![]() ![]() The disreputable guests at the Largo Hotel are actually mobsters led by Johnny Rocco (Robinson). However, this is not going to be a romantic tale. Nora explains that marriage with George offered her roots, and it seems as if she will now be able to offer the same roots to McCloud. Temple has no problem in offering McCloud the chance to stay in George’s old room, and from the looks that Nora offers to him, it seems that he has a prospect of taking George’s widow too. They are touched by McCloud’s story, and he is invited to stay at the hotel. Next McCloud speaks to George’s father, James Temple (Lionel Barrymore) and to George’s widow, Nora (Bacall). A group of shady looking characters are staying there, supposedly on a fishing trip, and they insist that the hotel is only open for them exclusively, and he has to leave. McCloud finds a chilly welcome when he enters the Largo Hotel, which is owned by the Temples. ![]() He is finding life on land too complicated for his tastes, as he explains later. It is possible that his decision to go there is also influenced by a wish to find a job at sea. He decides to visit Key Largo to meet the father and widow of George Temple, a soldier and friend of his who died in the Italian campaign. McCloud finds that he is unable to stick to the job he had before the war, and he drifts from place to place. The result is a movie that strains for a far greater significance than its gangster movie origins might suggest.īogart plays Frank McCloud, a former Major who has left the army after the end of World War Two. It is Huston who managed to paper over the cracks in the movie, and to tease good acting performances from his cast. However the greatest star of all is John Huston, the talented director who made so many great movies over a number of decades. ![]() Ultimately Rocco’s mistreatment of Gaye will prove to be his undoing, as we shall see. What he whispers in the ear of the stony-faced Nora is inaudible to the audience, but we assume that he is making comments of a sexual nature. He now despises her, and openly makes a play for Nora Temple (Bacall) in front of Gaye. After not seeing her for eight years, Rocco is disgusted to find that she has slid into alcoholism and lost her singing talent. She plays a singer who was the lover of Johnny Rocco (Edward G Robinson) before he was expelled from America. Her performance as the faded lush, Gaye Dawn, adds pathos to the movie, and won her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She is ready to scratch or spit on Robinson’s face, and to bitterly criticise Bogart for his seeming cowardice. However there are moments when we catch of a glimpse of Bacall’s more spirited screen persona. As the hero Bogart has more to do, and Bacall is often left to give smouldering looks at Bogart. The movie also marks the final pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, the couple whose offscreen and onscreen chemistry added flavour to the four movies they made together. Robinson’s standing was still so strong that he is given a delayed entry in the movie, adding dramatic weight when he finally does appear. For this, their last time together onscreen, the two had equal status. At the time Robinson’s status was so high that his name had appeared above Humphrey Bogart’s in all of their movies together. It has a great villain in Edward G Robinson. While a good cast and a good director cannot always redeem a bad movie, consider the talent that is on offer here. The storm scenes are obvious models and, as if that is not bad enough, they are stock footage lifted from an earlier Warner Brothers movie, Night Unto Night.Īnd yet…and yet…Key Largo is an immensely entertaining movie that overcomes the limitations of its script, budget and setting. After his last movie ran over budget, Huston was kept in rein here. Almost all the action takes place in one hotel, and we have to wait until the end of the movie to see any real action. It was based on a play, and this accounts for its stagey settings. Lionel Barrymore draws the short straw here, and he is left to struggle with some insipid dialogue. The final script is presumably much better, but it does have its weaknesses. The story was based on a script that had to be rewritten extensively, as the movie’s director John Huston thought it was poor. Key Largo is a good demonstration of the value of star power, and how it can sometimes overcome the weakness of the original source material. ![]()
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