Taken hostage by a band of gangsters at a hotel in the island of Cayo Largo under the threat of a hurricane is the plot basis for this story by Richard Brooks (later screenwriter and filmmaker as important as fire and Word (1960) and slub) on the roof of zinc (1958) based on the work of the playwright Maxwell Anderson. The right direction of actors in charge of John Huston (director came rolling Let There Be light (1946), documentary and last part of the controversial trilogy about World War 2 nd) that accompanied the photograph of Karl Freund (Metropolis (1927)) and the good music work of the legendary composer Max Steiner (what the wind (1939), Casablanca (1943?)) would make this work an undisputed classic of the film noir. The director would have as protagonist and tormented hero of the film Humphery Bogart, an actor with whom he collaborated on several occasions since the debut of filmmaker in the essential Falcon Maltese (1941) and that this time would be in the skin of Frank McCloud. Highlighting the work of Romanian origin actor Edward G. Robinson protruding before a cast full of movie stars with their interpretation of the mobster Johnny Rocco, (a profile, the gangster who had already launched him to stardom in the early days of the 1930s with its role in the remarkable film by Mervyn LeRoy, little Caesar (1931) as Rico Bandello). I make mention of the actress Claire Trevor as the alcoholic lover of Johnny Rocco, role that earned her best actress cast and Lionel Barrymore figurine, with his character of James Temple, the owner of the hotel (where the actor was already really in a wheelchair due to your arthritis problems) invalid.

One of the scenes that seemed significant (and at the same time funny) during the vision of this work is the moment where Edward G. Robinson slaps to Humphrey Bogart, after the latter take a glass of whiskey to Claire Trevor. As a curiosity, this would be the last film that would roll together the legendary couple Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall after have and have not (1944), the big sleep (1946), the sinister path (1947). Sentence to remember: better a live coward than a dead hero. Original title: Key Largo.

Director: John Huston. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward g. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore. Original author and source of the article