The Breaking Point (1950)

The captain (John Garfield) of a small charter boat in Southern California struggles to keep his debtors at bay. Because of his financial situation, he makes a couple of disastrous choices: first, an attempt at smuggling Chinese from Mexico to California which goes horribly wrong and later, helping a gang of robbers escape which ends in a storm of death and violence. The second of the three film versions of Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, this one is the most faithful to the book (though apparently Hemingway didn't think much of the book, calling it "a bunch of junk"). The 1944 Howard Hawks film was highly romanticized and this version, directed by Michael Curtiz, keeps it fairly real. Garfield is effective as the everyman who finds himself overwhelmed by the unlucky turns his life has taken and his appealing presence helps overcome the animosity one feels toward his character's mistakes (one of the villains tells him, "I thought you were too smart to take this job"). Patricia Neal as a good time girl is merely window dressing but she makes the most of her screen time and Phyllis Thaxter is saddled with the nagging wife role and it's a credit to her talent that you like her instead of being turned off. In the film's heartbreaking final shot, Curtiz makes it clear where his real sympathies lie. With Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford, William Campbell, Edmon Ryan, Sherry Jackson and John Doucette.