Rating of
3/4
"Key Largo" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/08/12
A ruthless mobster and his gang hold a group of hotel guests hostage during a hurricane on the Florida Keys. Another Noir from John (The Maltese Falcon) Huston featuring the classic pairing of Bogart and Bacall, this film does not quite live up to the promise of these ingredients but that's a hell of a pedigree to live up to. Making Bogart a do-gooder war hero and Bacall a doting widow takes the edge off their usual cynical, hard-bitten sparring and this overly wholesome approach means that the crackling chemistry they have shown in their other films is compromised. Robinson and Claire Trevor as his soused moll provide the best moments and his sneering diatribes against Bogie's moral stand are great. The hurricane enclosed setting makes for a nice pressure cooker environment in which the protagonists show their true colours and puts an interesting spin on the usual Noir ingredients. Maybe not the most original or inventive examples of the genre and it misses the firecracker dialogue of the likes of The Maltese Falcon, but it is still effective, atmospheric and constantly entertaining.
