Key Largo Overview:

Key Largo (1948) was a Crime - Drama Film directed by John Huston and produced by Jerry Wald.

Academy Awards 1948 --- Ceremony Number 21 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActressClaire TrevorWon
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BlogHub Articles:

The Charm of Lauren Bacall in Key Largo

By Virginie Pronovost on Sep 16, 2018 From The Wonderful World of Cinema

Already three years ago, Crystal from In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood hosted a blogathon in honour of Lauren Bacall. Three years later, she is B-A-C-K with a second edition of the event celebrating “The Look”. Even if I still have mixed feelings on my appreciation for Lauren Ba... Read full article


Key Largo (1948)

on Sep 22, 2017 From Journeys in Classic Film

Describing the Florida Keys always sounds as if a Dashiell Hammett-esque noir voice should be speaking the words aloud: “An isolated strip of land as beautiful as it is hot.” Comprised of several islands the most recognizable is also the title of this John Huston noir, Key Largo. The six... Read full article


KEY LARGO ( 1948 )

By John Grant on Jun 21, 2016 From Noirish

+++As I read this excellent piece by Crystal at In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood, I felt I just had to share it here. And so, with Crystal’s kind permission, I’m doing exactly that! In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood. In an electrifying production, we are introduced to ... Read full article


Warner Archive: Bogie and Bacall in The Big Sleep (1946) and Key Largo (1948) on Blu-ray

By KC on Mar 25, 2016 From Classic Movies

Image Source Warner Archive has released yet another pair of essentials on Blu-ray: the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall classics The Big Sleep (1946) and Key Largo (1948). These films capture the famous twosome at their best, and with casts of supporting actors so colorful that they are constant... Read full article


Key Largo (1948, John Huston)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 14, 2015 From The Stop Button

Key Largo is a grand affair. Humphrey Bogart versus Edward G. Robinson with Lauren Bacall and Claire Trevor in the wings. Not to mention Lionel Barrymore. The film plays beautifully. Director Huston and co-screenwriter Richard Brooks give Bogart and Bacall some lovely, ever so gentle; Bogart’s... Read full article


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Quotes from

[Rocco is showing strain at the height of the hurricane's force]
Frank McCloud: You don't like it, do you Rocco, the storm? Show it your gun, why don't you? If it doesn't stop, shoot it.


Johnny Rocco: After living in the USA for more than thirty-five years they called me an undesirable alien. Me. Johnny Rocco. Like I was a dirty Red or something!


Johnny Rocco: You'd give your left arm to nail me wouldn't you? I could see the headlines now, 'Local Deputy Captures Johnny Rocco'. Your picture'd be in all the papers. You might even get to tell on the newsreels how you pulled if off, yeah. Listen hick, I was too much for any big city police force to handle. It took the United States Government to pin a rap on me. And they won't make it stick. You hick, I'll be back pulling strings to get guys elected mayor and governor before you get a ten buck raise.


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Facts about

This movie was based on Maxwell Anderson's popular Broadway play which featured Paul Muni in the lead role as a fatalistic ex-member of the Loyalist Army who has returned from the Spanish Civil War. For the film version, the time period and the setting were changed. Director John Huston and screenwriter Richard Brooks rewrote the main character, Frank McCloud, making him a World War II veteran who had served in the Italian campaign. The two writers emphasized the idealism of the early Franklin Delano Roosevelt years and how those ideals began to erode as organized crime spread through urban areas.
The character of Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor) was based on real-life moll Gay Orlova (gangster Lucky Luciano's girlfriend), believed at that time to have been executed by a German firing squad. Orlova survived, however, and was known to be living in Paris as late as 1954, trying to join Luciano in Italy.
The film version of "Key Largo" has very little to do with Maxwell Anderson's original play. All the characters in the play had their names changed in the film version. This was very unusual for a play written by Anderson, who was then one of the most highly regarded American playwrights, and whose best-known plays had, on the whole, been filmed faithfully.
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Best Supporting Actress Oscar 1948






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Also directed by John Huston




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Also produced by Jerry Wald




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