Frank McCloud: “When your head says one thing and your whole life says another, your head always loses.”
The fourth and final movie made starring power couple Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, the film noir crime drama Key Largo (1948) was co-adapted and directed by John Huston (The Misfits; The Asphalt Jungle), adapted from Maxwell Anderson’s Broadway play of the same name – something very noticeable with it basically being set in one non-moving location until the climax.
Set on the titular island in Florida, army veteran Frank McCloud (Bogart – Dark Passage; The Harder They Fall) finally arrives at Hotel Largo to visit wheelchair bound James Temple (Lionel Barrymore – It’s a Wonderful Life; Grand Hotel) and the man’s daughter-in-law Nora (Bacall – Dark Passage; Misery) – James’s son, Nora’s husband, was under McCloud’s command when he died serving in Italy during World War II.
With the area buzzing with law enforcement, namely Sheriff Ben Wade (Monte Blue) and Deputy Sheriff Clyde Sawyer (John Rodney), due to two natives who have escaped prison recently, as well as a hurricane that is soon supposed to hit the area, upon entering the closed for the summer hotel, McCloud is greeted rather gruffly by a gang of heavies named Richard ‘Curly’ Hoff (Thomas Gomez – Ride the Pink Horse), Edward ‘Toots’ Bass (Harry Lewis), Ralph Feeney (William Haade), Angel Garcia (Dan Seymour), and bluntly tipsy but still more friendly woman at the bar, Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor – Murder, My Sweet; who won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this feature).
As the coming storm starts to batter the place, they soon discover that all these goons are there protecting the perfectly named Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson – Vice Squad; Double Indemnity) – a gangster so notorious that he has been exiled to Cuba from the United States. Taking everyone in the hotel hostage, he is planning a dirty deal with the Miami syndicate during the worst storm the island has seen in at least a decade.
Losing their ship and its captain due to the man’s fear of the hurricane, Johnny Rocco forces McCloud, who has experience with boating, to captain the gang and their dirty money to Cuba as soon as the storm starts subsiding. Hesitant but with limited options, what will McCloud choose to do? As both Temple’s feel a connection with the army vet, is there anything they can do to help him? And let us not forget Gaye Dawn, who despite being with the entourage, has been treated poorly by them the whole time. . . what might she consider doing during this tense situation?
An intriguing character study, Bogart bides his sweet time as a man who is uncertain of what to do while knowing he is greatly unnumbered, while Bacall’s Nora is flummoxed by his seeming lack of bravery after hearing the stories she has read about McCloud in her dead husband’s correspondences. But the most fascinating performance has to be Robinson’s Johnny Rocco (loosely based upon Al Capone), who desperately wants to be taken seriously, but since being banished seems to have lost a bit of his gusto. A dirty rotten scoundrel who still uses every trick in the book to win, yet also never appears to be fully in control (despite McCloud sometimes feeding his ego), fear seeps into his lively visage due to the uncontrollable weather, the many hiccups that seem to be occurring to his plan, and what should have been a pretty easy getaway being anything but. Claire Trevor must also be mentioned, as the non trained singer was not prepared for the singing scene when Huston sprung it on her. . . making it messy, fragile, and awkward – exactly what he wanted from the sequence. Famed longtime character actor Marc Lawrence (Hold That Ghost; The Asphalt Jungle) also appears as the Miami contact Ziggy – a nice little surprise.
With Key Largo also adding plenty of charm and visual style, sweat is often seen on the faces of every character, while Karl Freund’s stormy cinematography often stands out, and one cannot forget the practical hurricane effects that help add to the realism of the narrative. Matched with a solid, moodily tense score by the great Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind; The Searchers), it certainly adds to the drama. So, make sure to see Bogie and Bacall’s last movie, it is no counterfeit.