Sail away to Key Largo

This time of year is the "cyclone season", which is the reason that we're getting so much rain. It's been raining on and off all day, and still pretty humid.

This evening, the old Bogart and Bacall movie, Key Largo was playing on tv. I'm not much on gangster movies, but this one is so well made that its better than the typical shoot-em-up story.

I won't give away the entire plot, but the basic premise is that a returning soldier decides to pay a visit on the father and widow of one of his fallen comrades. Turns out they run a hotel in Key Largo. Also in residence are some Chicago gangsters, along with their boss who is attempting to return to the U.S. from exile in Cuba, in the pre-Castro days. And this being a Hollywood movie, of course there is a hurricane thrown in for drama.

The movie is film-noir, made in glorious black and white. I've always enjoyed this movie because of the location, the Florida Keys. I've taken a few holidays down there, and the scenery is wonderful. Since the movie was based on a stage play, most of the scenes take place inside a hotel. In the time before air conditioning was invented, high ceilings and ceiling fans were the norm. Throughout the movie, characters are fanning themselves and complaining about the heat.

In one scene, the old hotel owner could be speaking about Townsville rather than Key Largo. He says "Don't look for it to get any cooler before November. The thermometer will go down to about 100. The sand flies and mosquitoes will disappear. It'll be right livable for about three months...except for tourists."

The tropical ambiance of the Keys is not that much different to the environment where I live now. Instead of hurricanes we get cyclones, but the only difference in the two storms are the geography.