Key Largo (film) Key Largo (film) Key Largo is a 1948 American film noir crime drama directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall. The supporting cast features Lionel Barrymore and Claire Trevor. The film was adapted by Richard Brooks and Huston from Maxwell Anderson's 1939 play of the same name, which played on Broadway for 105 performances in 1939 and 1940. "Key Largo" was the fourth and final film pairing of married actors Bogart and Bacall, after "To Have and Have Not" (1944), "The Big Sleep" (1946), and "Dark Passage" (1947), although they also appeared together
Lauren Bacall not provided a quick career resurgence. "The Big Sleep" laid the foundation for her status as an icon of film noir. She would be strongly associated with the genre for the rest of her career, and would often be cast as variations of the independent and sultry femme fatale character of Vivian she played in the movie. As described by film scholar Joe McElhaney, "Vivian displays an almost total command of movement and gesture. She never crawls." Bacall was cast with Bogart in two more films. In "Dark Passage" (1947), another film noir, she played an enigmatic San Francisco artist.