Rating: 
Summary: "This time, see, the mobs'll get together see. Yeah..."
Review: "...next time, the mobs'll get together," Curly sputters on about the mob's failure during prohibition, drinking himself silly during the hurricane's climax.
Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) comes to Key Largo shortly after his service in WWII and stays at an inn run by a widow, Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall), of his friend. Her father-in-law is played by Lionel Barrymore, Drew Barrymore's great uncle. As a hurricane begins to brew in the Gulf of Mexico, another human one increases in intensity as the plot progresses, as this parallel is noted on the back cover of this dvd. The innkeepers and guests find themselves not only hostage to a tempest but also to a handful of mobstars, their ringleader, Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson), his sidekicks, Curly and Angel. The bad guys begin to sweat bullets as the fierce wind's sounds and vibrations begin to shatter glasses and facades. Mr. Temple begins to pray asking God to send a huge wave crashing their way and to make sure it lands on Rocco!
Masterful movie, I like this movie more than Casablanca, although the African Queen is really still my favorite Bogie movie. The movie came out in 1948 based on a play by Maxwell Anderson. This movie was directed by John Huston. The acting in this movie is superb, and not only by the chief characters. Great film to watch during hurricane season.
Rating: 
Summary: A really bizarre film
Review: "Key Largo" has to be one of the most bizare, disappointing movies I think I've ever seen. I had high hopes for it, having heard so much about how Bogart and Bacall got together during the making of the film. At first, I was thrilled when the film's introduction showed the scenic Florida Keys from an ariel shot. The Keys are truly a place of amazing beauty, history and intrigue. But 90% of the film takes place inside a small hotel, which makes me question why this film was filmed in the Keys. And Bogart is hardly in the film - Edward G. Robinson gets most of the camera's attention. I would think that with Bogart the film would have gotten more of a budget and better effects. Even a little bit of scenery during the film would have been nice. Another silly thing about this film was the old Seminole woman whom Bogart and Becall help out of a boat. What the heck was that all about??? Again, this was a really bizare film and I can't understand why it received so much positive attention. It was very, very strange.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Film Dramas
Review: "Key Largo" is one of the great film dramas. It is truly refreshing, in this day of "in your face" violence and sex, to see a film that builds tension almost entirely through dialog and characterization. This is one of Humphrey Bogart's most underrated performances. Bogart plays a returning WWII veteran who has become somewhat jaded by his war experience. He comes to south Florida to visit the father (Lionel Barrymore-Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life) of a dead war buddy, who owns a hotel and is living with his son's widow, played by Lauren Bacall. Bacall, especially, is noteworthy in that she has very few speaking parts and communicates fear and anger primarily through looks, glances, and body movements. This is in contrast to her previous roles ("To Have and Have Not" and "The Big Sleep") in which was glamorous and sensual. In a way she is barely recognizable here. Edward G. Robinson is perfect as the insecure and easily manipulated gangster, Johnny Rocco. The entire film centers around Rocco and his cronies taking over the hotel and keeping the above characters hostage during a hurricane. The movie becomes a psychological cat and mouse game between Bogart and Robinson. At first, Bogart's "head" tells him to watch out for himself, but later he follows his "heart" in attempting to protect and free the hostages. Bogart is understated in communicating a man who is psychologically wounded by the war and who questions the very values he and others fought and died for. By the end of the film he becomes a heroic figure, but not in the mundane or facile sense. He is heroic in that he sublimates his own feelings of survival for that of the greater good and recognizes the need for one man to fight the evil represented by Rocco. This is directed by John Huston ("The Maltese Falcon") and in spite of the fact that all the action takes place in just a few rooms, his direction is dynamic and action packed.
Rating: 
Summary: BARE KNUCKLED BOGART & RUTHLESS ROBINSON
Review: "Key Largo" is the exciting suspense/drama directed by the legendary John Huston. It features Bogie at his care worn, worldly best and pits him against the best mug since Cagney - Edward G. Robinson. Plot wise: when a retired war hero comes to tell the father of a slain soldier about his son's final days, he discovers that the hotel they are staying in has been over run by gangsters during one of the worst hurricanes to ever hit the Florida coast. This film costars Lauren Bacall and the fantastic Lionel Barrymore.
