Hotel Largo, a run-down establishment on the popular Florida Keys was the stop off point for the fourth and final film pairing of one Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, in John Huston’s tense thriller featuring gangsters, hostages and an imminent hurricane.

When Frank McCloud (Bogart), an embittered war veteran turns up at Hotel Largo it’s to meet Nora Temple (Bacall), the widow of his deceased war buddy. But after arriving at this tumbledown establishment, managed by Nora's father-in-law, McCloud discovers that the gaff has been taken over by low-life gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) and his henchmen. Waiting to exchange a load of counterfeit cash for real cash, Rocco takes the hotel residents hostage over one long day and night. Who will out in this standoff? The slimy opportunism of Rocco or the tough deep-seated moralism of McCloud?

The film’s sweltering atmosphere of the dead still heat of the Florida Keys and the impending threat of a hurricane is matched only by the storm of passions and tempers of the clientele found inside this particular establishment. And rivaling The Big Sleep in the Bogart/Bacall on-screen chemistry stakes, you’ll definitely want to make a reservation for this entertaining noir classic.

---