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John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) directed this smart thriller about a gangster (Edward G. Robinson) who holds a number of people hostage in a hotel in the Florida Keys during a tropical storm. Humphrey Bogart is the returning war veteran who takes on the villains, and Lauren Bacall is on hand as one of the people on the wrong end of Robinson's gun. Somewhat similar in tone to Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not (which also featured Bogart and Bacall), this moody movie captures a certain despair offset by the bond between individuals united by common purpose. Claire Trevor won an Academy Award for her part as Robinson's alcoholic girlfriend. --Tom Keogh
 Customer Reviews 
HEMINGWAY, THERE'S BEEN A DELAY
Rating: 4
Imagine Hollywood fielding a team of Oscar winners like L.Barrymore, Bogart, Trevor, director Huston, along with Bacall, and E.G.Robinson today! And you think the Yankees have payroll problems? Bogart pays a visit to Key Largo to visit the father of one of his best WW2 soldiers, only to discover that former mob leader (Robinson) and his men have taken over Barrymore's Hotel. With a hurricane approaching, Bogart senses correctly that Robinson is fearful and vulnerable without a gun. Bogie intentionally plays coward to help insure the safety of the hostages, then agrees to take the entire gang of counterfeiters back to Cuba, once the hurricane has passed.Trevor is left behind as a has-been, and Bacall is both chagrined and heartbroken by Bogart's apparent desertion. Improbably, Bogie succeeds in killing all of the gangsters aboard ship,in a totally believeable sequence;something that James Bond would be proud to imitate 17 years later. Movie was aided by a rock song years later(with false lyrics). The movie is very dated, but also very well done. Look for Jay Silverheels in a minor role, 2 years before joining Clayton Moore on television's 'The Lone Ranger".
OLD MEMORIES
Rating: 5
I LIVED IN SUMMERLAND KEY FLORIDA - THIS VIDEO BROUGHT BACK MEMORIES THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN - I'M GOING BACK TO LITTLE PALM ISLAND THIS SUMMER - THE DVD WAS EXCELLENT - THE BLACK AND WHITE VIDEO WAS SO CLEAR AND BRIGHT - IT LOOK LIKE IT WAS JUST PRODUCED.
Edward G. Robinson Overpowers
Rating: 5
"Key Largo" was made in 1948, during the height of the studio system, and when Warner Bros. ruled the roost. Humphrey Bogrart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez; they don't make casts like *that* anymore.
Although Bogart and Bacall have top billing, the movie really revolves around Robinson's character, syndicate kingpin Johnny Rocco, who's taken over a sleepy family-run hotel on the Florida coral reef Key Largo (hence the movie's title).
Although he was stood only about five feet tall, no one had a bigger screen *prescence* than Edward G. From "Little Caesar" to "Double Indemnity" to "Key Largo," when Eddie Robinson spoke, the forcefulness of his conviction demanded your eyes and ears be glued to the screen. Older viewers may remember seeing him at the movies, rather than just on the TV. Well, I was only lucky enough to have seen him on the big screen once, at the Biograph on W.57th in Manhattan, as Rocco. It's the most memorable intro of any of his movies: Sitting in the bathtub, smoking a cigar and reading the paper, while a fan on a chair lazily whirls to keep him cool. The camera slowly dollies toward him, and when his mug filled the screen, the packed audience broke out into spontaneous applause. And he didn't even say a word! Now, *that's* screen presence!
Actually, it's sort of unfair to Bogey, who even though he was the hero in this movie is still overshadowed by Robinson's overpowering presence and performance. The key to Bogart's screen persona was his cool demeanor and his deadpan wisecracks, which he pulls off wonderfully, as he always does. But Edward G. Robinson's performance is larger-than-life and Johnny Rocco is a force to be reckoned with, almost as powerful as the hurricane which sweeps over the Keys. Before method acting came to the fore, no actor could better capture basic emotions like fear and anger like Robinson. He's literally trembling with fear at the prospect of his death at the hands of the storm. He's like a cornered rat. "Show it your gun, why don't you?" Bogart quips, "Shoot it, maybe it'll stop."
The other standout performances in "Key Largo" are Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Temple and Clair Trevor, as the nightclub singer who's lost her youth and her looks. Barrymore is the movie's moral center, and he helps Bogart to find the guts he needs to confront Rocco. Trevor's impromptu performance of a blues song notches the tension up, and provides the movie with the strongest clash of wills between Robinson and Bogart. In reality, Trevor was still a looker at the time, and let wardrobe and makeup "mature" her to play the "lush" Gay Dawn. It's the performance of her career, and she deservedly won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for it.
Masterfully directed by John Huston, who made many movies with Bogart ("Maltese Falcon," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The African Queen" are the other most noteable), "Key Largo" was filmed by the great German director of photography Karl Freund, who was DP on Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and "M." Freund's dramatic use of light and shadow recalls the great German Expressionistic movies, and the low angles from which he filmed Robinson establish Rocco with menacing forcefulness. Max Steiner's Wagnerian soundtrack is rife with heavy brass and percussion and paints a devastating aural portrait worthy of Rocco and the hurricane which ravages the island.
Whenever I lament the demise of larger-than-life drama in today's movies, "Key Largo" is one of the movies I turn to time and again to renew my faith in the art of moviemaking. Director Billy Wilder once commented on the demise of "movies" in favor of today's special effects extravaganzas on the one hand and stagey, parched, artsy "films" on the other. "Key Largo" reminds the viewer, to borrow a line from Janet Leigh, that "there really was a Hollywood."
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