‘Key Largo’ Comes Home to Roost: Presentation, Showing of Film Planned Monday
By Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon
Mar. 5–John Huston’s classic movie “Key Largo” has Marathon connections.
Those will be noted at a Monday showing of the Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall film by the Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys.
Scriptwriter Richard Brooks and Huston stayed at Key Largo’s Caribbean Club (then a motel) while writing and planning the film.
Film historians say little – if any – of the movie was filmed locally.
“The movie was filmed in only 78 days, virtually all on the Warner Bros. lot, except for a few shots in Florida used for the opening scenes,” according to www.IMDB.com, the Internet Movie Data Base.
Historical Society President Jerry Wilkinson notes, “The only actual similarity to the Caribbean Club of 1948 is the use of the [film character] named Ziggy, and that could be chance.”
The motel portion of the Caribbean Club burned down in 1955.
During Huston’s stay at the Caribbean Club, Tom Hanley owned it. A bartender on staff was known as Ziggy.
Hanley later moved to Marathon and opened Hanley’s Restaurant in a building that still stands at the south end of Marathon. Ziggy went with him, and later opened his own place in Islamorada.
“Key Largo” tells the story of a war veteran (Bogart) who comes to the Keys to meet with the family of a slain comrade. While at their hotel, bad guys led by Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) show up and proceed to cause all kinds of trouble. There’s a hurricane based on the 1935 Labor Day storm, and a gunfight at sea, with Bogart piloting a bullet-riddled boat back to Boot Key Harbor.
The 7 p.m. Monday showing, on an 8-foot screen, is free and open to the public at the Key Largo library in Trade Winds Plaza.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon
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