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The war ceases abroad and then continues at home, gangsters in the hotel evoke a domestic Occupation. Back from the Italian campaign, the major (Humphrey Bogart) drops by the Keys archipelago to see a fallen comrade's wife (Lauren Bacall) and father (Lionel Barrymore), the place is closed but for a gang of hoodlums, "guests by special arrangement." Capo (Edward G. Robinson) with cigar in bathtub, plus soused moll (Claire Trevor) and itching henchmen (Thomas Gomez, Harry Lewis, Dan Seymour). "What's worse, a dumbbell or a wise guy?" The Maxwell Anderson play, dried up and keyed to To Have and Have Not as a study of bravery and cowardice, a John Huston forte. Between the invasions of The Petrified Forest and The Desperate Hours is Bogart the ambiguous protector, Robinson meanwhile draws on Little Caesar for one last lampoon. (In his juiciest bit of business, he whispers indecencies in Bacall's prim ear.) The old house, sweating and trembling before the approaching hurricane: "The wind blows so hard, the ocean gets up on its hind legs and walks right across the land." Humid close-ups break the proscenium, wall mirrors expand it, howling wind and swinging light fixtures have their parts to play. Fugitive Seminole brothers in the wings, not "to take Florida back for the Indians" but to become sacrificial victims for grumpy Uncle Sam on his wheelchair. Huston's documentary on the battle of San Pietro is summarized in the protagonist's account of a soldier's grave, and there's Trevor laying the groundwork for Susan Tyrrell in Fat City. Valise of counterfeit money, Prohibition nostalgia, boat to Cuba. A story of "ancient evils, ancient ills," resolved amid water and mist. Polanski remembers the shaving scene in Cul-de-Sac, Penn in Night Moves takes issue with the happy ending. With John Rodney, Marc Lawrence, Monte Blue, William Haade, and Jay Silverheels. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |