Key Largo (film)
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| Key Largo | |
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| Directed by | John Huston |
| Produced by | Jerry Wald |
| Written by | Maxwell Anderson (play), Richard Brooks, John Huston |
| Starring | Humphrey Bogart Edward G. Robinson Lauren Bacall Lionel Barrymore Claire Trevor Marc Lawrence |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Karl Freund |
| Editing by | Rudi Fehr |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | July 16, 1948 (NY City) |
| Running time | 101 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
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.
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[edit] Plot
Frank McCloud (Bogart) visits a small backwater Key Largo hotel run by crippled 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.
[edit] 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
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.[1]However, the painted sky backdrop on the far side of the tank used in the water shots, distorted perpective 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.
[edit] Culture Reference
In "Key Largo" song by Bertie Higgins.
[edit] External links
- Key Largo at the Internet Movie Database
- Key Largo at the TCM Movie Database
- The Internet Archive holds a radio adaptation of the film, originally broadcast on November 28, 1949 by Lux Radio Theater.
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