3rd Friday of Film - Key Largo

It wasn't until after I watched this John Huston classic that I realized it's from 1948. Dunno why I hadn't contemplated it's decade, to me it was just Bogey and Bacall, that's it. 1948 people...that's crazy! My grandfather had only been home from France a couple of years. Neither one of my parents had been born, and my grandmother was a whole twenty-eight years old. Zoey's Baachan was just being born in Japan when Key Largo premiered amoungst some serious hype in Hollywood...a Hollywood that still looked up to see "Hollywoodland" written on the south facing side of Mount Lee high up in the Hollywood HIlls. This is a seriously old movie.

Bogey was Bogey, and I really can't see what all the fuss was about with Lauren Bacall (she was a beaut but Grace Kelly has her beat hands down). It was great to notch up another Huston classic on the belt. It's slow, and despite Claire Trevor won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance, there doesn't seem to be a stitch of Oscar worthy acting in the entire can of film, but it's still a great night in. If you subtract all of the junk food that I jammed in my face while watching it was a feel good movie...in my particular situation it wasn't.

TIP: Don't mix a fish and chips dinner washed down with Alexander Keiths Pale Ale with a bottle of Shiraz, chocolate M&M's and half a bag of potato chips...bad idea.

I had no idea that Lionel Barrymore (that's right Drew's Great-Uncle) played a prominent role. You probably remember him best in the role of Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's, "It's a Wonderful Life,"...I like Lionel Barrymore and the sheer volume of family history there is enough to interest any lover of film. It floors me just to imagine that he was born in 1878...a scant thirteen years after the American Civil War. That's nuts.

Yup...geek. I know. Anyway...Up next? Something 60's I think, and something funny...suggestions? I've been going by the AFI's 10 Year Top 100 List here but am pretty eager to take in anything that's worth my time and all that junk food.