Key Largo (1948) Humphrey Bogart

Key Largo (1948)

A man (Humphrey Bogart) visits his old friend's hotel and finds a gangster (Edward G. Robinson)running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other.

Storyline

Frank McCloud travels to a run-down hotel on Key Largo to honor the memory of a friend who died bravely in his unit during WW II. His friend's widow, Nora Temple, and wheelchair bound father, James Temple manage the hotel and receive him warmly, but the three of them soon find themselves virtual prisoners when the hotel is taken over by a mob of gangsters led by Johnny Rocco who hole up there to await the passing of a hurricane. Mr. Temple strongly reviles Rocco but due to his infirmities can only confront him verbally. Having become disillusioned by the violence of war, Frank is reluctant to act, but Rocco's demeaning treatment of his alcoholic moll, Gaye Dawn, and his complicity in the deaths of some innocent Seminole Indians and a deputy sheriff start to motivate McCloud to overcome his Hamlet-like inaction.

Synopsis

Disillusioned veteran Frank McCloud arrives on the island of Key Largo, Florida to visit the family of George Temple, who died under his command in Italy during World War II. At the rundown Hotel Largo where George's wheelchair-bound father James lives with George's widow, Nora, Frank encounters Curly Hoff, Toots, Angel and Gaye Dawn in the bar. Learning from them that the hotel is closed for the off-season, Frank searches out the Temples, who greet him warmly and insist that he stay the night. Nora explains that their guests offered her father-in-law so much money to open the hotel for them, that he could not turn them down. Later, a hurricane warning is issued and as Nora fastens the shutters in preparation, the telephone rings. Curly tells the caller that the Temples are not around and adds that Sawyer, the local police officer, has not been seen either. When Temple objects, the men pull their guns. In response to the activity, the men's leader comes downstairs for the first time since Frank's arrival, and Frank recognizes him as deported gangster Johnny Rocco. Rocco has entered the country illegally from Cuba in order to make a delivery of counterfeit money, but his contacts have been delayed by the approaching storm. Meanwhile, he and his men have captured and beaten Sawyer, who was searching for the Oceola brothers, Seminoles who had escaped from jail. When Rocco, impressed by Nora's feisty spirit, makes a pass at her, she spits in his face, and Frank stops him from killing her with some fast talking. Mocking Frank's heroics, Rocco throws him a gun and, holding his own gun on Frank, tells him that he can rid the world of Rocco if he is willing to die in the process. To the disappointment of both Nora and Temple, Frank refuses to shoot. He throws the gun down and Sawyer grabs it and tries to escape. Rocco kills Sawyer, revealing that the other gun was not loaded, a fact that Frank had no way of knowing. Rocco then demands that Gaye, his alcoholic former mistress, sing a song before she can have a drink. She is too desperate to sing well, and when Rocco still refuses to give her a drink because her singing was "rotten," Frank takes pity on her. Rocco slaps him and once again, Frank does nothing. The full force of the hurricane then hits, terrifying Rocco and giving Nora a chance to challenge Frank about his disillusionment. After the storm passes, Rocco discovers that his boat has disappeared. He orders Frank to take Temple's boat and transport him to Cuba. Before they can leave, a second police officer comes looking for Sawyer and finds his body on the shore, where it washed up during the storm. Rocco blames the murder on the Oceola brothers, who are on the island to turn themselves in on Temple's advice, and when the Indians try to escape, the officer murders them. As the gangsters prepare to leave, Gaye begs Rocco to take her along, and while she clings to him, she grabs his gun from his jacket pocket and slips it to Frank. After he sets course for Cuba, Frank maneuvers the boat to knock one man overboard and shoots the others, including Rocco. Although he has been wounded, Frank radios his position and then calls the hotel to tell Nora and Temple that he is coming back home.

