The Breaking Point (1950)

September 30, 1950, release date

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Screenplay by Ranald MacDougall

Based on the novel To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

Music by Howard Jackson, Max Steiner

Edited by Alan Crosland Jr.

Cinematography by Ted D. McCord

John Garfield as Harry Morgan

Patricia Neal as Leona Charles

Phyllis Thaxter as Lucy Morgan

Juano Hernández as Wesley Park

Wallace Ford as F. R. Duncan

Edmon Ryan as Rogers

Ralph Dumke as Hannagan

Guy Thomajan as Danny

William Campbell as Concho

Sherry Jackson as Amelia Morgan

Donna Jo Boyce as Connie Morgan

Victor Sen Yung as Mr. Sing

Juan Hernández as Joseph Park, Wesley’s son

Distributed by Warner Bros.

Produced by Warner Bros.

The Breaking Point is based on Ernest Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not. I have not yet read the novel, but this film noir is supposed to be an adaptation that is the most faithful to the novel. A total of four films based on Hemingway’s novel have been produced:

◊ To Have and Have Not (1944)

◊ The Breaking Point (1950)

◊ The Gun Runners (1958)

◊ Captain Khorshid (1987)

Click here for my blog post about the film To Have and Have Not starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

The Breaking Point starts with a shot of seagulls flying overhead. The opening credits appear over an idyllic shot of a boat on calm waters. The film cuts to a shot of the Sea Queen, the boat owned by Harry Morgan. Voice-over narration by Morgan warns of the trouble to come: “You know how it is, early in the morning, on the water. Everything’s quiet. Except for the seagulls, a long way off. And you feel great. Then you come ashore, and it starts. And in no time at all, you’re up to your ears in trouble. And you don’t know where it began.”

(This blog post about The Breaking Point contains all the spoilers.)

Morgan is a World War II veteran who has fallen on hard times. He was successful in the navy during the war, but he hasn’t had much success making a living with his boat since the war ended. He never bought the fishing fleet that he wanted, and now he operates a single boat out of Newport, California, with his boat mate and friend, Wesley Park. He is married to Lucy, and they have two daughters. Viewers get to see that he loves his wife and children and would do anything for them, and that devotion is a big part of the reason why he gets into so much trouble, not once but twice.

Someone named Hannagan has chartered Harry Morgan’s boat for a fishing expedition to Mexico. Hannagan shows up with Leona Charles on his arm, an extra passenger, which is a surprise that isn’t paid for and that Harry isn’t too happy about. But he lets them both board his boat. The girlfriend, Leona Charles, does her best to play the femme fatale and to cause trouble from the start:

• Leona: [to Harry Morgan] “You’re cute.”

• Harry: “It’s the way I comb my hair.”

• Leona: “You got a weak chin, though. Anybody ever told you you got a weak chin?”

• Harry: “What are you sore about?”

• Leona: “You make me sore.”

• Harry: “Why don’t you relax? You’re getting a nice tan. I got work to do, and you make me nervous.”

• Leona: “I don’t usually get complaints.”

• Harry: “You’re his [Hannagan’s] friend. In a few days I’ll never see you again. You’re a nice girl. Now be nice.”

• Leona: “Yeah, nice. There’s no future in it.”

In Mexico, Duncan, a lawyer that Harry knows, tries to get him to take on two more passengers. When Harry refuses, he wants to introduce Harry to a woman who just got divorced. Harry tells him, “You’re poison.” He knows that Duncan can only mean trouble, but when Hannagan skips out on the return trip without paying for the trip down to Mexico, Harry reconsiders Duncan’s first offer. Now, Duncan can only offer a deal smuggling illegal Chinese nationals from Mexico to California. Harry agrees to the plan and leaves his boat mate Wesley Park in Mexico. It’s really because Harry doesn’t want to get his friend involved in his illegal scheme. Harry never mentions it, but I wonder if he was also thinking that a black man like Wesley Park would have even more trouble tangling with the law, and Harry had even more reason to think about Park’s welfare.

