The Breaking Point

(USA, 1950, 97 mins)

Producer: Jerry Wald
Screenwriter: Ranald MacDougall
Cinematographer: Ted McCord
Editors: Alan Crosland, Jr.
Music: Howard Jackson, Max Steiner
Cast: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford

An adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not — and one that’s more faithful to the novel that the classic Bogart and Bacall film that actually bears that name — The Breaking Point reunites director Michael Curtiz with star John Garfield, who plays a down on his luck charter boat captain who falls in with a shady lawyer and his disreputable clients.

With its nuanced script and excellent performances by Garfield and his cast mates, including Patricia Neal as a hardened party girl and pioneering African-American actor Juano Hernández as Garfield’s friend and partner, this little-seen classic goes beyond the usual film noir trappings to deliver a poignancy that still has impact today.

Preservation funding provided by Warner Bros. in association with The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

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