Film Review
Whilst its exotic non-urban location may suggest otherwise,
Key Largo is one of the best
examples of classic American film noir, a stylish dramatic thriller in
which director John Huston succeeds in recreating the oppressive mood
and tension of his first film,
The Maltese Falcon
(1942). Karl Freund's distinctive noir cinematography, with
its angled shots, deep focus photography and harsh lighting, maximises
the visual impact of the film's taut screenplay (based loosely on a
play by Maxwell Anderson), making this an enjoyably tense, atmospheric work.
Key Largo benefits as much
from its stunning performances as from its stylish film noir look and
masterful narrative pacing. Once again, Humphrey Bogart plays the
cynical loner who ends up as the good guy who gets the girl -
admittedly, he is starting to look typecast but his performance is
still impeccable. Lauren Bacall is as eye-catching as ever in
this, her fourth pairing with Bogart (her real-life
husband). Claire Trevor won the film's one and only Oscar,
in the Best Supporting Actress category, for her tortured portrayal of
the gangster moll Gaye Dawn.
The real star of the film is none of the above but Edward G. Robinson
who, as the principal baddy Johnny Rocco, is a joy to watch. In
an amazing performance that has echoes of Rico Bandello from
Little Caesar (1931), the part
that catapulted the actor to stardom in the 1930s, Robinson dominates
this film. One minute he is the swaggering, sadistic bully, a man
capable of carrying on an uninterrupted conversation whilst having
someone shave him with a cutthroat razor. The next, he is the
casual bystander, exuding the blameless innocence of an affable
pastor. And then, when the tables look as if they might be
turning, he becomes a man struggling valiantly to contain his
mounting terror. By this stage in his career, Robinson was
very reluctant to play the part of
a gangster yet again, but here he absolutely relishes the part, and
turns in one of his very best performances.
As was quite prevalent in films made in the aftermath of the Second
World War,
Key Largo has a
very noticeable political subtext. It expresses a concern (held
by Huston and others) that, having defeated fascism in Europe, America
might sink into the same kind of moral complacency that allowed
gangsterism to thrive in the aftermath of WWI. The crux of the
film's plot is that Bogart's character has ultimately to make the
decision whether he should just look after his own self-interest or act
to crush the evil represented by the gangsters. This crisis of
conscience is a thinly veiled allegory for the choice that America
faced at the time the film was made and, some would argue, continues to
face at the present time.
© James Travers 2008
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Next John Huston film:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Film Synopsis
With time on his hands, World War II veteran Frank McCloud decides to
pay a visit to James Temple, the wheelchair bound father of a friend of
his who was killed in the war. Temple runs a cheap hotel with his
daughter-in-law, Nora, on Key Largo, one of the small islands which
make up the Florida Keys. When Frank arrives, he is surprised to
find that the hotel already has several guests. He is somewhat
less surprised to find that they
are all gangsters, in the employ of the notorious former gangland boss
Johnny Rocco. As a fierce hurricane suddenly breaks outside the
hotel, the inside is about to get even stormier...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.