7.7
Key Largo
1948, 1h 40min -
The final film pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is a torrid noir chamber piece adapted from Maxwell Anderson’s play of the same name and directed with sweltering, claustrophobic tension by John Huston. A hurricane swells outside, but it’s nothing compared to the storm brewing within the walls of the Hotel Largo in the Florida Keys. It’s there that sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) holds hotel owner Nora Temple (Bacall) and her invalid father-in-law (Lionel Barrymore) hostage at gunpoint—with world weary ex-GI Frank McCloud (Bogart) as perhaps the one man capable of standing up to him. Claire Trevor received a best supporting actress Oscar for her searing portrayal of Rocco’s gold-hearted, boozy moll.