Warner Home Video's DVD is looking pretty darn good. The gray scale of this black and white movie is well represented and the blacks are definitely black. Shadow delineation and contrast levels are superb with fine detail promenantly evident throughout. Fine details occasionally shimmer and there is some minor edge enhancement but nothing that will terribly distract from your viewing experience. The audio is mono and, although at times strident, is well represented throughout. We get no extras on this disc, a real shame.
Rating:
Summary: Edward G. Robinson Overpowers
Review: "Key Largo" was made in 1948, during the height of the studio system, and when Warner Bros. ruled the roost. Humphrey Bogrart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez; they don't make casts like *that* anymore.Although Bogart and Bacall have top billing, the movie really revolves around Robinson's character, syndicate kingpin Johnny Rocco, who's taken over a sleepy family-run hotel on the Florida coral reef Key Largo (hence the movie's title). Although he was stood only about five feet tall, no one had a bigger screen *prescence* than Edward G. From "Little Caesar" to "Double Indemnity" to "Key Largo," when Eddie Robinson spoke, the forcefulness of his conviction demanded your eyes and ears be glued to the screen. Older viewers may remember seeing him at the movies, rather than just on the TV. Well, I was only lucky enough to have seen him on the big screen once, at the Biograph on W.57th in Manhattan, as Rocco. It's the most memorable intro of any of his movies: Sitting in the bathtub, smoking a cigar and reading the paper, while a fan on a chair lazily whirls to keep him cool. The camera slowly dollies toward him, and when his mug filled the screen, the packed audience broke out into spontaneous applause. And he didn't even say a word! Now, *that's* screen presence! Actually, it's sort of unfair to Bogey, who even though he was the hero in this movie is still overshadowed by Robinson's overpowering presence and performance. The key to Bogart's screen persona was his cool demeanor and his deadpan wisecracks, which he pulls off wonderfully, as he always does. But Edward G. Robinson's performance is larger-than-life and Johnny Rocco is a force to be reckoned with, almost as powerful as the hurricane which sweeps over the Keys. Before method acting came to the fore, no actor could better capture basic emotions like fear and anger like Robinson. He's literally trembling with fear at the prospect of his death at the hands of the storm. He's like a cornered rat. "Show it your gun, why don't you?" Bogart quips, "Shoot it, maybe it'll stop." The other standout performances in "Key Largo" are Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Temple and Clair Trevor, as the nightclub singer who's lost her youth and her looks. Barrymore is the movie's moral center, and he helps Bogart to find the guts he needs to confront Rocco. Trevor's impromptu performance of a blues song notches the tension up, and provides the movie with the strongest clash of wills between Robinson and Bogart. In reality, Trevor was still a looker at the time, and let wardrobe and makeup "mature" her to play the "lush" Gay Dawn. It's the performance of her career, and she deservedly won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for it. Masterfully directed by John Huston, who made many movies with Bogart ("Maltese Falcon," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The African Queen" are the other most noteable), "Key Largo" was filmed by the great German director of photography Karl Freund, who was DP on Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and "M." Freund's dramatic use of light and shadow recalls the great German Expressionistic movies, and the low angles from which he filmed Robinson establish Rocco with menacing forcefulness. Max Steiner's Wagnerian soundtrack is rife with heavy brass and percussion and paints a devastating aural portrait worthy of Rocco and the hurricane which ravages the island. Whenever I lament the demise of larger-than-life drama in today's movies, "Key Largo" is one of the movies I turn to time and again to renew my faith in the art of moviemaking. Director Billy Wilder once commented on the demise of "movies" in favor of today's special effects extravaganzas on the one hand and stagey, parched, artsy "films" on the other. "Key Largo" reminds the viewer, to borrow a line from Janet Leigh, that "there really was a Hollywood."
Rating:
Summary: BARE KNUCKLED BOGART & RUTHLESS ROBINSON
Review: "Key Largo" is the exciting suspense/drama directed by the legendary John Huston. It features Bogie at his care worn, worldly best and pits him against the best mug since Cagney - Edward G. Robinson. Plot wise: when a retired war hero comes to tell the father of a slain soldier about his son's final days, he discovers that the hotel they are staying in has been over run by gangsters during one of the worst hurricanes to ever hit the Florida coast. This film costars Lauren Bacall and the fantastic Lionel Barrymore.
Warner Home Video's DVD is looking pretty darn good. The gray scale of this black and white movie is well represented and the blacks are definitely black. Shadow delineation and contrast levels are superb with fine detail promenantly evident throughout. Fine details occasionally shimmer and there is some minor edge enhancement but nothing that will terribly distract from your viewing experience. The audio is mono and, although at times strident, is well represented throughout. We get no extras on this disc, a real shame.
