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46 out of 58 people found the following comment useful :-
Superb cast and taut drama, 5 April 2004

Author: byght from Washington, DC

While chiefly remembered as a Bogart/Bacall vehicle, this story of expatriate gangsters commandeering a sleepy tropical hotel is, in actuality, a tightly directed ensemble piece with acting chops to burn.

There's Edward G. Robinson as Johnny Rocco--the brash, boisterous, sleazy gangster whose frailties (cowardice and a yearning for better times) gradually unfold before us. There's Lionel Barrymore as James Temple, the delightfully feisty and crusty hotel owner overcome with revulsion at Rocco's presence. There's Thomas Gomez, Harry Lewis, Dan Seymour and William Haade as Curly, Toots, Angel and Ralphie--Rocco's colorful but hard-edged thugs who are presences unto themselves. There's Claire Trevor as Gaye, Rocco's declining, alcoholic moll who symbolizes more than anything how far Rocco has fallen.

That's an awful lot. Too much scenery-chewing from Bogart or Bacall would push it over the top--and director/screenwriter/demigod John Huston knows it. He coaxes remarkably restrained and subtle performances out of his star couple. The romantic tension between them is suggested but never shoved in the audience's face. Bogart's wandering war vet Frank McCloud keeps his lips tight and plays his cards close to the chest--a streetwise outsider through and through. Bacall's Nora Temple lets her anger and distaste pour out through her smoldering eyes more often than her mouth.

Ultimately, the subtlety is so well-hidden between the gigantic performances of Robinson and Barrymore that you might miss just how sophisticated Frank's story is. Disillusioned and drifting since the war, he stops in to visit the wife (Nora) and father (James) of a fallen comrade whose bravery he admired. Implicit in his visit is an unspoken apology that it is he, and not their loved one, who is returning home. The fallen soldier is a constant unseen presence in the film--his bravery and honor mocking what Frank sees as his own cowardice and inability to stand up to Rocco (Bogart's fast-talking explanation of why he didn't shoot Rocco when he had the chance is classic and rare--a protagonist lying to his friends and his audience--"One Rocco more or less isn't worth dying for!"). Frank's eventual decision to take on Rocco and his hoods is a victory against the fear that plagues and shames him.

In a larger sense, this is a true period movie about a generation of men returning home from the greatest conflict the world has ever known. Most of our national memories of World War II are proud and triumphant, but, as with any war, it left countless people scarred physically and mentally. Though Frank is a decorated soldier, he feels somehow that what he did wasn't enough (because he lived and his friend did not?), and he returns back to a country in which he has no place with no real pride or satisfaction. The confrontation with Rocco affords him a chance (perhaps only possible in Hollywood or on the stage, where the story of "Key Largo" was first performed) to make things right with his world.

While it has not aged as well as the better-known films of Bogart's and Huston's careers, "Key Largo" is a film that, for a little investment of attention and thought, will pay big dividends to anyone that really and truly loves movies.

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39 out of 51 people found the following comment useful :-
shock value, 2 April 2004
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

My favorite Bogart movie is also Key Largo. Even before Edward G. Robinson and his hoods take everyone hostage in Lionel Barrymore's hotel there is a tension that does not let up for one second. Movie goers had to be on the edge of their seats in 1948.

There is one scene however that I don't think viewers today can fully appreciate. Lionel Barrymore had been acting from a wheelchair for 10 years and movie audiences were used to that. When Robinson and his goons goad him to a futile gesture of bravado, Barrymore rises from that chair and moves slowly towards the snickering Robinson. He swings and misses and falls down and Bogey and Bacall pick up Barrymore and bring him back to his wheelchair. The shock value of that scene for 1948 audiences would have a dimension that can't be appreciated now.

Robinson's Johnny Rocco is based on Lucky Luciano who had been deported a few years back. He's evil incarnate and Humphrey Bogart as Frank McCloud is the jaded, cynical former idealist who redeems himself and becomes the countervailing force for good. They play well against each other in a reverse from the 1930s Warner gangster flicks where Robinson was usually the good guy.

