Gangster in Key Largo
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Gangster in Key Largo |
| Original title | Key Largo |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Huston |
| script |
Richard Brooks , John Huston |
| production |
Jerry Wald for Warner Brothers |
| music | Max Steiner |
| camera | Karl friend |
| cut | Rudi Fehr |
| occupation | |
| |
Key Largo (Alternative title: Port of vice , Original: Key Largo ) is in black and white twisted American gangster movie from the year 1948 by John Huston with Humphrey Bogart , Lauren Bacall and Edward G. Robinson in the lead roles. The script is based on the play Key Largo (1939) by Maxwell Anderson .
A disaffected World War II veteran visits the young widow and father of a fallen man from his unit, who run a hotel in Key Largo , Florida . The former gang boss Johnny Rocco has rented a room there. During a hurricane , Rocco and the other residents of the hotel confront.
action
After the end of World War II, the discharged US officer Frank McCloud visits James and Nora Temple, the father and young widow of a fallen soldier from his unit. Nora and her father-in-law run a hotel on the Florida offshore island of Key Largo. The hotel has been hijacked by a group of guests who turn out to be former gang boss Johnny Rocco and his henchmen. Rocco is waiting for his "business partner" Ziggy to arrive and then return to Cuba , as he was expelled from the USA as an "undesirable person" years ago. Nevertheless, he plans to rebuild an organization in the USA like it was before the World War. As a hurricane rises, Rocco harasses both the Temples and McCloud, as well as his own alcoholic mistress Gaye, and shoots an assistant sheriff in search of two jailed Indians. After the storm is over, business partner meets Ziggy, who buys counterfeit money from Rocco. As Rocco's skipper drove away with his boat because of the storm, Rocco forces McCloud to take him and his companions back to Cuba by boat. McCloud agrees, although he knows Rocco will want to get rid of him upon arrival. During the crossing there is an exchange of fire in which all the gangsters are killed. McCloud returns to Key Largo injured, where Nora eagerly awaits him.
background
Original and film adaptation
In Maxwell Anderson's verse, the main character is King McCloud, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War who survives at the cost of betraying his comrade. He visits the bereaved of a fallen man to ask for forgiveness, sees his chance to rehabilitate himself in the fight against a gang of Mexican bandits, and is killed in the process. Huston and his co-writer Richard Brooks moved the plot period to the time after World War II and used Ernest Hemingway's story Have and Not Have for the changed ending , which was filmed in 1944 but had skipped the book's final shootout .
Production and premiere
Gangster in Key Largo was filmed in the studios of the Warner Brothers production company between December 1947 and March 1948 ; a few exterior shots were made on location in Florida, at the Caribbean Club hotel and bar building . On July 16, 1948, the film premiered in the United States. In the Federal Republic of Germany it started on April 6, 1950 under the title Port of Vice ; this was later changed to Gangster in Key Largo . The FSK originally refused to allow the youth to be released on the grounds that "the imagination of young people is overstimulated, and there is a detrimental effect, especially since there are no positive counter values."
subjects
Huston and Brooks created the character of Frank McCloud as a disaffected idealist who saw his hope for peace destroyed. The film was supposed to thematize the dwindling hopes and idealism of the Roosevelt era and the social apathy that followed, which the re-energizing underworld took advantage of. British film critic Peter Ericsson saw Key Largo as a commentary on “the chaos and aimlessness of the post-war era” and “corruption in American politics”, and for James Naremore the film even emphasized “the affinity between the classic Hollywood gangster (Edward G. Robinson) and the Nazi dictators ”.
