Review – Key Largo

Here’s a rarity: a movie that was actually better at home on video than it was in the theater. Of course, my theater experience with it came many years ago when one of my favorite local revival houses (back when there were such things) screened it. This was right around the time that stupid soft-rock ballad with the Key Largo theme came out, so the theater was lousy with date-yuppies who figured the movie would be as “romantic” as the song. Urp. When I watched it at home, I got to spend a lot more time enjoying the dialogue from the movie and a lot less time enduring the pretentious film chat from the next row over. For the most part, the second experience was worth it. When it comes to Bogart and Bacall, I have a slight preference for To Have and Have Not. But this one will do in a pinch. Edward G. Robinson plays a gangster who walks the fine line between cliché thug and epitome of evil. However, he does make a nice foil for Bogart’s subtly heroic vet trying to keep mobsters from killing a hotel owner and his daughter-in-law while the group is hurricane-bound on the title island. Worth seeing