Who could have known this would be the fourth, last, and best of the Bogey and Bacall teamings.

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35 out of 46 people found the following comment useful :-
Edward G. Robinson at this best, 21 June 2004
Author: Dennis Littrell (dalittrell@yahoo.com) from SoCal

Key Largo is just one of John Huston's many memorable films that somehow always seem to transcend the intention--the Hollywood intention being to make a few bucks--and to this day still plays very well and indeed appears as something close to a work of art. It features what I think is one of Edward G. Robinson's finest performances as Johnny Rocco, a sociopathic gangster holding the off-season personnel of a seaside hotel hostage as he concludes a counterfeit money deal.

The story begins as Major Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) pays a visit to the family of one of his G.I. buddies who was killed in Italy during WWII. He finds the welcome from the hotel's only "guests" chilly except for Gaye Dawn (a funny and perhaps prescient Hollywood stage name) played by Claire Trevor who is drunk and befriends him. After a bit McCloud discovers that the hotel's owner Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall) and her invalid father-in-law James Temple (Lionel Barrymore) have been tricked into allowing Rocco's gang to stay and now, as a tropical storm begins to blow, are being held at gunpoint. McCloud's delicate task is to keep the megalomaniac and murderous personality of Rocco under some control so that he doesn't murder everyone.

Note that this is a splendid cast, and they all do a good job. Note too that Huston adapted this from a play by the versatile American playwright Maxwell Anderson. So the ingredients for a good film are clearly in place; and aside from some self-conscious mishmash with the Seminoles of Florida, this is a success. Anderson's desire to explore the psychopathic personality (some years later he adapted William March's novel The Bad Seed into a stage play) finds realization in Huston's direction and especially in Robinson's indelible performance. The utter disregard for the lives of others and the obsessive love of self that characterize the sociopath reek from the snares and callous laughter of the very sick Johnny Rocco. I especially liked the crazed and thrilled grin on his face when he emerges from the hold of the boat in the climactic scene, gun in hand, imagining that he has once again fooled his adversaries and is about to delightfully shoot Humphrey Bogart to death. What I loved about this scene was that Huston did not think it necessary to contrive a fight in which the good guy (Bogart) beats the bad guy by fighting fair. What happens is exactly what should happen, and without regard for the fine points of Marquis of Queensberry-type rules. Also good is Rocco beginning to sweat in fear of his life as the storm moves in while Bogey gives us his famous laugh and grin as he assesses the essential cowardice of the petty gangster.

Lauren Bacall, in one of her more modest roles, does a lot without saying much, and Lionel Barrymore is very good as the cantankerous old guy in a wheelchair. Claire Trevor actually won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her work, and she was good as the alcoholic moll with a heart of gold. Robinson won nothing, but he really dominated the picture and demonstrated why he was one of Hollywood's greatest stars.

Bottom line: watch this to see the gangster yarn meld into film noir with overtones of the psychoanalytical drama that characterized many of the black and white Hollywood films of the forties and early fifties.

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29 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
The film may lack substance and coherence but it is first-rate drama and entertainment…, 7 April 2005

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

It is difficult to resist the temptation to compare William Wyler's "The Desperate Hours" with John Huston's "Key Largo."

Here again the drama arose when a gangster and his thugs sought a temporary hideout by moving in on an innocent family, and were unable to get away until a raging hurricane had blown itself out…

The family were Lionel Barrymore, complete with wheelchair, and Lauren Bacall, apparently without make-up—stunningly attractive… Their home was a small hotel in Florida, and "just passing through" was a tough and somewhat mixed-up good guy Humphrey Bogart… The gangster was Edward G. Robinson…

For Bogart "Key Largo" was another "The Petrified Forest," but this time he was the disenchanted idealist and Edward G. Robinson the vicious, antiquated symbol of raw brute force…

Paul Muni had appeared in the original Maxwell Anderson play in 1939, and director John Huston and Richard Brooks updated the piece to make it more contemporary… As a film, it was treated in a slightly heavy-handed, overly talky manner, displacing action in favor of strong character studies of a group of disparate individuals trapped by a kingpin gangster…