Rating:
Summary: Classic good versus evil story!
Review: A fine film that magnificently tells the classic story of good vs. evil. While Bogart's and Robinson's performances are great, Claire Trevor steals the show as the alcoholic has-been night club singer and gangster moll. This film never loses it luster and I wnat to watch it over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: Talk about something...anything!
Review: As the storm rages outside, Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) demands that one of his flunkies "talk about something...anything!" So, one says, "Say, I bet you in a couple of years we get back Prohibition. Only this time, it'll work. Yeah, the gangs will all be together this time. Right?" No response, and the storm doesn't stop. Again, "Say, I bet in a couple of years we get Prohibition back. Only this time, it'll work." Great cast (Bogie, Bacall, Barrymore, Robinson, Trevor, and lots of nameless but not faceless character actors). Not the greatest story, but filled with memorable scenes. They don't make them like this anymore.
Rating:
Summary: Here's Looking at You Kid
Review: Based on Maxwell Anderson's play, the film is about Bogart's McCloud traveling to a rundown hotel in Key Largo, Florida, run by Temple and his daughter Nora. Her late husband served with McCloud in WWII. When McCloud arrives, he realizes that the place has been taken over by Rocco, a deported gangster, and his gang. However, the movie offers so much more.
Edward G. Robinson has a grand time, in Key Largo, portraying crazed gangster Johnny Rocco. He has many fine moments. For instance, there's the first time we see him. He's soaking in a tub, chomping on a cigar, a fan cooling the air. It's comical. Rest assured, it's the last time his character will provide any laughs for us.
Then there are the times he teases wheelchair-bound John Temple (Lionel Barrymore) and his daughter Nora (Lauren Bacall).
He also taunts Major Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart). After he gives McCloud a pistol, he challenges him to "Go ahead. Shoot." McCloud doesn't and Rocco says, with sinister glee, "Looks like you don't want it enough."
He cruelly humiliates his ex-mistress, former nightclub singer Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor). "One thing I can't stand is a dame who's drunk," he thunders. "I mean, they turn my stood. No good to themselves or anybody else."
Her response: "You gave me my first drink, Johnny."
His reply: "Everybody has their first drink, don't they? But everybody ain't a lush."
Maliciously, he continues destroying what little self-confidence she has left. "I got a proposition for you," he says. "Now if you sing us your song, you can have a drink." After she finishes a pitiable rendition of "Moanin' Low," Rocco won't give her a drink because her singing, he says, was "rotten,"
Robinson's finest acting occurs during the storm scene. He expresses what's happening inside his character with some broad physical acting. As the storm rages, Rocco's fear-filled eyes dart in different directions and he begins coming apart. He paces the floor. He sweats. He rages. He knows his gun is of no use against the storm.
Key Largo is Robinson's movie. He steals every scene he's in.
The chemistry between the two leads is much stronger than Casablanca. As many movie buffs, I think of Bacall and not Bergman as the the big H's true leading lady.
I agree with the reviewer who says this movie is better than Casablanca.
Rating:
Summary: Little Giants
Review: Bogart and Robinson. That's what this film is about. Yes, there is Bacall, tall, and sleek as a torpeado. And there's fire in her eyes. But the rumble is between two powerhouses, Titans of the screen. The Florida Keys light-up with crackling lightening and thunder, and Robinson (Rico) steps out of his bath, in his robe, with his cigar, and he is an evil dude. Bogart is no shrinking violet, however. He has killed men in war, and watched his best friends die. He speaks softly, but there is payback coming, payback for the joes who got blown-away in that good war while lowlifes like Rico mopped-up big. The gansters were the parasites, and now the good guys were trapped in a hotel with the worst of them. This film is what alot of post war films were, character studies--good guys who layed it on the line and looked you straight in the eye. They pulled-up there trousers in front of you and you could slap them and they'd never show their hand if it wasn't necessary. Heros. Key Largo is so full of the stuff of backbone and spinelessness it makes a guy want to check his testosterone level after leaving the theatre. Lionel Barrymore is a wounded lion in a wheelchair who growls at the stench of the gansters holding his friends and family hostage at gun point. It's close quarters and steaming hot fun to watch these Titans roar at each other. And oh yes, these were the days bad guys always lost.
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