Because of objections from the American censors , allusions to Rocco's involvement in prostitution and drug trafficking had to be erased, with the result, according to Brian Neve in Film and Politics in America , that Rocco's presence was reduced from the power figure of the current post-war era to one of the past. Georg Seeßlen : "The Edward G. Robinson gangster, who is experiencing a rebirth here, appears like the sum of all gangster roles that the actor has embodied [...] He is particularly angry at the fact that he has been treated for such a long time. Work 'has expelled from his country as if he were' a dirty communist ':' Little Caesar ', who after the war is outraged that society is so ungrateful to the gangsters [...] "
Genre affiliation
Gangster in Key Largo is isolated by film historians, but not unanimously ascribed to the film noir : While Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward count him in their encyclopedia Film Noir to the “noir universe”, Foster Hirsch and Bruce Crowther describe him as only “marginal” to that Noir canon associated. Spencer Selby rates the film as a "border crosser".
synchronization
There are two German dubbed versions of the film, with only the second from 1970 being broadcast today. This was created for ARD based on a dialogue book by Wolfgang Schick , who also directed the dialogue.
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice (1970) |
|---|---|---|
| Major Frank McCloud | Humphrey Bogart | Arnold Marquis |
| Johnny Rocco | Edward G. Robinson | Günter Strack |
| Nora Temple | Lauren Bacall | Karin Kernke |
| James Temple | Lionel Barrymore | Erik Jelde |
| Gaye Dawn | Claire Trevor | Margot Leonard |
| Richard "Curly" Hoff | Thomas Gomez | Kurt E. Ludwig |
| Edward "Toots" bass | Harry Lewis | Herbert Bötticher |
| Angel García | Dan Seymour | Gernot Duda |
| Ralph Feeney | William Haade | Harry Kalenberg |
| Deputy Sheriff Clyde Sawyer | John Rodney | Hans-Michael Rehberg |
| Sheriff Ben Wade | Monte Blue | Heinz Engelmann |
| Ziggy | Marc Lawrence | Erich Ebert |
criticism
"The plot, which is increased to high tension, and the compact atmosphere make the excellently cast and formally closed crime film a highlight of its genre."
"The crime film, which only takes place during one night, is characterized by its atmospheric density and offers a serious study of human behavior in all the routine details of a crime film."
Awards
Claire Trevor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1949 for her portrayal .
literature
- Maxwell Anderson: Key Largo. A Play in a Prologue and Two Acts . Anderson House, Washington, DC 1939, 125 pp.
- Barbara Buhl: Gangster in Key Largo / Port of Vice in Classic Films - Descriptions and Comments / Ed. by Thomas Koebner . 5th edition, Reclam junior, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-030033-6 ; Volume 2: 1946-1962, pp. 89-93.
Web links
- Key Largo in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Key Largo atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Key Largo at Turner Classic Movies (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b John Huston: An Open Book , Da Capo Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1994, ISBN 0-306-80573-1 , p. 151.
- ↑ a b Gangster in Key Largo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ^ Jeff Stafford: Key Largo (1948) - Articles. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved December 27, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Gangsters in Key Largo. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Jürgen Kniep: “No youth release!” Film censorship in West Germany 1949–1990 , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2010, p. 151
- ^ A b Brian Neve: Film and Politics in America. A social tradition , Routledge, Oxon, 1992, ISBN 0-415-02620-2 , pp. 110-111.
- ↑ Review by Peter Ericsson in Sequence magazine , quoted from Brian Neve: Film and Politics in America. A social tradition , Routledge, Oxon, 1992, ISBN 0-415-02620-2 , pp. 110-111.
- ↑ James Naremore: More than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts , University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 1998, ISBN 0-520-21294-0 , p. 125.
- ↑ Georg Seeßlen: The asphalt jungle. History and mythology of gangster films , Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1980, ISBN 3-499-17316-6 , p. 173.
- ↑ Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Ed.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition, Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 , p. 150.
- ^ Foster Hirsch: The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir , Da Capo Press, New York 2001, ISBN 0-306-81039-5 , p. 64.
- ↑ Bruce Crowther: Film Noir. Reflections in a dark mirror , Virgin, London 1988, ISBN 0-86287-402-5 , p. 86.
- ^ Spencer Selby: Dark City: The Film Noir , McFarland & Company, Jefferson (North Carolina) 1984, ISBN 0-7864-0478-7 , p. 156.
- ↑ Gangster in Key Largo in the German dubbing index
- ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 325/1952