Claire Trevor won an Academy Award as Gaye Dawn, Rocco's boozy mistress who was willing to lower herself to any depths for the mere expedient of getting a drink… She is finally pushed too far by Rocco, has accepted too many insults and been rejected once too often, so she decides to help the besieged prisoners…

Lauren Bacall was Nora Temple, an antiseptic dreamer who persisted in believing that evil should always be opposed by a valiant Sir Galahad and temporarily has her illusions shattered when Bogart apparently doesn't agree to fit into her mold…

As Bacall's grandfather, Lionel Barrymore was another heroic figure who, could afford to be a verbal hero, knowing that a retreat to the safety of his confining wheelchair could protect him…

Edward G. Robinson as Rocco was a mass of contradictions… Brutal with a gun safely in his hand, dreaming of the glories he once knew in the good old days when he was a big shot, all he has left are the memories… He was a man whose criminal wisdom permits no ethics and few feelings… He offers Bogart an empty gun to shoot it out with him... He is also a man afraid, who sweats when the hurricane approaches and poses a threat to his safety... He detests Bogart because of his wartime heroism, mocking and taunting him because his courage is something differing in Rocco's own unheroic life…

As war hero Frank McCloud, Bogart was the most complex character of all… Disillusioned, tired of his war-induced killings, unwilling to risk himself in any new test of courage ("One Rocco more or less isn't worth dying for"), he is now a complacent shadow of his former noble self… He, like Barrymore, seeks an idyllic world where "there's no place for Johnny Rocco." However, his pattern has been too well established… He, like Claire Trevor, can be pushed only so far and then reason and restraint seem no longer acceptable as an alternative to action…

With such a cast "Key Largo" could not fall to hold the attention… Yet, for all its workmanlike craft, it did not reach the level of Wyler's "The Desperate Hours." Bogart, as a disillusioned war veteran who could not rouse himself to action until the last few minutes, left one frustrated: looking for the vicious power that he was to show as the gangster in the later film…

Edward G. Robinson, commanding, convincing, was still not so coldly frightening a villain as Humphrey Bogart… And, one can imagine how the idea of the storming hurricane appealed at the time… The violence and the drama outside, as the wind tore at the palm trees and the waves threatened to swallow the little wooden hotel, would surely underscore and heighten the tensions within... Not so! And not only because the studio storm was not always up to nature's level...

What William Wyler realized was that the suspense of innocence trapped as hostages by wickedness was vastly heightened by the contrast with a quiet, undramatic, everyday setting… No hurricane was needed to put the desperation in "The Desperate Hours."

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25 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
One of Bogart's, Bacall's & Robinson's best., 5 February 2005

Author: Paul Browne from Oldham, England.

Basically this film is almost like a play. The whole story is more or less (apart from the ending) shot in a rustic Florida hotel. A great location and setting, a real credit to John Huston.

In short, Frank McCloud (Bogart) an ex war hero and living at no-fixed-address, visits (by request) his dead war buddy's father (barrymore) & widow (Bacall). As he arrives, it doesn't take long for Frank to work out the Hotel is temporarily hostage to a big mob gangster - Rocco (robinson) and his cronies.

The film instantly grabs you, it looks beautiful, there is a lot of substance and well thought out scripts, nothing glamorous or smart, just very good story telling. A good side line to the story, are the Native American clan, who due to an approaching hurricane need to find shelter, their plight is placed nicely into the story. There is a scene in which Bacall introduces Bogart to the oldest member of the clan, a 100 and something year old Native woman which is just so genuine, I still don't believe this woman was an actress, Huston must have improvised this into the script.

Not only is Bogart superb in this, but also the whole cast. It goes without saying Edward G Robinson's performance was second to none as to was - his right hand man (Harry Lewis I think), Bacall & Rocco's girlfriend - Ziggy..pretty much the entire cast.

