Slim trying to tell Helene that Harry may be too much man for her, but Helene saying she is up for it. Back at the hotel, Slim offers to take off Harry’s shoes, make him breakfast, and draw him a hot bath. He says he can do these things himself, and all he wants is some solitary sleep. He tells her to take a walk around him. She catches on fast, saying she understands that there are no strings attached to him, impairing his freedom. She kisses him, and uses her seductive leverage by placing a condition for further romance that would require him to shave. After he has done that, she says, “we’ll see how that goes.” When Frenchy shows up for some help with Eddie, Harry’s funny line is he has “to shave,” which implies he’s readying himself for sex.

Harry has had it with the deterioration of the situation on Martinique and wants to leave with Eddie and Slim. However, Renard and two of his men show up. They threaten to put Eddie through painful alcohol withdrawal unless Harry tells them where Paul is. Harry gets to a gun in a desk drawer, shoots one of the men, and then handcuffs the other one and Renard. He beats Renard until the man secures free passage for his boat to leave. Harry also says he will help Paul free the prisoner on Devil’s Island. When Frenchy asks why he changed his mind, Harry jokingly says that maybe it’s because he likes Frenchy, or doesn’t like the collaborating French. In any event, he has joined the Resistance.

The ending is a bit underwhelming, as Slim sort of dances out of the bar/hotel with Harry. According to IMDB, Hawks was to have a shootout on the boat, but couldn’t fit it into the film. So, he gave the sequence to John Huston, who put it to good use at the end of another Bogey/Bacall film, Key Largo. But, at the end of this movie, piano player Cricket (Hoagy Carmichael) asks Slim if she is happy. She answers, “What do you think?” I think we can agree, in the film and in real life, that they lived happily ever after.

The next post will be a shorter, focused analysis of Manchester by the Sea.