The Fort Lauderdale Woman’s Club presents KEY LARGO, a 1948 film starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall.   Directed by John Huston this film is considered to be a good example of a film Noir, a genre popular in the 1940s and 1950s in America marked by a low-key visual style and plots highlighting cynical and sexual motivations.

Ex-major Frank McCloud visits the Hotel Largo in the Florida Keys to touch base with the family of a dead Army buddy, George Temple. He meets George’s widow, Nora Temple played by Lauren Bacall as well as George’s father James played by Lionel Barrymore. Other guests in the hotel are gangsters led by Johnny Rocco, played by Edward G. Robinson. Claire Trevor plays Gaye Dawn, Rocco’s girlfriend.  As a hurricane approaches and hits the Keys, the gangsters take over the Hotel Largo, shoot the deputy sheriff and force local Seminoles (the Osceola brothers played in non-credited roles by Jay Silverheels and Rodd Redwing) who usually shelter in the hotel into the storm. The deputy’s killing is blamed on the Seminoles who die in a shootout with the sheriff. Frank McCloud agrees to take the gangsters to Cuba by boat, and the movie is resolved by a gunfight in the Straits of Florida.

KEY LARGO is part of a “Hibiscus Theater Film Night” series of Florida-based movies presented by the Fort Lauderdale Woman’s Club at their historic clubhouse on 20 South Andrews Avenue. Previous films shown in 2014-2015 were CROSS CREEK and WHERE THE BOYS ARE.

$5 donation at the door is requested.  Free popcorn is included with admission.  Cash bar and refreshments will be offered.  Doors open at 6:30 p.m.  Film begins at 7:00 pm. For questions, contact Mindy Noble, Arts Community Service Department Chair, at 954-815-3439.