Key Largo's approximately may favorite movie, give or take an Apocalypse Now here or a Casablanca there. Bogart is a WWII vet paying a visit to the widow (Bacall) & father (Barrymore) of a dead soldier, late under Bogie's command.
Crooks have taken over the hotel for a week during this tourist off-season, evidently awaiting a fellow mug who'll relieve the gang of its stash, counterfeit money. Edw. G. Robinson is Johnny Rocco, gang executive, who's now back in the USA illegally, years after he was deported.
Movie is a great study in the breakdown of group relations: gang members @each other's throats; aimless Bogie's ambiguous relations with Bacall & Barrymore characters. All while anticipating the hurricane.
Along the way, Bacall realizes that Bogie character was the real hero of the battle, not her late husband. & They realize that Rocco was deported years ago. Review the scene where hoods tease Pop Temple ("Stand your ground!"): Barrymore had been disabled with arthritis for years when the scene calls for him to get up, take a swing @Rocco, & fall down. Also note simmering disdain betw. Ziggy & Rocco ("No more blasting away at each other!"). It's pretty intense cinema.
Anybody notice that the shootout on the boat is more or less a recreation of the battle on that hill in Italy?: Bogie alone, against the forces of evil. The last scene, with Bacall throwing open the curtains, is still a tearjerker for me.
Stellar cast includes Thomas Gomez as Curly ("Hotel Central. We're all together."), Harry Lewis as Toots ("It's guaranteed for life."), the incredible Claire Trevor as gang moll Gay Dawn ("How 'bout a drink? It'll help chase the blues away."), Monte "Ming the Merciless" Blue as Sheriff Wade, & Dan Seymour as Angel: he was also the doorkeeper @Rick's in Casablanca. Jay Silverheels (Tonto in the TV series The Lone Ranger) is Tom Osceola.
Crooks have taken over the hotel for a week during this tourist off-season, evidently awaiting a fellow mug who'll relieve the gang of its stash, counterfeit money. Edw. G. Robinson is Johnny Rocco, gang executive, who's now back in the USA illegally, years after he was deported.
Movie is a great study in the breakdown of group relations: gang members @each other's throats; aimless Bogie's ambiguous relations with Bacall & Barrymore characters. All while anticipating the hurricane.
Along the way, Bacall realizes that Bogie character was the real hero of the battle, not her late husband. & They realize that Rocco was deported years ago. Review the scene where hoods tease Pop Temple ("Stand your ground!"): Barrymore had been disabled with arthritis for years when the scene calls for him to get up, take a swing @Rocco, & fall down. Also note simmering disdain betw. Ziggy & Rocco ("No more blasting away at each other!"). It's pretty intense cinema.
Anybody notice that the shootout on the boat is more or less a recreation of the battle on that hill in Italy?: Bogie alone, against the forces of evil. The last scene, with Bacall throwing open the curtains, is still a tearjerker for me.
Stellar cast includes Thomas Gomez as Curly ("Hotel Central. We're all together."), Harry Lewis as Toots ("It's guaranteed for life."), the incredible Claire Trevor as gang moll Gay Dawn ("How 'bout a drink? It'll help chase the blues away."), Monte "Ming the Merciless" Blue as Sheriff Wade, & Dan Seymour as Angel: he was also the doorkeeper @Rick's in Casablanca. Jay Silverheels (Tonto in the TV series The Lone Ranger) is Tom Osceola.