Park meets Leona Charles, who is also left behind by Harry, on the dock and they leave the dock together. The two of them sneak back onto Harry Morgan’s boat, however, and Harry is forced to take both of them back to California after all.

The smuggling operation doesn’t go according to plan, of course—this is film noir—and Mr. Sing tries to swindle Harry out of his share of the money. Harry gets into a fight with Mr. Sing, Sing pulls a gun, they wrestle, and Morgan accidentally shoots and kills Sing. Harry forces the Chinese immigrants off the boat, and they wade back to the shore, back to Mexico. Wesley Park and Leona Charles are witnesses to the events; Morgan can count on Part, but he isn’t so sure about Leona Charles.

The Coast Guard greets Harry at home port. They impound his boat because of a wire from the port captain at Ensenada in Mexico about Chinese nationals aboard the Sea Queen. Both Park and Charles keep quiet, but Harry must still surrender his boat until the incident can be investigated by both Mexican and American authorities.

Duncan is back in California and gets a court order to have Harry’s boat released, although Harry didn’t retain him and didn’t ask him for his help. Duncan knows that it is Sing whose body was found in the waters off Mexico, and he knows that Harry was involved. He can use this information to his advantage in future dealings with Morgan.

Harry gets his boat back, and his legal troubles seem to be over, but his financial troubles are about to get a lot worse. When the lender wants to foreclose on the Sea Queen, Lucy Morgan decides to get a job sewing sailcloth. Seeing his wife work seems to be the last straw for Harry; not being able to provide for his wife and children is a blow to his self-esteem. He goes back to Duncan for another deal; this time, it’s a racetrack heist. The thieves planning the heist want to use Harry’s boat as an escape route, with Harry driving the boat and navigating.

On the day of the heist, Harry takes his gun out of a drawer and loads it. His wife Lucy comes upon him loading the gun, and she is worried about what he is getting into, especially because she knows about the trouble in Mexico and that Harry killed Sing in self-defense. Harry defends himself by bringing up his wartime service: He was a hero for killing people during the war; why should it be any different now? (This theme is addressed in other films noir, too.) But Lucy knows that Harry’s excuse is flimsy at best and that his reasoning doesn’t apply in peacetime. She is distraught enough to tell him that she and their two daughters won’t be home when he gets back.

The heist at the racetrack doesn’t go well for Duncan or Harry. Duncan is left behind by the gang, and he is shot by police officers trailing after them as they make their escape. Harry is waiting at his boat, where he has already hidden two handguns, for the thieves. Wesley Parker shows up for work and company, and Harry cannot get rid of him. When the thieves show up at Harry’s boat, Wesley tells Harry not to take them on board. The leader shoots him dead.

Wesley is a friend to Harry, not just a coworker, and Harry is deeply affected by his death. The gang leader catches Harry crying as he steers the boat for the thieves’ escape. He now suspects that Harry will retaliate.

The leader was right to be suspicious: Harry gets into a shootout with the gang on the boat. All the gang members are shot dead before Harry passes out from a wound in his arm. The Coast Guard is out looking for him and his boat, and when they find the boat, they tow it back to shore.

Lucy and the girls are waiting on the dock to greet him. Wesley’s son Joseph is also there to greet his father. But all the attention is on Harry and whether he will survive. He will die if he doesn’t agree to have his arm amputated. He’s taken off in an ambulance after finally agreeing to the operation.

The film ends with an overhead shot of Joseph Park, Wesley’s son, standing alone on the dock looking for his now deceased father. Because it’s the last shot, the themes about Harry’s relationship with Wesley Park are given as much weight as other themes addressed in the film. Joseph is ignored by everyone, and no one tells him anything about what happened to his father. Harry’s poor decisions have affected everyone in his circle. He and his family are too caught up in their own drama even to notice Joseph. That lingering shot of Joseph, a young black boy who just lost his father because of poor decisions made by the father’s boss, is one of the saddest film endings I have ever seen.