Key Largo, directed by John Huston, is a post war triller in which Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) travels to a seedy run-down hotel on Key Largo to honour the memory of a friend who died bravely in his unit during WW II.
At
the hotel he meets his friend's widow, Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall), and wheelchair
bound father, James Temple (Lionel Barrymore) who manage the hotel, and they
receive him warmly.
As
a hurricane approaches the three of them soon find themselves virtual prisoners
when the hotel is taken over by a mob of gangsters led by Johnny Rocco (Edward
G. Robinson) who hold up at the hotel to wait for the storm to pass.
Mr.
Temple makes it perfectly clear that they are not welcome but due to his
infirmities his protest are only verbal.
Meanwhile
Frank is reluctant to act, having had a belly full of violence during the war,
but after the constant demeaning treatment of his alcoholic moll, Gaye Dawn
(Claire Trevor), and Rocco’s catalogue of killings, he is forced to take
action.
Key
Largo is a great movie and Bogart and Edward G. Robinson put in great
performances and there is a tension that does not let up for a single second
and keeps you on the edge of your seat from begin to end.
