Currently Watching - Key Largo (1948)

As recommended by Steve Hayes, The Tired Old Queen at the Movies, I am watching Key Largo. It is ok but I am not a huge fan of film noir like Steve is.While I would not recommend the movie I certainly encourage you to follow Steve Hayes. The best part of this movie were Lionel Barrymore and Claire Trevor.

Ex-Major Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) visits a Key Largo hotel run by James Temple (Lionel Barrymore), the father of McCloud's World War II buddy, and his daughter-in-law Nora (Lauren Bacall), the friend's widow, to pay his respects. Temple is deep in grief over the death of his son, and is under the impression that he died a hero in Italy. McCloud does not disabuse him of this, and at Temple's urging he relates exactly the story Temple wants to hear, although it is apparent that McCloud was the actual hero. Nora later confirms this, having had a letter from her husband with the true story.
McCloud finds out that the visitors who are staying at the hotel, supposedly on a fishing trip, are actually notorious fugitive gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) and his gang. The gangsters have crossed by boat from Cuba, where Rocco is living in exile, to make a "delivery". Once Rocco's identity is revealed by McCloud, the mobsters drop the pretense and take over the hotel, keeping McCloud, Temple and Nora at bay with the threat of violence; meanwhile, a hurricane is brewing up, heading in the direction of the Key.
After a local deputy is subdued and captured by the gang, Frank rejects an apparent opportunity to kill Rocco when the gangster throws him a pistol and dares him to shoot. McCloud's unwillingness to act raises doubts about his courage, but Rocco's abasement of his alcoholic mistress, singer Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor), and his hand in the murders of the deputy and two local Indians convinces Frank that Rocco must be stopped. His chance comes when Rocco forces Frank to pilot the gang's boat back to Cuba. Once at sea, Frank kills off each member of the gang one-by-one, ending with Rocco. The gang dead, he turns the boat back to Key Largo, where Nora awaits him.