Key Largo (1948)

John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) directed this smart thriller about a gangster (Edward G Robinson) who holds a number of people hostage in a hotel on the Florida keys during a tropical storm. Humphrey Bogart is the returning war veteran who takes on the villains, and Lauren Bacall is on hand as one of the people on the wrong end of Robinson’s gun. Somewhat similar in tone to Howard Hawks’s To Have and Have Not (which also featured Bogart and Bacall), Key Largo is a moody movie captures a certain despair offset by the bond between individuals united by common purpose. Claire Trevor won an Academy Award for her part as Robinson’s alcoholic girlfriend.

1948, B&W, 100 minutes