*Marie Browning, a young drifter/pick-up that left home perhaps a bit to early, and has been working odd jobs and getting money where she can for plane fare, slowly attempting to hop from place to place back home. She lands in Fort-de-France, Martinique and must make that her port of harbor; she doesn't have enough money to continue on back to the United States. She takes a room at Frenchy's Hotel, right across from Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) and thus a fantastic story is born.

Initially, she appears to be the perfect femme fatale. Cool, beautiful, confident in her abilities.

It's the Femme Fatale that interests Morgan initially. She introduces herself not with a name, but with a rather cavalier request for a match, to light a cigarette. She stands, shadowed in the doorway to his room, chin tucked in, looking up at him, a figure made of angles. Everything about her is a dichotomy. Her chin, cheekbones, the angles of her eyes, and the sharp corners of her outfit present a contrast to the curves of her hair and body: the perfect trap, the perfect femme fatale. He looks her over briefly and is not unpleased, and tosses a pack of matches. She catches it deftly and lights up, the flame's light dancing across her features, and tosses the pack back with a muttered "thanks." She disappears. It's not a meet-cute, it's all-out seduction. With one brief exchange, Morgan and the audience are captivated, ready to follow her to find out more, or perhaps just to continue looking.

Femme fatale Marie Browning is a capable woman. She knows how to get what she wants from men, and is familiar with the way that they think, act, and react. She's fairly decent at getting money and drinks off of them, a skill she demonstrates several times in the film. "Like shooting fish in a barrel." she complains, rather dejectedly to Morgan at one point. Like most femme fatales, she is a woman who is both searching for, and inherently in fear of a man who can resist her manipulation and wiles, for it's the man who can resist that can, in return, captivate (willingly or unwillingly) the femme fatale. Marie Browning quickly realizes that she has found that man in Harry Morgan. At this point, she could become hostile, as the victim of an unwanted yet overpowering attraction, or she could choose to set aside the femme fatale in an attempt to capture him. She chooses the latter. But does Morgan want to be caught? Initially, no. He's got his own convictions and chip on the shoulder to fight first, for just as Browning has a general low opinion of men, Morgan in turn has a general low opinion of women, and Ms. Browning is not the type of woman Morgan is going to respect, at least at first. That soon changes, however, as he realizes that she is a strong capable woman, able to do what is needed and manage no matter the circumstances. He also realizes that there is another side of her: the Prodigal Daughter.

As a femme fatale, Browning left home young and has since then drifted from place to place where and when she can. As the prodigal daughter, however, she has realized along the way that life away from home is much more difficult than she may have figured, and that home is perhaps where she ought to be, regardless of whatever made her leave in the first place. After drifting about rudderless for a time, she is now trying desparately to return home, having matured too much in her time away. The prodigal daughter is the hidden side of her, a remnant of the young woman she was before leaving home. This is the side of her that recognizes Harry Morgan's strengths, weaknesses, and worth as a man. This is the side that feels that connection to him, so much that she is willing to travel along with him rather than return home as she had planned. She is willing to let him be her rudder. It is this willingness to let him lead her, despite her own abilities and his respect for those skills, as well as her own inherent innocence bourne of her age that ends up capturing Morgan.*