Made in 1950 Warner Bros. THE BREAKING POINT is one of Hollywood's great and classic Film Noirs! Meticulously directed by Michal Curtiz it is, after "Force Of Evil", John Garfield's best movie! Beautifully written by Ranald McDougall, from a short story by Ernest Hemingway, this was the third time it was filmed by Warner Bros. Both earlier versions "To Have & To Have Not" (1945) and "Key Largo" (1948) starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall but this version was the more definitive and broadest reworking of the story.
John Garfield giving one of his best hard boiled performances plays down-at-heel charter-boat captain Harry Morgan who reluctantly falls foul of the law while trying to make ends meet for himself and his family. His wife (Phillis Thaxter overbearing in an over written role) pleads with him to give up his boat THE SEA QUEEN ("pop says you can have a job anytime on his lettuce ranch in Salinas" to which Harry balks "I'm not going to squat on my hunkers down in Salinas, trying to pick lettuce quicker than the bugs can eat it, I'm a boat jockey, it's all I know"). But when a fishing party lets him down and he runs out of money in Mexico - a shifty shyster lawyer, F.R Duncan, (brilliantly played by Wallace Ford) entices him to take some illegal migrants back on his boat into the United States, Harry has no choice but to comply. "Don't fight it Harry - relax - roll with it - let it happen" Duncan repeatedly advises Harry, to which Harry rounds on him - "you're poison!-....you'd sell your own mother if she was worth anything"! Later in the movie Duncan inveigles him to take a quartet of gangsters out to sea when they flee after their racetrack heist - culminating in the picture's gripping and climactic set piece - a suspenseful and bloody shootout on board THE SEA QUEEN.
Peppered with sparkling dialogue throughout, everything in the film is splendidly executed. The movie just rattles along at a well defined pace. Crisply photographed by the great Warner cinematographer Ted McCord ("Johnny Belinda"/ "Treasure Of the Sierra Madre") his brilliant low-key black & white camera work gives the movie a compelling visual style. Oddley enough though the movie goes virtually unscored but it does have a lovely and beguiling orchestral piece heard over the opening credits and for the finale. There is no music credit on the picture except for Music Supervision by Ray Heindorf but the piece sounds suspiciously like something Max Steiner would have written. In a letter from the esteemed composer to this writer in 1968 he intimated to me that he had indeed written the piece - without credit - adding that he wrote it as a favor to Ray Heindorf. The following year Steiner, again without credit, would oblige Heindorf with a helping hand with the score for the Cagney classic "Come Fill The Cup".
"The Breaking Point" is a terrific movie that badly needs a DVD release! I am surprised that Warner Home Video have not already included it in one of their noir box sets. Perhaps it will turn up in their next one? Or maybe in an overdue Garfield set - who knows?
Classic line from "The Breaking Point"....... when smart-mouthed good time girl Patricia Neal, drinking in a Mexican bar - ignores the clamour of a cock-fight taking place in the background - Garfield asks "don't you like cockfights? To which she blithely replies "all that trouble for an egg".
John Garfield giving one of his best hard boiled performances plays down-at-heel charter-boat captain Harry Morgan who reluctantly falls foul of the law while trying to make ends meet for himself and his family. His wife (Phillis Thaxter overbearing in an over written role) pleads with him to give up his boat THE SEA QUEEN ("pop says you can have a job anytime on his lettuce ranch in Salinas" to which Harry balks "I'm not going to squat on my hunkers down in Salinas, trying to pick lettuce quicker than the bugs can eat it, I'm a boat jockey, it's all I know"). But when a fishing party lets him down and he runs out of money in Mexico - a shifty shyster lawyer, F.R Duncan, (brilliantly played by Wallace Ford) entices him to take some illegal migrants back on his boat into the United States, Harry has no choice but to comply. "Don't fight it Harry - relax - roll with it - let it happen" Duncan repeatedly advises Harry, to which Harry rounds on him - "you're poison!-....you'd sell your own mother if she was worth anything"! Later in the movie Duncan inveigles him to take a quartet of gangsters out to sea when they flee after their racetrack heist - culminating in the picture's gripping and climactic set piece - a suspenseful and bloody shootout on board THE SEA QUEEN.
Peppered with sparkling dialogue throughout, everything in the film is splendidly executed. The movie just rattles along at a well defined pace. Crisply photographed by the great Warner cinematographer Ted McCord ("Johnny Belinda"/ "Treasure Of the Sierra Madre") his brilliant low-key black & white camera work gives the movie a compelling visual style. Oddley enough though the movie goes virtually unscored but it does have a lovely and beguiling orchestral piece heard over the opening credits and for the finale. There is no music credit on the picture except for Music Supervision by Ray Heindorf but the piece sounds suspiciously like something Max Steiner would have written. In a letter from the esteemed composer to this writer in 1968 he intimated to me that he had indeed written the piece - without credit - adding that he wrote it as a favor to Ray Heindorf. The following year Steiner, again without credit, would oblige Heindorf with a helping hand with the score for the Cagney classic "Come Fill The Cup".
"The Breaking Point" is a terrific movie that badly needs a DVD release! I am surprised that Warner Home Video have not already included it in one of their noir box sets. Perhaps it will turn up in their next one? Or maybe in an overdue Garfield set - who knows?
Classic line from "The Breaking Point"....... when smart-mouthed good time girl Patricia Neal, drinking in a Mexican bar - ignores the clamour of a cock-fight taking place in the background - Garfield asks "don't you like cockfights? To which she blithely replies "all that trouble for an egg".