The whole thing ties up well, without Spoilers it does have a great ending. This is a must not just for Bogie fans but for anyone who can appreciate an intelligent film.

-Paul Browne.

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21 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
Here's looking at you, Bogie (and Eddie)..., 25 April 2000
Author: keihan (keihan@usit.net)

When I think of the colorized version that, regrettably, is the only copy of this excellent film noir in my video store, I can't help but think of a comment Orson Welles made to a friend a few days before his death in regards to Turner's plans to colorize "Citizen Kane"(thankfully defeated, because of the fact that it came under Welles' original contract with RKO, which specified that only Welles would make changes): "Keep Turner and his g**d*** Crayolas away from my movie." Watching this version of "Key Largo" more than proves Welles' point; the lighting becomes terrible in several key scenes, particularly the closing ones on the boat, to whereas before, you could see what was going on, now you can just barely tell a thing. That said, it can't destroy the fine work that this film truly is.

I was led to this film by my mother, who called it one of her favorites from Bogie (another being "The African Queen") and now I can see why. Leave it to John Huston, the man who was bold enough to make a true adaptation of Dashiell Hammet's "The Maltese Falcon", to give us a tightly woven drama that never feels forced. Bogie's Frank McCloud is probably the most silent of all the strong-silent types he ever played, barely saying more than is necessary for the scene he's in. Such reticience leaves some large blanks for the audience to fill; though he says that he doesn't care one way or another, I really don't believe him. The feeling I get the entire time he's in the clutches of Johnny Rocco's gang is that he's just waiting for his moment. After all, you don't survive WWII's Italian campaign and not know when it's best to stay still and when it's best to make your play. That's why he threw away the gun offered to him by Rocco; no way was Rocco's gang just going to let their boss be gunned down even if the deck was stacked in Rocco's favor. The murders of the deputy and the Indians on the lam just adds to the need to take care of business.

I was a little disappointed to see Bacall in such a minor role (it still had to be better than what she was given, sans Bogie, after this film, from reports I've heard), but her spitting in Rocco's face is an undeniably powerful moment. As for Edward G. Robinson, one of Hollywood's original tough guys imported from Bucharest, Romania, he literally runs away with the part of Johnny Rocco, the former big-shot with delusions of grandeur. He's a casually vicious, ruthless fount of hate, bitter over his fallen status and hungering for a comeback. But he still fails to draw an important lesson from his soused ex-galpal: times change and not necessarily for the better. He may have defied a ton of police in his day or gun down a deputy in this one, but it still doesn't change the fact that the outside world (nicely symbolized by the hurricane) can and will eat him alive without the slightest trace of indigestion. All Rocco is is a dinosaur: proud, strong, but too stupid to realize that his kind have become extinct.

In fact, that may very well be why McCloud was such a natural match for Rocco as an opponent. McCloud had changed his spots many times in his life to fit the job situation he was in, while Rocco has never been anything else but what he is now. Small wonder that one can see the confrontation between them coming to full steam. This core element, and all the others mentioned and not mentioned here, help make "Key Largo" one of the great unsung classics of Humphrey Bogart AND Edward G. Robinson. Here's looking at you, tough guys.

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15 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Brilliant, 4 April 2004
Author: bluenotejazz

Obviously someone below couldn't tell a well directed, highly regarded classic film the likes of Key Largo from a Turkey Sandwich - but thanks for the remedial effort nonetheless.

This movie doesn't get the attention of a Casablanca or a Maltese Falcon, but it's definitely one to see - and not just for the giants on the screen. The build up of tension between the main characters is set well against the backdrop of the impending storm seemingly threatening to cave their hotel in literally and figuratively. Frank's character arc from jaded passiveness to the restrained heroism he is inescapably drawn towards has been seen in other Bogie characters, but usually those guys were either willing participants on the trigger end of their guns, or they were fulfilling their own agendas as well. However Frank McCloud has no ulterior motives. Here, there is a refreshing change from the usual Bogie-isms; Frank doesnt engage in any verbal bravado with Rocco, there are no confident smirks on his face, or promises to 'get even' later.

