Key Largo (1948) - John Huston

Edward G. Robinson going head to head with Bogart and Bacall in a noir directed and co written by John Huston. What's not to like? It's a real corker of a film that easily lives up to what you'd expect from it. Robinson is deliciously nasty as Johnny Rocco a gangster very much in the mold of those he spent his early years perfecting. Major Frank McCloud (Bogart) is at a loose end after WWII, and Nora (Bacall) is the widow of one of the men that died under him in Italy. So when Bogie turns up at the Key Largo hotel run by Bacall and her dead husbands Pa, to find it over run with Chicago's nastiest you know things aren't going to be smooth. Throw into that a subplot about some on the run native Americans and the police snooping around trying to find them, and just to up the ante there is the imminent arrival of the Miami mob. What more could you want for a tension filled hour and a half? Did someone say hurricane? Well there's one of them too.

This was the the third time round for Huston and Bogart, and the fourth and last film together for Bogie and Bacall. Edward G. gives Bogart's leading man status a run for it's money, the scene where he destroys Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor) is my favourite moment of the film. Just horrendous to watch. Despite having two huge actors like Bogart and Robinson, Huston manages to keep the film on an even keel. Robinson is kept out of sight for the first twenty minutes or so, when he does turn up he tears through the film in much the same way as the hurricane. The tension between him and Bogart builds slowly but surely throughout the film. The banter between them is as good as it gets in these type of affairs. Of course you know good will triumph, Bogie will get the girl and rid the world of Johnny Rocco, just as sure as you know James Bond won't die no matter what predicament he finds himself in.

The whole film is studio based, with just a smidgen of location second unit photography at the beginning just to set the scene. Everyone gets their close up, but as I said earlier it's the battle between the world weary Bogart and the O.G. of Robinson that's the real meat of the film. Key Largo builds and builds to the eventual show down between the two of them. It's one of those films that you never tire of watching, Huston was a man on fire during these years, knocking out classic after classic. This one (just like his others from this time) looks beautiful, just witness that last shot of Bacall opening the shutters and being engulfed in retina burning sunlight. Gorgeous.

In a Lonely Place (1950) - Nicholas Ray

Bit of strange one this, it's noir but not as we know it. There's no guns, gangsters, running from the cops, heists, no huge shadows even, in fact it's none of the things we come to expect from a noir flick. But then this isn't just a film noir, it's got touches of melodrama and has a murder mystery running through the background to boot. At it's heart though it's a guy meets gal film, romantic in a dark smokey twisted sort of way.

Bogart plays screenwriter (see I told you it wasn't your run of the mill noir, didn't I), Dixon Steele. Dix has a temper on him, the opening scene alone see's Bogie offering to lamp someone when he stops his car at a traffic light, he ends giving just about every person that he runs into a slap at some point or other in the film. He's not a likable guy, yet played by Bogart you can't help but feel for him. Those hangdog features, the sad eyes, the downcast looks they almost make you forget just what a heel the guy is, almost. Gloria Grahame is Laurel Gray, newly moved in across the courtyard from Dix. You know those women that only seem to exist in American films from the 50's, all pointy bras and sassy in a way that no person on earth could be? Well that's Gloria. She's no dumb broad, she's independent and a great foil for Bogart. You wouldn't call her a dame, not to her face at any rate. Well of course Dix falls for her and that's really what the film is about. There is a murder in there but that's kind of secondary (it happens off screen), it pushes our lovers together and then pulls them back apart. It keeps the pressure on the relationship, since both the cops and the audience are uncertain whether Dix did the bad deed or not. Gloria first meets Dix when she provides him with an alibi. It's one of the many great scenes in the film between the two leads, not great in the way it's lit, directed or edited, great in the way the dialogue is delivered by Grahame and Bogart. The two policemen in the room with them melt into the background, I think it's around here that it becomes obvious that Ray is going to focus on the relationship between these two, and not the murder that had been the focal point up to now.

