![]() In many ways, Key Largo is the definitive post-war film. This is partly because Key Largo finds a way, in spite of its hallmark genre era patented cynicism, to be the ultimate cinematic affirmation of the worldview that sprang up for the Greatest Generation following the Second World War. Robinson’s best take on a wiseguy in the part of Johnny Rocco, but with its coherent plotting and lack of sexual innuendo between Bogie and a surprisingly softer Bacall, it sometimes flies under the radar with fans looking for the quintessential post-war noirs. It is definitely a crime picture filled with gangsters, including Edward G. Indeed, while the movie is fondly remembered as a Bogie and Bacall sizzler in the world of booze, broads, and bullets, it is the one “noir” film that they did which is not truly noir. Yet, as great as their two collaborations with Howard Hawks are, To Have and Have Not (1944) and The Big Sleep (1946), I found myself again drawn to their fourth, final, and most underrated shared project, John Huston’s Key Largo (1948). But on the flipside, he was never her patsy either, and each film bucked the odds of a noir hero’s chances for survival when confronted by cool blonde hair (and make no mistake, Bacall was as cool as they came). Much like their legendary off-screen romance, Bogie spent three consecutive noir films matching wits with the much younger Bacall and never once seemed her senior or superior. But how could she when her earliest films always had her squaring off against Humphrey Bogart? He was too much an equal for the dame-est dame who ever lived to be lured to a cataclysmic end. ![]() However, Corman would pretty much make the movie all over again in 1961 and call it Creature from Haunted Sea.Often described as simply “the voice,” this is the woman who possessed that confidence-annihilating siren call a quintessential femme fatale who somehow never proved fatal. There was a sequel planned - that’s why this ends like it does - but it never happened. It’s things like that that sell a movie, you know. Linné Ahlstrand, who plays the doomed barmaid Natalie, was Playboy’s Playmate of the Month for July 1958 and Richard Sinatra, who plays Marty, was a cousin of Ol’ Blue Eyes. It was created and operated by Chris Robinson, who would go on to play the lead in William Grefé’s Stanley.īasically, a gang gets together and tries to steal some gold, but ends up waking this monster and, well, bad things happen. It was mostly angel hair and paper mache monster.” The crew nicknamed the beast Humphrass. ![]() In this case he added a monster to it.Īs for the titular beast, Hellman would say, “They literally spent two dollars at the dime store. He kept making Key Largo just different versions of it. I think that was one of his favorite movies. Hellman would say, “What interested me about it was that it really wasn’t a monster movie. ![]() It also played on the s how on Saturday, Apat 4 PM.įilmed at the same time as Ski Troop Attack and released on a double bill with The Wasp Woman, this Monte Hellman movie would mark the first of his many projects with Roger Corman. EDITOR’S NOTE: Beast from Haunted Cave first played on Chiller Theater on the second week of the show when it still aired on Sundays.
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