![]() And though 'Key Largo' would sadly mark the final time Bogart and Bacall would share the screen, its reliance on substance over style lends their cinematic marriage a newfound maturity and serenity that's fascinating to behold. ![]() (At one point Bogart caresses Bacall’s hair, but that’s the full extent of their intimate physical contact.) Like several message-oriented dramas of the late 1940s, 'Key Largo' puts its ideas before its stars, painting memorable portraits of evil, nobility, and social injustice. No sexy banter or clever quips lace their dialogue, and they don't kiss or even hug during the course of the film. Yes, the potent chemistry between the two still exists, but it's less overt, growing out of the material instead of fueling it. Adopting an introspective tone, but still packed with heated confrontations, crackling tension, and gunplay galore, 'Key Largo' is a searing ensemble drama that takes the Bogart-Bacall partnership to a higher plane. John Huston’s high-voltage adaptation of a little-known Maxwell Anderson play may look like a typical Warner Bros gangster flick or standard film noir in the vein of the pair's previous pictures, but it's really a movie about serious moral and political issues and the complex nature of the human soul. ![]() Of the four films Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together, ‘Key Largo’ stands apart.
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