The play 'Key Largo' vs. the movie + other remarks

I saw "KL" today and thought both Edgar G Robinson & Claire Trevor did exceptionally great jobs in their characters--AND Barrymore, Bogart, & Bacall did, also. Nice ensemble company.

Being a lifelong sailor and former resident (10+ years) in Florida & Mississippi during numerous hurricanes, "KL" depicts such storms in a fashion that only those people UNfamiliar with hurricanes could believe (but maybe that was not that much of a problem in 1948 when the country wasn't as weather-wise &/or when such storms were not yet shown on TV/TWC as now?).

But, in 1948, when this film came out, in Gulf Coast hurricane country it would have been seen as quite unrealistic.

C'mon!! -- calm weather, then, within a few hours, a hurricane suddenly moving in, wreaking its havoc, then departing just as suddenly, leaving relatively calm seas???

In reality, seas become increasingly rough for at least several days in advance of the worst of the hurricane hitting and (decreasingly) still equally rough for at least several days after. BUT, this film's unreal version, compressing at least 8 days into a 12 hour span, works very well for the movie narrative.

Below is a summary of the play "Key Largo" on which the film was loosely based.

I'm in a play-reading group which recently finished reading Maxwell Anderson's "Key Largo" which was severely cannibalized to form the basis for this movie. Our group decided to see the "KL" movie to compare versions. There were MANY differences (although a few echoes of similarity remain).

In the Broadway play (starring Paul Muni, Jose Ferrer, Uta Hagen, etc.), Maxwell Anderson set the era as being just after the Spanish Civil War and before WW-2. King McCloud and his best friend & college room-mate, Victor d'Alcala, had dropped out of college and enlisted in the (USA's) Lincoln Brigade to help fight against Franco and fascism. (Hitler & Mussolini were on the other side, supporting Franco with troops, supplies, dive bombing planes, tanks, etc.).

In Spain, in the war, King McCloud, Victor d'Acala, with their handful of buddies received orders to stay and defend a pass allowing Loyalist troops to retreat & survive to fight another day--but doing that probably means their certain death.

This raises the issue for the first time in the play: "do you defend to the death important principles that you believe in OR, if you're unwilling to die for those, do you--in a sense--die anyway?" and this issue will recur several times again.

Maxwell Anderson believed the best answer is "yes" and that IF you die for those beliefs you most treasure, there is a part of you that lives -- (BUT vice-versa).

McCloud deserts his group (including Victor). And they, by defending the pass to support the retreat of the other troops, all die.

McCloud's haunted by their loss and, after discharge, travels through the USA, visiting families of his slain comrades.

His last stop is in Key Largo, FL, where Victor's father, d'Alcala, a blind Spaniard, lives with his daughter, Alegre (Victor's sister). This family runs an inn.

The d'Alcala's inn has recently been taken over by a crook, Murillo, with his gang, who are running petty gambling games, rigged to con and fleece tourists. They stay in one location, moving on when they get too much heat. Typically, by bribing local law enforcement officials, they delay that heat as long as possible.

Here, King McCloud (as "Frank" McCloud/Bogart in the movie) again, several times, faces conflicts in which he can either stand up for values he treasures at the risk of losing his life OR take a coward's approach to save his own life by forsaking those/his values.

King McCloud lives for awhile like this. BUT, at one point, McCloud DOES confront Murillo, fatally shooting him but dying in the process.

Moral to the play: something important within you lives whenever you give your life to uphold it; BUT a vital part of you dies if you turn your back on one of your highest values.

[Note: Anderson's father was a minister and, although M.A. didn't seem to espouse established religions, in "KL's"'moral' there's an obvious parallel to the life of Jesus, the sacrifice of one's life for principles. Anderson himself consistently followed this principle in his own life, e.g., he was fired at least 3-5X from secure, comfortable positions because he
publicly opposed popular sentiments of those days--such as his supporting conscientious objectors in war time and other similar stands. (IIRC, Wikipedia has a good brief summary of his life.)]

In our play-reading group, we fortunately had 2 people familiar with the play "KL" and who examined and redacted/excised/crossed out many parts of the dialog that Anderson wrote but which (in present days seem to) befuddle/obscure some of Anderson's otherwise very fine language.

Anderson was a genius with words and expression.

He wrote the lyrics to "September Song" & to the musical "Lost in the Stars," plus many plays which (I confess) I've yet to read. He was known as a "moral playwright" (I presume because he wrote other plays like "KL"?).

But if "KL" is an example, sometimes he also VERY much didn't know how or when to be concise/succinct and when to rattle on.

As an example, d'Alcala speaks some profound thoughts, beautifully phrased, to his daughter (& us, the audience) after Alegre exclaimed, "Answer him, father, answer.....we're not like this!" She says this in response to McCloud's proclaiming that all people are fundamentally selfish and want to save their own hides at any costs.

The essence, the heart, of d'Alcala's response (and of the play) are these 12+ lines (extracted from otherwise unfortunately obscured in 42 !! lines of much less important prose)

"Why girl, we're all alone,
here on the surface of a turning sphere,....
cutting a great circle round the sun,....
....Where this voyage started
we don't know, nor where it will end....
....And that's our challenge....
....to take this dust
and water and our range of appetites
and build them toward some vision of a god
of beauty and unselfishness and truth--
could we ask better of the mud we are
than to accept the challenge, and look up
and search for the god-head?...."

"Key Largo" (the play) has been a favorite of mine for many decades. It was a good movie BUT I DO wish it'd kept closer to the play's narrative.