Key Largo (1948) @ HOME Cinema

Off-season on the Florida Keys: a hurricane threatens to swell outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm that's about to hit the Hotel Largo.

Ex-GI Frank McCloud is in town to visit the family of a friend lost while serving in the war – his widow Nora and her ageing father-in-law run the hotel where Frank is one of a handful of guests.

Unfortunately, it turns out the rest of the hotel's clientele are a gang of sadistic mobsters who take their hosts hostage just as the storm settles in. Frank is their only hope, but have the realities of post-War life taken all of the fight out of him?

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall lead an impressive ensemble cast that also includes Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore and an Oscar-winning Claire Trevor in this taut thriller. Set-up like a sweltering chamber drama, director John Huston ups the ante with film noir flourishes.

Event time is for the actual film. As usual, I'll be at the HOME bar grabbing a drink about 30-40 minutes before the