He's abrasive, truculent and dangerous, but Garfield is also mesmerising in this powerful film.
Based on a novel by Ernest Hemmingway, the story is about WW2 veteran Harry Morgan (John Garfield) who runs a charter fishing boat business that is sinking financially. The lack of money impacts on his long-suffering wife, Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter), and his friend Wesley Park (Juano Hernández).
When he is ripped-off by a client in Mexico, Harry becomes involved with shady deals involving using his boat for people smuggling and eventually rescuing gangsters. Along the way, his loyalty to Lucy is tested when he meets party girl Leona Charles (Patricia Neal). Everything comes to a head in a battle on the boat, but the ending is a tough one with a particularly poignant last scene.
I only saw this film recently when it turned up on TCM. I thought it must have some connection to Huston's "Key Largo" because both have a very similar shootout on a fishing boat at the end. However, the only connection is that Huston probably pinched the ending from Hemingway's novel – "Key Largo" is actually based on a play by Maxwell Anderson. Later I realised that I had indeed seen the other two versions that were made from Hemingway's novel. All three are superior films; the Audie Murphy version, "The Gun Runners", probably features his best performance.
"The Breaking Point" was directed by Michael Curtiz, and the style of the man who made "Casablanca" shines through.
Harry's descent to the dark side is understandable in the context of the story; circumstances continually conspire to bring him down, and he is too trusting of people who are basically scumbags. Garfield was perfect in the role – Harry Morgan is a man who has the nerve to walk the line between the legal and the illegal. He was a war hero, and feels that his service to his country should have provided better opportunities now that the war is over.
The script is smart and the dialogue crackles in the exchanges between Garfield and Patricia Neal. In fact, the lines are nearly as brilliant as were those for Bogart and Bacall in the first adaption of the story, Howard Hawks' "To Have and Have Not".
Sunny coastal footage is balanced with dark, moody studio shots highlighting the dark and light of the story. This is a classy piece of work from a novel that seems able to stand any number of interpretations.
Based on a novel by Ernest Hemmingway, the story is about WW2 veteran Harry Morgan (John Garfield) who runs a charter fishing boat business that is sinking financially. The lack of money impacts on his long-suffering wife, Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter), and his friend Wesley Park (Juano Hernández).
When he is ripped-off by a client in Mexico, Harry becomes involved with shady deals involving using his boat for people smuggling and eventually rescuing gangsters. Along the way, his loyalty to Lucy is tested when he meets party girl Leona Charles (Patricia Neal). Everything comes to a head in a battle on the boat, but the ending is a tough one with a particularly poignant last scene.
I only saw this film recently when it turned up on TCM. I thought it must have some connection to Huston's "Key Largo" because both have a very similar shootout on a fishing boat at the end. However, the only connection is that Huston probably pinched the ending from Hemingway's novel – "Key Largo" is actually based on a play by Maxwell Anderson. Later I realised that I had indeed seen the other two versions that were made from Hemingway's novel. All three are superior films; the Audie Murphy version, "The Gun Runners", probably features his best performance.
"The Breaking Point" was directed by Michael Curtiz, and the style of the man who made "Casablanca" shines through.
Harry's descent to the dark side is understandable in the context of the story; circumstances continually conspire to bring him down, and he is too trusting of people who are basically scumbags. Garfield was perfect in the role – Harry Morgan is a man who has the nerve to walk the line between the legal and the illegal. He was a war hero, and feels that his service to his country should have provided better opportunities now that the war is over.
The script is smart and the dialogue crackles in the exchanges between Garfield and Patricia Neal. In fact, the lines are nearly as brilliant as were those for Bogart and Bacall in the first adaption of the story, Howard Hawks' "To Have and Have Not".
Sunny coastal footage is balanced with dark, moody studio shots highlighting the dark and light of the story. This is a classy piece of work from a novel that seems able to stand any number of interpretations.