1948 Directed by John Huston
A hurricane swells outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm within the hotel at Key Largo. There, sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco holes up - and holds at gunpoint hotel owner James Temple, his widowed daughter-in-law Nora, and ex-GI Frank McCloud.
L'isola di corallo, Кий Ларго, Paixões em Fúria, Sti voi tis kataigidos, Huracán de pasiones, Hafen des Lasters, Uvejrsøen Key Largo, Myrskyvaroitus, Satsujin hoteru, Koralowa wyspa, Ölüm gemisi, Stormvarning utfärdad, 키 라르고, Στη Βοή της Καταιγίδας
Westerns Crime, drugs and gangsters War and historical adventure Thrillers and murder mysteries film noir, femme fatale, 1940s, thriller or intriguing gangster, crime, criminal, violence or ruthless western, outlaw, cowboy, shootout or gunfight war, wwii, combat, military or duty war, soldiers, combat, fought or military Show All…
80
Post-war in that every character is dealing with the repression of reconciling with their own trauma. That this sweaty, theatrical Noir utilizes a hurricane storm swirling outside the one-location is a representation of how no one got away from WWII unscathed. Key Largo, with its lightning and thunder and howling wind, is always on the verge of Horror. Falters by the end, but in the meantime, it's as sharp and ruthless as the very best of John Huston.
the world will always be shit so long as good men do nothing about fat gangsters.
achieves a remarkable sense of place for a film shot on a backlot. Bogart is sweeter than you expect, as he often was in the Huston films, but this is Edward G. Robinson's show and he sells it so well.
Hot dog, what an awesome movie! This is maybe my sixth time watching. The first time I watched Key Largo I thought it was OK, but not great. Not sure what headspace I was in then, because the acting in this is top notch. The underrated Claire Trevor is a standout (she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work here), but everyone, Bogart, Robinson, Barrymore, and Thomas Gomez are all in top form. Probably the best that Bacall has ever been. Huston has some nicely framed shots and sets things up well. Highly recommended and if you don't love it, watch it again.
Edward G. Robinson stole the show faster than Lauren Bacall could look at Bogie and fall in love with him and THAT'S saying something.
Ah, yes, my two favorite things:
● Films set mostly in one single location.
● Lauren Bacall's face.
Edward G. Robinson shows up about thirty minutes into this movie and steals it out from under everybody else. Not unlike Randal Graves in Clerks. The similarities mostly end there though.
me every time i watch lauren bacall and humphrey bogart fall in love while pretending to be different people: gee i really hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me
(The Average Joe’s Movie Club Cast)
Trapped in a hotel in the middle of a Hurricane, Humphrey Bogart faces off against a couple of wise guys.
"No, Mr. Temple, it wasn't you. It wasn't the law or anybody. It was only Johnny Rocco. Nobody in the whole world is safe as long as he's alive."
Key Largo got off to a slow start and just felt like one of those people talking in a room kinda movies. But then it dawned on me that this had to have been one of Quentin Tarantino's influences for 'The Hateful Eight', which got me a little more invested. The film has some interesting things to say about how gangsters were viewed back then, but overall I would only recommend this one to big-time noir fans.
For my full discussion on Key Largo with Joey Porter just click HERE!
Thanks for reading.
Happy movie watching ... Skål! 🍻
Key Largo. 1948. Directed by John Huston.
John Huston’s Key Largo (1948) was another film that displayed Huston’s charm over Hollywood and the last film that Humphrey Bogart (Frank McCloud) and Lauren Bacall (Nora Temple) acted in together. It is their synergy coupled with Edward G. Robinson (Johnny Rocco) and Maxwell Anderson, Richard Brooks, and John Huston’s screenplay that makes this film like the eye of the storm. In fact, a hurricane is swelling outside of the premises but inside is the eye of the storm I am referring to. John Huston kept the tension at a maximum and the dialogue intense so there isn’t a dull moment. The Oscar Winner for Best Actress in a supporting role went to…
"You don't like it, do you Rocco, the storm? Show it your gun, why don't you? If it doesn't stop, shoot it."
Bogey, Bacall and Huston oh my.
You know it's gonna be something special if Bogey goes the whole film refusing a drink... This noir potboiler bathed in shadows and angles and ocean water has an incredible sense of place and spaces and the kind of rowdy movie star performances (save Bogey who's more gentle here than in maybe anything else he ever played in) that simply don't exist anymore. That it's a play essentially about the inescapable repercussive storm of WWII makes it all the more compelling, exciting and unnerving.
Edward G Robinson is the original fat gangster made over and Claire Trevor's wry drunken lover performance is truly one for the ages despite that it's gone vastly unnoticed within the pantheon of Oscar-winning performances.
This is film is partially unmemorable and stiff but the scenes between Claire Trevor and Edward G. Robinson express such strong, intelligent chemistry and perfectly understand the nature of conversations within melodramatic noir. These moments articulate the reconciliation and unconventionally twisted pasts that these people have and provide deep sympathy and emotion into a film that has a great concept but lacks a lot of interesting storylines.
In Key Largo, Bogey plays Frank, a morally conflicted WW II vet who’s just passing through. Bacall plays Nora, a rock solid war widow who helps her father run a Key Largo hotel. Edward G. Robinson plays Johnny Rocco, a mob boss waiting on a business deal from Miami. John Huston directs them in what’s advertised as a “Sizzling Florida Keys noir!” Can’t lose, right? At first, Key Largo seemed like a single location film in which three iconic actors would simply bounce their favorite personas off each other for 100 minutes.
Like in Casablanca, Bogart has to decide whether he wants to continue walling himself off from the rest of the world, or make himself vulnerable by admitting that he…
