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.
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