Key Largo (film)

Infobox_Film
name =Key Largo

---

caption =
director =John Huston
producer =Jerry Wald
writer =Maxwell Anderson (play),
Richard Brooks,
John Huston
starring =Humphrey Bogart
Edward G. Robinson
Lauren Bacall
Lionel Barrymore
Claire Trevor
Marc Lawrence
cinematography =Karl Freund
music =Max Steiner
editing = Rudi Fehr
distributor =Warner Bros.
released =July 16, 1948 (NY City)
runtime =101 min.
language =English
budget=
awards =
imdb_id =0040506 |

"Key Largo" is a 1948 crime film starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, and Claire Trevor. This was the fourth and final film pairing of married actors Bogart and Bacall. Trevor won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance.

The movie was supposedly adapted from Maxwell Anderson's 1939 play, but in reality has very little to do with it, although Anderson's name still appears in the credits. The director was John Huston.

Plot

Frank McCloud (Bogart) visits a small backwater Key Largo hotel run by wheelchair-bound James Temple (Barrymore) and his daughter-in-law Nora (Bacall), the widow of Frank's World War II friend. The hotel has been temporarily taken over by notorious fugitive gangster Johnny Rocco (Robinson) and his gang.

Frank at first appears indifferent to the situation, but Rocco's treatment of his alcoholic mistress Gaye (Trevor) and his hand in the murder of two local Indians and a police officer convinces Frank that Rocco must be stopped. His chance comes when Rocco forces Frank to pilot the boat by which the gang intends to escape to Cuba. Once at sea, with no hostages to worry about, Frank is able to kill every member of the gang, one by one, Rocco last of all. Frank then returns to Nora.

The subplot turns on Temple's grief over his dead son; he is under the impression that his son died a hero in Italy. Because the son was, in fact, a coward, McCloud resists relating any tales about the Temple boy, despite Mr. Temple's urging. When McCloud relents, he tells exactly the story Mr. Temple and the widow want to hear, although it is apparent that McCloud was the hero that he's allowing the Temple boy to be.

Cast

*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. It is rumored that Trevor's character is based on gangster Lucky Luciano's mistress Gay Orlova.
*Thomas Gomez as Richard 'Curly' Hoff
*Harry Lewis as Edward 'Toots' Bass
*John Rodney as Deputy Clyde Sawyer
*Marc Lawrence as Ziggy
*Dan Seymour as Angel Garcia
*Monte Blue as Sheriff Ben Wade
*William Haade as Ralph Feeney

Differences from the play

In the play, the gangsters are Mexican bandidos, the war in question is the Spanish Civil War, and Frank is a disgraced deserter who dies at the end.

Production

According to the Internet Movie Database, the movie was filmed in only 78 days, virtually all on the Warner Bros. lot, except for a few long shots in Florida used for the opening scenes. An alternate claim is that much of the film was shot on location at the Caribbean Club on Key Largo in southern Florida. [http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=florida_keys@208&cur_section=nig&property_id=40778] However, the painted sky backdrop on the far side of the tank used in the water shots, distorted perspective of the painted background representing the shore in other shots and the visible wires holding up miniature palm trees during the storm sequence make it clear this was not shot on location.

Robinson had always had top billing over Bogart in their previous films together. For this one, Robinson's name appears to the right of Bogart's, but placed a little higher on the posters, and also in the film opening credits, to indicate Robinson's near-equal status. Robinson's image was also larger and centered on the original poster.

Exterior shots of the hurricane that delays the gang's getaway were actually taken from stock footage used in "Night Unto Night", a Ronald Reagan melodrama made the same year by Warner Bros.

Cultural references

*The 1981 song "Key Largo", by singer-songwriter Bertie Higgins, draws heavily on influences from the film. This song hit the Top 10 on the pop chart in the United States and went to #1 on the adult contemporary chart.

External links

*imdb title | id=0040506 | title=Key Largo
*tcmdb title | id=598 | title=Key Largo
* The Internet Archive [http://ia301125.us.archive.org/3/items/Lux14/Lux_49-11-28_Key_Largo.mp3 holds a radio adaptation of the film, originally broadcast on November 28, 1949] by Lux Radio Theater.