This is a real Bogart/Bacall classic. A must see and then seen again. Bogart is on top form with a young Lauren Bacall matching him. The film has a great script, supporting cast and some weird and memorable music too. I've seen this film many times and the recent Blu-Ray version is just fantastic.
A popular observation about this WWII action adventure is that it is written by two winners of the Nobel Prize. It's freely adapted from the Ernest Hemingway novel by William Faulkner. But what we see on screen is an inferior reshuffle of Casablanca, which has a much better script. Once again, Humphrey Bogart refuses to fight until he does.
He runs a fishing boat out of Martinique and (eventually) gets involved in the struggle between pro and anti-Nazi groups, and an enigmatic drifter played by an 18 year old Lauren Bacall in her screen debut. The political intrigue never catches fire, but the chemistry between the stars is explosive. And they married after the shoot.
It's most like the Hemingway source in that it's a sequence of loosely linked episodes. The best of them showcase the flirtation between Bogart and Bacall. The scene in which she famously purrs 'You know how to whistle don't you?' is pure innuendo mayhem. Unfortunately, the narrative runs out of gas, and doesn't have an ending.
Like many Howard Hawks films, it's about an assembly of individualists and emotional refugees who meet in the kind of exotic place where adventures happen. The plot isn't paramount, and the whole thing ends up feeling like a revue, with some decent musical numbers by Hoagy Carmichael. It's a lesser Hawks film, but worth seeing for the stars.