Key Largo

film by Huston [1948]

Written by Lee Pfeiffer

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Article History

Key Largo, American film noir, released in 1948, that is widely considered a classic of the genre. It was directed by John Huston, stars married actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and was loosely based on a 1939 play by Maxwell Anderson.

Bogart played against type as Frank McCloud, a cynical army veteran who visits a hotel on Florida’s Key Largo owned by the father (played by Lionel Barrymore) and young widow (Bacall) of one of his military comrades. McCloud finds himself among the captives in the hotel when it is taken over by notorious gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) and his gang of thugs, who are hoping to hide out until they can escape to Cuba. Although he initially seems nonheroic and maintains a stance of noninvolvement, McCloud comes to despise Rocco for his cruelty, and he decides to fight back. The drama is heightened by the violent hurricane battering the island.

Though the plot and characters are hardly original, the interactions between Rocco and the eclectic group of hotel residents held against their will generate suspense. John Huston directed an impressive cast, highlighted by Robinson’s brutal on-the-lam crime kingpin and Claire Trevor in an Academy Award-winning role as his abused and humiliated mistress. A scene in which Robinson forces Trevor’s character, an alcoholic and former nightclub entertainer, to sing for a drink is memorable for its heartbreaking pathos.