11/11/17 Key Largo

Spade as portrayed in Maltese Falcon by Huston is a precursor to the star action movies of today. Jason Borne and Ethan Hunt are straight forward tough guys who have similar character depth as Sam Spade.

Huston is also know for known stars in over the top roles. Movies like Treasure of Sierra Madre, and Prizzi's Honor are of this type. They are kind of the opposite of the star vehicles, these movies border on melodrama. You are not so much watching a character as watching an actor acting. Think Shakespearean dying scene.

For example, Treasure of Sierra Madre starts out interesting. Huston's father plays a world-weary gold prospector who leads to young prospectors played by Tim Holt and Humphrey Bogart in search of the mother load. While the story follows the interaction between the main characters, it's ok. Unfortunately, the end of the movie is all about Bogart's character going crazy. This piece of actor's acting is also accompanied by gothic camera and lighting complements of Huston.

Prizzi's Honor is the same way for the whole movie, you are not following a hitman, you are following Jack Nicholson playing a hitman. All of Nicholson's previous roles are used as a backdrop for this character. You feel comfortable for this character and actions because familiarity with other Nicholson roles. That might be a little unfair since Nicholson has never really merged into a character ever. Even Scorsese didn't get him to play a character in The Departed.

Key Largo is known to be one of Huston's minor works. It is based on a play and does seem very stagey. However, almost every character in the story gets attention. Each of the main characters get to have a smart play at some point in the story. This is a different than most other movies including The Maltese Falcon. One would be hard-pressed to describe the thieves as anything more than bumbling.

In Key Largo Bogart's character, Frank, is a world-weary man back from the war. He is fulfilling a promise given and looking for some peace.

Frank encounters the Nora Temple played by Lauren Bacall. This is not the same character she played in "To Have or Have Not" or "The Big Sleep". There is no out of place come-on like in "To Have or Have Not". Nora is a down to earth reliable women who happy to live a quiet life taking of her father in law and running a hotel.

Franks encounters the gangster Johnny Rocco played by Edward G Robinson. He is not some crazy gangster like "Scarface" with his little friend. He is a guy who thought he was untouchable but now has to rethink everything. This makes him more introspective than usual bad guys. There is a great scene when Nora offends him and Frank talks him out of it. Throughout the movie, Rocco subtlety mocks Franks by calling him soldier. This refers to Frank's service to his country which Rocco thinks is ignorant since you should be out for yourself first. The name reinforces the idea that Rocco thinks Frank is a sucker.

Also watch out for a great role by Claire Trevor as Johnny's alcoholic girlfriend. As a minor character, she gets a few pivotal scenes.

All around, it is a movie with a great ensemble cast with many different characters interacting with each other.