Any film that is going to put a screenwriter under a microscope had better be well written, and In a Lonely Place is just that, and then some. The plot is as tight as a seventies footballers perm, the dialogue is the sort that you wished you'd said, yet know that if you cribbed it people would think you a right wally. 'I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.' Wonderful stuff, Bogart does this kind of thing in his sleep. The timbre of his voice is perfect for these kind of lines, he really sells them. He even makes smoking seem cool, you can see why a generation took him to their hearts. He may have only had three expressions when acting, but he uses them so devastatingly. I really don't know what more to say about this film, since I don't want to give away any plot. It really is one of those films that deserves to be praised to the heavens. Put it this way, from now on if I read a list of great films from the 50's and this isn't on it, then I'll know just how clueless said list is. Convinced yet? What is the lonely place that the title eludes to? Is it the the site of the murder, Hollywood itself or Dixon's heart? I know what I think, I'll be surprised if you can guess how it all pans out, now there's something you can't write about every film.

I've seen this twice, this time the way God intended (at the cinema) and the print was beautiful. There are a couple of great lighting moments when Bogart's eyes are highlighted as he goes into a frenzy telling a story, which are the sort of touches I adore in these older films. I'm not really all that au fait with Nicholas Ray (hey that rhymes, maybe I should make a hipster T with that on it), but that's all going to change this year. He's someone who I'm determined to see a few films by before 2011 becomes 2012.

The African Queen (1951) - John Huston

Of course this is one of those films that everyone has seen time and time again, a timeless classic that no true film fan would get to almost forty without seeing, right? Um, well everyone it would seem except me. This is just one of the many so called classics that I've never seen. Not that I haven't wanted to, it just happened that our paths haven't crossed until now. The same goes for Gone With the Wind, Grease, Top Gun and a whole host of others. Although truth be told I've gone out of my way to avoid those three. Still the important thing is that I've seen it now, and better than that I can totally see why generation after generation have kept this films flame flickering. For me the genius of the film wasn't John Huston's direction, James Agee's screenplay or even Jack Cardiff's glorious Technicolor cinematography, no it's the on screen chemistry between Hepburn and Bogart. Together they really spark off one another, and make their fate something that you really care about.

For the few that aren't already acquainted with the story of The African Queen, I'll briefly run through it. It's September 1914, Rose (Hepburn) and her missionary brother are doing Gods work in deepest darkest Africa. Charlie (Bogart) is a the polar opposite of Rose, a swarthy sweaty uncouth tramp steamer operator. The first world war breaks out, the Germans raid the village where Rose is based, her brother dies and Charlie offers to sail her out of danger. You can see where all this is heading can't you? Like all good road movies (and make no mistake that's exactly what this is, a road movie without the road), there are adventures aplenty, each bringing our couple closer together. They're heading for a huge lake to destroy a German gunship, supposedly they are going to Macgyver up a couple of torpedoes out of the bits and bobs on Bogart's boat. This leads to one of the best lines in the film when Bogart claims 'There ain't nothing so complicated as the inside of a torpedo', except we all know that he is about to embark on a journey with the one thing in life that is infinitely more complex - Rose. Oh how will it end?

To be honest there isn't much suspense in the film since it's fairly obvious that neither star will be making the journey upstairs. That doesn't stop it being a joy to watch though since the pleasure comes from the two leads battling their way down stream, which I guess in it's own way is just a metaphor for the way relationships work. Or am I reading too much into it? I like the fact that neither of them were spring chickens anymore, Hepburn isn't covered in lippy and has a birds nest haircut that Robert Smith would have envied for the majority of the film. Bogart as I mentioned earlier looks like a hobo, you can practically smell him through the speakers.

This was shot on location in the Belgian Congo which adds to the sweaty feel of the film, although Huston isn't so good at marrying the studio footage with that shot on location. So while the studio bound scenes look just that, the African location scenes look as lush as one would expect. Funnily enough Jean Renoir was also taking those huge cumbersome Technicolor cameras out on location too that year, although he was in India making (for me at least) the superior The River. Funny old world. So to sum up, this is a perfect Sunday afternoon film, I can't see it ever becoming greater than any of those other Bogart/Huston films for me, but then when you're up against Key Largo, The Maltese Falcon or best of all The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, it's not all that surprising is it?