Key Largo

A cynical army veteran (Humphrey Bogart) and others are held prisoner in a sweltering Florida hotel by a deported gangster (Edward G. Robinson) during a hurricane.

On the surface, writer-director John Huston proffers a hostage drama, highlighted by the slow-burning tension between Bogart and Bacall. Beneath the surface, he explores post-war disillusionment in America, with Bogart wondering what he fought for and Robinson struggling to understand why everything can’t be like it once was.

Robinson shines in a role that Huston originally wanted to cast against type and give to Charles Boyer. A shame, since Boyer or even Cary Grant could have introduced the suave villain years before Alan Rickman did so smashingly in Die Hard in 1988. Still, Robinson plays the part he’d been perfecting for years and nobody does the traditional gangster better.