The Hurricane

It looks as though Tropical Storm Hanna is going to cause some problems here in my little corner of the Catskills, so I figured I'd write up a quick post on hurricanes in the movies to make certain I'll have a post for Saturday in case the power goes out.

There was a 1937 movie called The Hurricane, which has nothing to do with any boxer going by that nickname. However, it's nowhere near as famous as Key Largo, the crime drams in which a hurricane spoils things for the assembled vacationers and staff at a hotel in the Florida Keys. Humphrey Bogart, of course, gets to play the hero, foiling the gangsters, led by Edward G. Robinson -- how original that Robinson was cast as a gangster yet again.... Claire Trevor won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the gangsters' moll.

Key Largo isn't the only movie in which Humphrey Bogart went through a hurricane. There's also The Caine Mutiny, in which the hurricane (technically, a typhoon) plays a key role in the mutiny, as Bogart's Captain Queeg orders his crew to go straight through the storm in order to maintain contact with the rest of the naval convoy, while his officers fear this will result in the destruction of the ship.

Getting back to hurricanes hitting Florida, however, there's Night Unto Night, in which Ronald Reagan plays a doctor diagnosed with epilepsy who moves to Florida to isolate himself from the rest of the scientific community since he doesn't want them to see his ailment, and rents a house where he can do his research. He falls in love with his landlord (Viveca Lindfors), and doesn't want her to know about his epilepsy, either; when the hurricane comes, though, he may have to tell her. Night Unto Night really deserves a full-length blog post of its own, for a whole host of reasons. However, it's not currently available on DVD, which is a big shame.

Frankly, though, I'd rather have a snowstorm than a hurricane right about now....