As for Barrymore, he was just simply an acting genius. Look no further than the scene with him getting out of his wheelchair in a futile attempt to fight Rocco as proof. Fantastic. E.G. Robinson delivers his vitriol so well on-screen, you cant help but hate his guts and wait for his come-uppance. Both Barrymore and EGR were great at delivering speeches - extended lines of dialogue while 'flying solo' - you can almost here the room go quiet as they worked the script. Lauren Bacall's chemistry with her Husband was so natural and unforced, even the scenes with no dialogue show how much they were in love - albeit true she doesnt exactly carry the workload in this one.

Some of the scenes with the Indians seem a little odd, but it still works in the context of the entire movie. Don't overlook this great film!

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13 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Florida Storm Takes Place of Neon Lights in Huston's Noir Classic, 25 March 1999

Author: Donald J. Lamb from Philadelphia, PA

Humphrey Bogart and John Huston must be considered the artistic equivalent of De Niro-Scorsese. Huston and Bogie made several films together, this being one of their best. But there is another combo that comes to an end in cinema's history: Bogie and Bacall appear on screen for the final time together. It is their finest collaboration. Edward G. Robinson, "Little Caesar" himself, returns to gangster form after years of playing the good guy (Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY, Welles' THE STRANGER) and has one of the more memorable entrances in film villain history. We see him in a tub, smoking, a fan in front of him. He seems to be decaying in a way, but "Johnny Rocco" is still to be reckoned with. This is the Robinson we all love, demented and wise, sinister yet humorous. The Largo Hotel is the setting and a hurricane of drama, heroism, and rain is coming.

Huston stages the film much like the play it is based on, yet we never feel confined. There is enough colorful dialogue to go around. Surprisingly, much of it is not by Bogart, who plays probably his most quiet role, promoting his character through facial gestures more than words. He plays off Robinson and his posse of mobsters perfectly in this way, allowing Edward G. to dominate the majority of the film, which is the point. Lionel Barrymore plays the chair-ridden owner of the Largo and his daughter Bacall is falling in love with Bogart, naturally. They are at the mercy of Rocco and his boys, all of whom have some itchy trigger fingers. Bogart is just buying his time to make his move. The finale is extremely well done and foresees suspense endings to come.

Lauren Bacall is one of the most beautiful actresses to grace the screen, especially in black and white. Her perfect features look sculpted in this light and her sensual stare is enough to make you melt. Her smoky voice and attitude is an excellent match for Bogie's simple, heroic character. Film Noir becomes Florida Noir here, as the lightening outside the windows of the hotel play games with the shadows and atmosphere of events inside. Robinson murders an innocent man with the look of a terrifying ghost, lightening flashing on him and all. The thunder substitutes for the sound of cars and street-life normally heard in classic noir pictures. KEY LARGO is a very good film, dark and suspenseful, in the most pleasant of locales.

RATING: 8 of 10

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
The genius of John Huston on display!, 2 August 2005

Author: jotix100 from New York

John Huston was a remarkable man who was an excellent director, as well as a superb adapter of other people's materials, as he clearly shows in "Key Largo". This movie, based on Maxwell Anderson's play, is a triumph for Mr. Huston, who co-wrote the adaptation with Richard Brooks, another man who would go on to direct his own movies.

Mr. Huston had an uncanny way to get the best people in the business in his projects. Karl Freund's black and white cinematography is wonderful, as is the haunting music provided by Max Steiner, a man who was a genius in his own right for always giving that special touch to the scores he was hired to do.

"Key Largo" has been compared with "The Desperate Hours", in which Humphrey Bogart also appeared. In fact, both were theatrical plays, and perhaps that's the basis of the comparison. As much as Mr. Huston tried to open "Key Largo", it still has a certain feeling of the drama one would get in a stage production.

