Balas de contrabando

Sometimes you see a film and wonder why it was even made in the first place. A great example is "The Gun Runners". It's based on a Hemingway story and was already made a couple times before this...and the most famous is "To Have and Have Not"...one of Humphrey Bogart's better films. Now I have nothing against Audie Murphy, but I would never imagine wanting to see him starring in a movie instead of Bogart. After all, this IS Bogart...one of the finest actors who ever lived. The only big difference is that the film is partially set in Cuba, as the Cuban Revolution was in full swing.

Sam Martin (Murphy) is in dire straights. His boat charter business is having a slow patch and creditors are threatening to seize his boat. Because he is so desperate, various crooks try to get him to agree to some illegal activities...such as running guns. But Sam is ademant...at least for a while. But when some rich guy (Eddie Albert) charters his boat and then asks him to take a side trip to Cuba, he's so desperate that he'll do it. What's next? See the film...or not!

So how is this film different from the Bogie version? Well, apart from the Cuban angle, the changes are minor...such as Sam having a wife. As a result, the story is interesting like the original but not especially so. The basic story is still quite good. My advice is to watch one or the other....not both. And, of them, I'd pick the Bogart one simply because he was pretty amazing in the lead.

Ernest Hemingway's classic short story To Have And Have Not gets yet another remake, an independent production for Seven Arts that stars Audie Murphy taking the place Humphrey Bogart and John Garfield as Hemingway's iconoclastic fisherman/charter boat skipper.

No Lauren Bacall like slinky low voiced siren to take our hero's mind off business. In fact Murphy is happily married to Patricia Owens. But while he has a happy home life he owes some big money around Key West. His boat isn't even completely paid for and the bank is breathing down his neck.

Eddie Albert maybe the answer to his financial prayers. He wants to charter Murphy's boat for mysterious reasons for a trip to Cuba and remember this is 1958 and the Cuban government is rightly suspicious of strangers without proper clearance going to their island. In fact Albert is a gunrunner looking to sell to revolutionaries at a nice profit.

The film takes no political sides as to whether it favors the Batista government or the Castro revolutionaries. All you gradually learn along with Murphy is that Albert is one ruthless individual and quite the user.

Director Don Siegel shot this film on location in Newport Beach, California, curiously enough exactly where Michael Curtiz shot The Breaking Point, John Garfield's film of this story. Bogart's was done on the Warner Brothers back lot, none of them got anywhere near Papa Hemingway's beloved Caribbean waters. Siegel did keep the action going at a good clip.

Audie Murphy showed a bit of versatility here as an actor, taking a break from the B westerns he was doing at Universal. But Eddie Albert who when he does play a villain does remarkably well as he did in The Longest Yard and Attack. One never thinks of him that way, his image is forever fixed with Green Acres, but he was a favorite of mine and his range never ceased to amaze me.

The Gun Runners is your average B picture film about a controversial political issue in which it takes absolutely no sides.

It puzzles me why producer Clarence Greene and Seven Arts thought the public would go for yet another re-telling of Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not" when both the Bogart-Bacall and Garfield-Neal versions are so widely regarded as definitive. But here it is, and I must admit that Mainwaring and Monash have added a few more suspenseful wrinkles to the screenplay and that Audie Murphy does surprisingly well by the Bogart-Garfield role. The other players are equally adept, particularly Eddie Albert as the chillingly convincing heavy and the lovely Gita Hall (in the first of only two movies, alas). And it's always good to see players like Richard Jaeckel, Herb Vigran and Jack Elam in roles that allow them to display their talents.

Beautifully photographed by Hal Mohr on actual Key West locations, the movie also gives director Don Siegel some splendid action opportunities which he handles in his usual dramatic style, although the climax itself seems somewhat truncated by comparison with the preceding versions.

A remake of "To Have and Have Not" based on the Hemingway short story. The plot is reset to the early days of the Cuban revolution. A charter boat skipper (Audie Murphy) gets entangled in gunrunning scheme to get money to pay off debts.

Director Don Siegel may be the third person to tackle this tale, but he is not working fro ma dry well. By updating the story to involve the Cuban Revolution (before its success), the film takes on new life and now works as not only a great story but something of a historical document. Assisting Cuban rebels in 1958 may have had a very different sense at the time than it does today after fifty-plus years of Castro.

This was the first feature from the fledgling Seven Arts Productions, before they went on to make "The Misfits" (1961), "Lolita" (1962), and several others, including a large number of co-productions with Hammer films.

Sam Martin and his wino mate, Harvey, run fishing expeditions out of Key West. However, Sam has run into bad times, and, with mounting debt, he is threatened with losing his boat and, thus, his livelihood. When a seeming tourist named Hannagan with a Swedish blonde in tow hires Sam for a quick and illegal trip to Cuba, Sam needs the money and agrees, unaware of the true nature of the cruise. Adapted from Ernest Hermingway's novel, To Have and Have Not, which was previously filmed in 1944 with Humphrey Bogart, "The Gun Runners" is a tight, engaging B film directed by veteran action director Don Siegel.

While Audie Murphy as Sam is no Bogart, he is adequate in the part, although his romantic scenes with Patricia Owens as his wife are awkward and unconvincing. However, Eddie Albert as Hannagan, the duplicitous gun runner, is colorful, and his performance stands out. Everett Sloane as Harvey is also good. Hal Mohr's crisp black and white cinematography is another major asset, especially in razor-sharp close-ups of the principals.

While not on a par with the Bogart classic, "The Gun Runners" is closer to Hemingway and restores the Key West locale, although the action is updated to feature the Cuban Revolution. The relatively short low-budget feature is worth a look and should appeal to fans of Audie Murphy and, especially, to followers of Don Siegel's career.