Review of Key Largo (1948) by Graeme H — 12 Aug 2013

While the 1948 film adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's theatrical production 'Key Largo' may be primarily recalled today as a Bogart/Bacall vehicle, that labelling of this suspenseful film-noir is most unfortunate. This film is, in every sense, an ensemble piece, and it is the picture's ensemble cast which, sixty-five years after its release, make it worth remembering.

There's Edward G. Robinson as the brash, boisterous expatriate gangster Johnny Rocco. His performance slowly reveals a man yearning for a time bygone. Lionel Barrymore is the infirm but nonetheless crusty hotel owner James Temple, who is overcome with venom when Rocco takes the hotel's inhabitants hostage. Claire Trevor is the alcoholic moll whose best days are well past, symbolic of Johnny Rocco's own decline.

Holding this group together are the aforementioned star couple, from whom director John Huston coaxes brilliantly subtle performances that avoid any potential for scenery-chewing.

So subtle is Bogart's performance that it is easy enough to overlook the sophistication of Frank McCloud's story. McCloud is a disillusioned vet who pays a visit to James Temple, and his daughter, respectively the father and widow of a fallen soldier whose bravery he had admired. Unlike so many other American memories of the Second World War that are proud and triumphant, this story more accurately portrays the feelings of a generation of young men returning home from the greatest conflict the world has ever known.