This is a film that has Humphrey Bogart playing a good guy, Frank McCloud, not his usual bad guy from other movies. Also, we see a rather quiet Lauren Bacall as Nora Temple; in her other films with Mr. Bogart she played more sultrier roles. Edgar G. Robinson is perfect as the crooked Johnny Rocco, the gangster that has decided to take over the Largo Hotel to do his business. In a great performance, Mr. Robinson shows an ugly side. Claire Trevor plays a gangster moll Gaye Dawn and has a great opportunity. Also Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Gomez and Harry Lewis are seen in supporting roles.

"Key Largo" will not disappoint because it shows a tense situation in which at the beginning seems a hopeless cause, but the hurricane will change things around and justice and sanity will prevail.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
"You were right, when your head says one thing and your whole life says another, your head always loses.", 22 September 2004

Author: classicsoncall from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Repeat viewings of "Key Largo" will only enrich your appreciation of it. The superb cast and directing by John Huston make this a must see film for fans of the 1940 classics, particularly fans of stars Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Lauren Bacall.

Bogey and Bacall made four films in a space of four years, this being their final appearance together. Bogey's character, retired Army Major Frank McCloud seeks out the family of a war buddy killed in action. He finds Nora Temple (Bacall) and her father James Temple (Lionel Barrymore) as the owners of a seasonal hotel in Key Largo, and comes to realize that all is not quite right in the serene setting. Bogey's response to an inquisitive Nora Temple is about to be tested - "Life on land has become too complicated for my taste".

Edward G. Robinson's appearance as mobster Johnny Rocco is suitably delayed in the film to build suspense, and he breaks on screen with all of his classic nuance - the sneer, the braggadocio, the "What's with you wise guy?" sarcasm. Rocco suffers from a fall from past glory, a time when he was regarded as "the one and only", a virtual emperor of the crime world. Now he's a two bit hoodlum, holed up in a Key Largo hotel, hoping to cash in on a counterfeit money scam. With him are a coterie of henchmen, and an alcoholic moll superbly portrayed by Claire Trevor, earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance.

Johnny Rocco is desperate to make a mob connection to unload his counterfeit money stash, and refuses to submit to the might of an impending hurricane. Fueling Rocco's desperation is a stoic Bogart - "You don't like it Rocco - the storm; show it your gun why don't ya, if it doesn't stop, shoot it!". Helpless in the face of the coming storm, Rocco's anxiety mounts, and in a tense scene he confronts war hero McCloud by throwing him a gun to force a showdown. But Bogey's not buying it - "One Rocco more or less isn't worth dying for".

In a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, McCloud must decide to man a boat to Cuba for Rocco's gang to make a getaway. In the one improbable scene of the film, Trevor's Gaye Dawn character secretly maneuvers Rocco's gun away from him and slips it into Bogey's hand, while surrounded by all of the bad guys. How Rocco would not have missed his weapon (until later on the boat) is an element that is not suitably dealt with in the film.

McCloud's resourcefulness while skippering the getaway boat is sheer cunning, taking out one mobster after another with surgical precision. The desperate Johnny Rocco even shoots one of his own men rather than have his authority challenged. McCloud remains silent to Rocco's taunts, causing the gangster to force his own hand and become a target for the heroic McCloud.

As Bogey heads back to port and the hurricane fades, the film ends on a feel good note as Nora Temple opens the shutters of the hotel and the sunlight streams in - all is well in the world again; the symbolism is extraordinary.

Bogey and Robinson appear in four other movies together (Kid Galahad, Brother Orchid, The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, and Bullets or Ballots), but this is the only one in which they share equal footing, Robinson cast in the lead role in the other films over Bogart. For Robinson fans, the Clitterhouse film is a blast and is recommended to see him in an offbeat role.

Another point of interest for film buffs, Jay Silverheels appears in an uncredited role as Tom Osceola, one of the Seminole Indian brothers on the lam from the law in the movie's back story. For an actor as typecast as Silverheels (Tonto in the Lone Ranger), it's always a pleasant surprise and treat to see in an entirely different setting.

"Key Largo" ranks right up there with "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Maltese Falcon", and perhaps just a notch below "Casablanca" among Bogart's finest films, and a true classic worthy of the name.

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