Cast & Crew
John Huston Director
Humphrey Bogart as Frank McCloud
Edward G. Robinson as Johnny Rocco
Lauren Bacall as Nora Temple
Lionel Barrymore as James Temple
Claire Trevor as Gaye Dawn
Thomas Gomez as Curly Hoff
Harry Lewis as Toots
John Rodney as Deputy Clyde Sawyer
Marc Lawrence as Ziggy
Dan Seymour as Angel
Monte Blue as Ben Wade

Release Date 31 Jul 1948
Color/BW Black and White
Sound Mono (RCA Sound System)
Production Dates late Dec 1947--mid-Mar 1948
Duration (in mins) 100
Premiere Information New York opening: 16 Jul 1948
Distribution Company Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Production Company Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country United States

REVIEW:

Key Largo (1948) Original NY TIMES Movie Review publishes July 17, 1948

THE SCREEN; ' Key Largo,' Remake of Drama by Anderson With Bogart and Robinson, at Strand
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: July 17, 1948

It is whimsical that the Warners, who had a great deal to do with the rise of the gangster in the movies, should have been as persistent as they have in dispatching this legendary character to limbo over a period of years. Ever since "The Petrified Forest," back in 1936, they have made several obvious occasions to kiss the boy goodbye. Now, in their latest, "Key Largo," which came to the Strand yesterday, they subject him to the final irony: they have him enacted again by no less a one than Edward G. Robinson and then they let a reformed Humphrey Bogart bump him off.

This, to the old gangster-film fan, will smack distinctly of race suicideΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥or, at least, of deliberate self-destruction of a type through internecine strife. And this was, no doubt, an intention of those who arranged to bring two such notorious veterans of the old days together in this film. For a great deal of pertinent suggestion is unquestionably conveyed by the spectacle of one classic film thug putting the quietus on another one. Unfortunately, the staggering impact of the image itself is somewhat lost in an excess of prefatory talking, much of it along philosophical lines.

In making this screen translation of an old Maxwell Anderson playΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥in which, incidently, Paul Muni played the Bogart role, in 1939ΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥Director John Huston has certainly done a great deal to tighten and speed a still overcrowded story of the forces of evil versus good. He has dropped out a lot of prior build-up, thrown away some complexities and avoided the final fatalism which Mr. Anderson always seems to indulge.

Now he has got a story of two strong men who come face to face in a hotel, shut down for the summer, on a sweaty Florida key. One is a hard-bitten fellow, ex-Army and ex-idealist, who is visiting the wife and father of a buddy killed in the war. The other is an old-time gangster, run out of the country years ago, who is set upon making a comeback with the old cruelty and arrogance.

With remarkable filming and cutting, Mr. Huston had notably achieved a great deal of interest and tension in some rather static scenesΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥and scenes, too, that give the bald appearance of having been written for the stage. Though largely confined to a few rooms, he kept people on the move and has used an intrusive hurricane for some slam-bang melodramatic effects.

He has also got stinging performances out of most of his castΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥notably out of Mr. Robinson, who plays the last of the red-hot gangsters in top-notch style. Indeed, Mr. Robinson's performance is an expertly timed and timbred scan of the vulgarity, corruption and egoism of a criminal man. Mr. Bogart's enactment of a fellow who blows both hot and cold is also penetrating, largely because it's on the acid side. Lionel Barrymore is sharp as an old codger who is full of ineffectual bravery, and Lauren Bacall is solemnly righteous as a war-widowed country girl. Picturesque performances of assorted henchmen and a moll are given by Thomas Gomez, Harry Lewis and Claire Trevor.

But the script prepared by Mr. Huston and Richard Brooks was too full of words and highly cross-purposed implications to give the action full chance. TalkΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥endless talkΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥about courage and the way the world goes gums it up. And the simple fact is that much of it is pompous and remote. Also the presentation of old-time gangsterism in this light shows up its obsolescence. The Warners were sentimental, perhaps.

On the stage at the Strand are Billie Holiday, Stump and Stumpy and Count Basie and his band.


KEY LARGO, screen play by Richard Brooks and John Huston, based on the play by Maxwell Anderson; directed by John Huston; produced by Jerry Wald for Warner Brothers Pictures. At the Strand.
Frank McCloud . . . . . Humphrey Bogart
Johnny Rocco . . . . . Edward G. Robinson
Nora Temple . . . . . Lauren Bacall
James Temple . . . . . Lionel Barrymore
Gaye . . . . . Claire Trevor
Curley . . . . . Thomas Gomez
Toots . . . . . Harry Lewis
Deputy Clyde Sawyer . . . . . John Rodney
Ziggy . . . . . Marc Lawrence
Angel . . . . . Dan Seymour
Ben Wade . . . . . Monte Blue
Osceola Brothers . . . . . Silver Heels, Rodric Red Wing